Holmes, Marple & Poe by James Patterson and Brian Sitts

Description from Amazon:

Brendan Holmes, Margaret Marple and Auguste Poe run the most in-demand private investigation agency in New York City.

The three detectives make a formidable team, solving a series of seemingly impossible crimes which expose the dark underbelly of the city - from a priceless art theft, high-stakes kidnapping and a decades-old unsolved murder, to a gruesome subterranean prison and corruption and bribery at the highest levels of power.

But it’s not long before their headline-grabbing breakthroughs, unconventional methods - and untraceable pasts - attract the attention of the NYPD and the FBI.

After all, it’s no surprise that there’s a mystery or two to unravel in the city that never sleeps . . . not least, who really are Holmes, Margaret and Poe?

 

Oh how the title drew me in and how disappointed I was with this.

I haven’t read a decent Patterson for a while. In fact, I swore off them as soon as the ghostwriting became generic and all the books sounded the same. But I figured this was the start of a new series that connected a horror/mystery writer and two fictional detectives' names so there must be some goodies inside. The combination of characters and author was a bit odd, though.

So... three detectives who set up shop to solve cases. A lot of cases. Bits and pieces scattered throughout. It was like a bunch of short stories thrown together to create a novel, and while murders don’t necessarily need to be connected, there were so many in this book that the reader kept being sent on different threads. The stories were not deep, the clues not difficult, and no twists or shocks forthcoming.

Then to the characters. If you are going to name them and have them somehow associated with famous figures then just saying one is a drug addict, the other an alcoholic, and the third an old lady who knits in a corner is not enough. Even with Holmes’ hyperosmia allowing him to smell things out at a distance. That in itself felt odd as sometimes it affected him and sometimes not. Even though it’s the start of their arcs, you never connect with them, their backstories, or what drives them (solving cases doesn’t count). I never got a full sense of any of them and only really enjoyed Veronica the receptionist and the cat!

I’m all for a good “just enjoy the plot for the sake of the plot” book, but this just had me closing the book at the end and going “Oh...”