The Postcard Killers

By James Patterson and Liza Marklund
       
      “The Postcard Killers” tells the story of a young couple that traveled all over Europe as art students, visiting museums to study art and look at paintings. However, they had a more sinister purpose. It appears they also were going from city to city, country to country, killing young couples, mostly newlyweds, and posing them as famous works of art. Then, they photographed them and sent the picture postcard to a newspaper reporter. They never sent the card just to a newspaper. They picked one particular reporter from that city to send the picture postcard. With each murder, the couple involved someone new.

Following them was NYPD Detective Jacob Cannon. He wanted to find those killers as bad as the European police and Interpol. There was no record of the couple having killed anyone in America, but one of the couples in Europe was Jacob Cannon’s daughter and her fiancé. Their throats had been cut, almost to the bone. Jacob had raised his daughter alone and they were very close. Though this had happened eight months ago, Jacob still became a raging bull when he thought of his daughter’s killers being free and still killing. He wanted to catch them more than he wanted anything.

The writing is taught with suspense and danger. The characters are interesting, even the two very warped human killers. The plot keeps moving along, stopping only for the detailed, and very unnecessary, sex scenes. I know sex has been mentioned before in James Patterson’s books, but he’s always had sense enough to leave out the intimate details. His books sell very well without them.

So, pick up “The Postcard Killers” and listen to it. If you don’t mind the sex, it’s a great novel.