Private Games by James Patterson

This is, once again, a novel in the Private series by James Patterson

This particular story takes place in 2012, during the Olympic Games in London. The Private London office is getting swamped with agents from all over the globe, all filing into London for security passes since the Private London office has been granted with the task of providing security for the Games. The head agent for this office is Peter Knight, who was made manager of the office after his boss, Dan Carter and four of his colleagues were killed in a mysterious plane crash. (BTW, to know this, read Private London by James Patterson).

Meanwhile, people associated with the Games and athletes are being targeted and killed by a figure known only as Cronus. He is aided by three figures known only as the Furies. They believe the Olympic Games have been tainted by corruption and the only way to "cleanse" the Games is to murder those they deem unworthy of performing the Games.

Private London by James Patterson

This is, yet again, another earlier entry in the Private series by James Patterson. This series of novels follows a fictitious investigation agency called Private, with locations all around the world.

This story in particular follows a former Royal Military Police officer named Dan Carter and his employees at Private London. His task is to go to the US and escort a young woman named Hannah Shapiro to London for schooling. She is reading psychiatry at Chancellors University, in central London. Her father is a wealthy industrialist who, when she was 13, had been unable to pay the ransom on her and her mother. But not before Hannah was forced to watch as her mother was raped and murdered by her captors. Years later, she is escorted to London and Dan asks that Chloe Smith, the daughter of his former commanding officer Richard Smith, act as bodyguard. But, one night, while at a bar on campus, Hannah is kidnapped and held for ransom while Chloe is attacked. Her, Hannah and another girl, Laura, are all under aliases, protecting their identities. It turns out that Hannah had staged the whole thing as a sort of payback to her father for not coming to get her and being forced to watch her mother die before her eyes.

It's kind of like reading an episode of Law and Order UK to be pretty honest. In fact, the main character, Dan Carter, if he were a real person, I would bet would look EXACTLY like Ben Daniels, who played Senior Crown Prosecutor James Steel

November Birthdays

Since it's November, time to say Happy Birthday to the following people

Rick Allen
-Birth name: Richard John Cyril Allen
-DOB: 11/1/1963
-Where: Derbyshire, England
-Lost his arm in a car crash

Tommy Thayer
-Birth name: Thomas Cunningham Thayer
-DOB: 11/7/1960
-Where: Portland, Oregon
-Previously played in a band called Black N' Blue

Billy Idol
-Birth name: William Michael Albert Broad
-DOB: 11/30/1955
-Where: Middlesex, England
-Got his nickname "Idol" from a teacher saying "William is idle" and knowing there was already someone with the last name of "Idle", he changed it to "Idol"

Private Down Under by James Patterson

This is just one of many books in the Private series by James Patterson. This series in particular involves a fictitious investigation firm with branches all over the world. This particular story involves the branch for the new Sydney office.

Jack Morgan is the head of Private International and he's chosen Craig Gisto, who's originally from London, to run the office down under. The only problem is that on the Sydney Police Department is his cousin, Mark Talbot, who he has to work close to sometimes. The unveiling party is going fine until an unknown man crashes the party. His head is covered with a bag and when removed, it's discovered his eyes are missing. While this investigation is going on, another case comes up at the same time. Legendary Australian rocker Mickey Spencer comes into Private Sydney because he's convinced his manager is trying to kill him because he's 26 and he fears the stigma attached to rockstars who are 26, because of the whole "Forever 27 Club." Meanwhile, another case comes up. Women are being brutally beaten to death and having photocopied banknotes shoved into intimate parts of their bodies. This investigation ends with a woman who was unable to get pregnant killing women with families because she was jealous. The rockstar case ends with Mickey's Russian-born girlfriend Katia being the one targeting him because he got her sister pregnant and had a botched abortion. The mystery man case ends with his father and brother being targets of the Chinese Triads because of the father being a former Hong Kong cop

To be honest, if you read this book, it's good. And the rock star, I don't know why, the first person I think of is Glenn Hughes. The way he is described physically, Glenn Hughes pops into mind because of physical resemblance

100 Metal Facts You May or May Not Have Known 49-1

Since metal seems to be the most popular genre out there, I'm sure there are facts about this particular genre people may or may not know. Here are 100 facts about metal that people may or may not know.

