Hmmm, what to say about this one? I usually like James Patterson's work but this was too formulaic for me this time. It was fast paced and had reasonably interesting characters but unfortunately I couldn't bring myself to believe that the detective could do all he did in the time and manner that it was written. Maybe I'm a bit naive about how hostage situations pan out and how fathers with ten children cope under duress but I just didn't buy it. The hostage story was the highlight of the book for me (even though I didn't really care if any of the hostages survived) and I thought it was a shame that the story kept returning to the detective's home but I guess the idea was to give us an insight on his family life and build on this in the next book in the series. It all ended a little too quickly and neatly too, leaving me with a sense that I'd lost out on something. Still worth a read for the most part.