James Patterson has worked with many authors over the years. One of my favorite collaborators of his is J. D. Barker. Their latest effort, DEATH OF THE BLACK WIDOW, blows the roof off of anything Patterson has done from a supernatural standpoint and features perhaps the most memorable villain to ever darken the pages of one of his novels. I must give a lot of the credit here to Barker, whose career started in the horror genre before venturing into dark serial killer stories and psychological thrillers.

This new book alternates between different time frames --- the present and various dates in the past. The opening chapters are set in the now and introduces readers to Officer Walter O’Brien. He is working with a handful of colleagues who are stationed outside of a nightclub in Detroit, where the individual they want to get their hands on is supposedly trapped in there. They call the club to inform them that a bomb has been planted inside, and they have two minutes to evacuate everyone. Walter does not care about his group taking such extreme actions; he knows he will be dead in an hour.

"There are so many twists and turns along the way that I will not say anything more about the plot lest I give away spoilers. I just hope that you are as excited as I was to find out how this highly original thriller ends."

We then jump back to the year 1986. Then a 22-year-old rookie, Walter has been called into an apartment building where someone reported hearing screams coming from one of the rooms. Inside Apartment 2D is a horrific sight. He and his partner find a deceased male on a mattress soaked in blood in a room that is strewn with debris. Walter checks out the bathroom where he finds a young woman quivering and begging for help. Little does he know that he is meeting the person who will get into his head and stay there for the rest of his life.

Her name is Amy, and she claims that the dead man had tortured and sexually abused her in that apartment for what seemed like ages. As Walter is driving her to the emergency room, she suddenly feels like she’s going to be sick and asks him to pull over. She then proceeds to swiftly and expertly attack him before running down a nearby alley never to be seen again. Or so we might think.

In 1992, a more seasoned Walter gets wind of a woman named Amy Archer, who he just knows is the very same Amy who had escaped six years previously. He has come to believe that she may have been the one torturing the dead man and could be an extremely dangerous killer.

In the present day, Commander Rigby of the Detroit PD is facing down against Walter and his crew, who are still threatening to set off a bomb in the nightclub if the individual they are looking for doesn’t come out. At this point, they’re not sharing their identities or the name of the person they’re seeking, but we all know this will be forthcoming and should blow Rigby’s mind as she and the reader find out more about who this Amy/Black Widow character really is.

There are so many twists and turns along the way that I will not say anything more about the plot lest I give away spoilers. I just hope that you are as excited as I was to find out how this highly original thriller ends. Patterson and Barker have created something entirely unique --- a hybrid of many different genres that works at every turn.