Chicago! Chicago!
In a perfect world, there would be no crime — no murder, rape, drugs, prostitution, paedophilia, violence, robbery, war. There would be no prison, no trials, no need for the Ten Commandments. Alas, the world isn’t perfect, with all the above. Rampant corruption ensures it.
Regardless of the form of government, there’s no getting away from it. Salaries are never high enough. Taxes are always too high. Bribery enables those taking them to acquire not only their needs, but their wants. They deserve it. Who dares say they don’t? Who does it hurt? Why make a fuss about it?
Nevertheless, there are some who believe that corruption isn’t right, isn’t fair, isn’t just. Needless to say, cheats are hired, elected and appointed, doing everything they can to not be exposed and go to jail. Novelists describe how they go about it. The Black Book by James Patterson and David Ellis is one such story. Its plot, like that of most literary thrillers and motion pictures, is somewhat imaginary, but it is plausible.
The setting is Chicago, no longer the crime capital of the US, yet one of the leading cities of unlawfulness. Its authorities are supposedly hard at work cleaning it up. Yet, are they? Why are they overlooking the obvious? Police Detective Billy Harney isn’t blind, not yet anyway. He knows a brothel cum hotel when he sees one. Why hasn’t it been busted? His father is the chief of detectives, after all. Big pay-offs there.
Billy asks too many questions, is wounded in a shoot-out, awakens in the hospital with amnesia, is tried for murder, manages to prove his innocence and falls in love with his lawyer, Amy. Working together, they go after the bad cops, like dad.
A black book will incriminate them, but who has it? The search costs Amy her life. This reviewer is a sucker for court cases, and Patterson does this one justice. Suffice to say that the black book, a videotape, is found. And the Windy City is cleaned up, temporarily at least.
James Patterson and his stable of co-authors turn out books constantly. To his credit, they are top-notch. He has originated several series, his literary creations crime-busting around the globe. How much longer he can keep up the good work is anybody’s guess.