James Patterson - Private Games

The Olympic Games are under attack. Only Private, the worlds most exclusive detective agency, can save them.

The world is watching.

July 2012 : The Games have arrived in London. Preparations have gone flawlessly and the stage is set for one of the greatest ever showcases of sporting excellence. But one man has a devastating plan. Having waited years for this chance, he is now ready for vengeance.

A killer is plotting.

When Sir Denton Marshall, a key member of the London Olympic organising committee, is found decapitated in his garden, Peter Knight, head of Private London, is called to the scene. Private are working with the organising committee on the security for the Games, so Denton Marshall was a valuable client. But there is a more personal link: Marshall was also the fianc of Knights mother.

The time for vengeance has come.

Having only recently lost close friends and colleagues at Private London in a fatal plane crash, this is another torturous blow for Knight and threatens to push him over the edge. But it soon becomes clear that Denton Marshalls murder is no isolated incident, and that the killers number one target is the Games itself.

As the most talented athletes in the world gather in London, Knight knows he must find Sir Dentons killer. Thousands of lives are at stake

JAMES PATTERSON is one of the best-known and biggest-selling writers of all time. He is the author of some of the most popular series of the past decade the Alex Cross, Womens Murder Club and Detective Michael Bennett novels and he has written many other number one bestsellers including romance novels and stand-alone thrillers. He lives in Florida with his wife and son.

James is passionate about encouraging children to read. Inspired by his own son who was a reluctant reader, he also writes a range of books specifically for young readers. James has formed a partnership with the National Literacy Trust, an independent, UK-based charity that changes lives through literacy. In 2010, he was voted Author of the Year at the Childrens Choice Book Awards in New York.

Find out more at www.jamespatterson.co.uk

Also by James Patterson

ALEX CROSS NOVELS

Along Came a Spider

Kiss the Girls

Jack and Jill

Cat and Mouse

Pop Goes the Weasel

Roses are Red

Violets are Blue

Four Blind Mice

The Big Bad Wolf

London Bridges

Mary, Mary

Cross

Double Cross

Cross Country

Alex Crosss Trial (with Richard DiLallo)

I, Alex Cross

Cross Fire

Kill Alex Cross

DETECTIVE MICHAEL BENNETT SERIES

Step on a Crack (with Michael Ledwidge)

Run for Your Life (with Michael Ledwidge)

Worst Case (with Michael Ledwidge)

Tick Tock (with Michael Ledwidge)

PRIVATE NOVELS

Private (with Maxine Paetro)

Private London (with Mark Pearson)

Private: No. 1 Suspect (with Maxine Paetro, to be published April 2012)

STAND-ALONE THRILLERS

Sail (with Howard Roughan)

Swimsuit (with Maxine Paetro)

Dont Blink (with Howard Roughan)

Postcard Killers (with Liza Marklund)

Toys (with Neil McMahon)

Now You See Her (with Michael Ledwidge)

Kill Me if You Can (with Marshall Karp)

Guilty Wives (with David Ellis, to be published July 2012)

NON-FICTION

Torn Apart (with Hal and Cory Friedman)

The Murder of King Tut (with Martin Dugard)

ROMANCE

Sundays at Tiffanys (with Gabrielle Charbonnet)

The Christmas Wedding (with Richard DiLallo)

THE WOMENS MURDER CLUB SERIES

1st to Die

2nd Chance (with Andrew Gross)

3rd Degree (with Andrew Gross)

4th of July (with Maxine Paetro)

The 5th Horseman (with Maxine Paetro)

The 6th Target (with Maxine Paetro)

7th Heaven (with Maxine Paetro)

8th Confession (with Maxine Paetro)

9th Judgement (with Maxine Paetro)

10th Anniversary (with Maxine Paetro)

11th Hour (with Maxine Paetro, to be published March 2012)

FAMILY OF PAGE-TURNERS

MAXIMUM RIDE SERIES

The Angel Experiment

Schools Out Forever

Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports

The Final Warning

Max

Fang

Angel

DANIEL X SERIES

The Dangerous Days of Daniel X (with Michael Ledwidge)

Daniel X: Watch the Skies (with Ned Rust)

Daniel X: Demons and Druids (with Adam Sadler)

Daniel X: Game Over (with Ned Rust)

WITCH & WIZARD SERIES

Witch & Wizard (with Gabrielle Charbonnet)

Witch & Wizard: The Gift (with Ned Rust)

Witch & Wizard: The Fire (with Jill Dembowski)

ILLUSTRATED NOVELS

Daniel X: Alien Hunter Graphic Novel (with Leopoldo Gout)

Maximum Ride: Manga Vol. 1 (with NaRae Lee)

Maximum Ride: Manga Vol. 2 (with NaRae Lee)

Maximum Ride: Manga Vol. 3 (with NaRae Lee)

Maximum Ride: Manga Vol. 4 (with NaRae Lee)

Maximum Ride: Manga Vol. 5 (with NaRae Lee)

Middle School (with Chris Tebbetts and Laura Park)

For more information about James Pattersons novels, visit www.jamespatterson.co.uk

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For Connor and Bridger,
chasers of the Olympic dream M.S.

WE WOULD LIKE to thank Jackie Brock-Doyle, Neal Walker and Jason Keen at the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games for their willingness to be helpful, candid and yet understandably circumspect regarding a project like this one. The tour of the park construction site was incredibly instructive. We would not have got anywhere without Alan Abrahamson, Olympic expert and operator of 3Wire.com, the worlds best source of information about the Games and the culture that surrounds it. Special thanks go out as well to Vikki Orvice, Olympic reporter at the Sun and a wealth of knowledge, humour and gossip. We are also grateful to the staff at the British Museum, One Aldwych and 41 for their invaluable aid in suggesting settings for scenes outside the Olympic venues. Ultimately, this is a fictional story of hope and an affirmation of the Olympic ideals, so please forgive us a degree of licence regarding the various events, venues and characters likely to dominate the stage during the London 2012 Summer Games.

It is not possible with mortal mind to search out the purposes of the gods

Pindar

For then, in wrath, the Olympian thundered and lightninged, and confounded Greece

Aristophanes

Wednesday, 25 July 2012: 11:25 p.m.

THERE ARE SUPERMEN and superwomen who walk this Earth.

Im quite serious about that and you can take me literally. Jesus Christ, for example, was a spiritual superman, as was Martin Luther, and Gandhi. Julius Caesar was superhuman as well. So were Genghis Khan, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Adolf Hitler.

Think scientists like Aristotle, Galileo, Albert Einstein, and J. Robert Oppenheimer. Consider artists like da Vinci, Michelangelo and Vincent Van Gogh, my favourite, who was so superior that it drove him insane. And above all, dont forget athletically superior beings like Jim Thorpe, Babe Didrikson Zaharias and Jesse Owens.