49

-Max Cavalera, front man for Sepultura and Soulfly, provided the "death roar" he's so famous for to the Scorpion King in 2001's The Mummy Returns

48

-Adam Jones, guitarist for Tool, worked at Special Effects Studios, designing creatures for major films like Jurassic Park, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, A Nightmare on Elm St.

47

-In 2000, British black metallers Cradle of Filth, pulled an April Fool's Day prank, by announcing the release of a double concept album called Victorian England Under Martial Rule, even going as far as naming details about the album and giving song titles.

46

-In Norway, when the Norwegian Liberal Party legalized free downloading, Grutle Kjellson and Ivar Peersen of Enslaved visited the party leader's farm and proceeded to "download" one of his mountain sheep for free

45

-"Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, famous for his role in thrash metal band Pantera, was at one point the proud owner of a live goat. He would dye the goat's goatee red, purple or pink to match his own facial hair

44

-John Petrucci, John Myung, Mike Portnoy of Dream Theatre are each married to a member of the all-girl, New York thrash metal band Meanstreak

43

-Morbid Angel has managed to give their albums titles that work through the alphabet. 1989 Altars of Madness, 1991 Blessed are the Sick, 1993 Covenant, etc.

42

-Prior to forming the band Burzum, Varg Vikernes was such a huge fan of role-playing games and J.R.R. Tolkien's goblins that he named his first band Uruk-Hai

41

-Prior to forming Motorhead, Ian Fraser Kilmister, aka "Lemmy" Kilmister, worked as a roadie for Jimi Hendrix and other musicians

40

-Swedish progressive metal band Meshuggah took their name from the Yiddish word for "crazy"

39

-Burton C. Bell, vocalist for Fear Factory, claims that he was in the Nirvana video "Smells Like Teen Spirit", banging his head along with the other kids

38

-Amon Amarth, a Viking metal band, had a nightly toast to the fans out of drinking horns during their 2007 American tour, except in Salt Lake City, where there were strong drinking restrictions

37

-When shock rocker Marilyn Manson was 11, his father, Hugh Warner, dressed as KISS bassist Gene Simmons and took his son to see KISS live

36

-Fieldy, bassist for Korn, has a tattoo done by Limp Bizkit singer Fred Durst. This is from the days when they both worked in a Florida tattoo parlor

35

-When thrash metal band Overkill noticed just how similar their mascot was to Avenged Sevenfold's mascot, they made shirts for Avenged Sevenfold saying "get your own f--king logo!"

-BTW, also to point out, notice how Overkill writes their name is all too similar to Iron Maiden? I think Maiden ought to know that their logo is being almost copyrighted by another band!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

34

-The cover art for Hypnotize and Mesmerize by System of a Down were designed by guitarist Daron Malakian's father, Vartan, who is an extremely talented artist in his own right

 

33

-Former Megadeth guitarist Marty Friedman moved to Japan and used his fluency in Japanese to host a popular TV show

32

-Children of Bodom nicknamed the Grim Reaper featured on their albums "Roy", inspired by lines from the film Hot Shots

31

-Maynard James Keenan, singer for Tool, served in the US Army. He studied jiu-jitsu with Brazilian martial arts master Rickson Gracie

30

-Motorhead drummer Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor sported an orange-sized lump on his neck, resulting from breaking his neck on tour during the early 1980s and forgetting to see a doctor

29

-Mysterious band Ghost inspired the "Ghost" burger at a Chicago burger restaurant. It includes goat shoulder, red wine reduction and a communion wafer

28

-GWAR singer Oderus Urungus became the spokesperson for video game commercials at Circuit City in the 1990s

27

-This is Spinal Tap is the only film according to IMDb.com to be rated out of 11 stars

26

-"Mantra", a song released in 2001 by the band Tool, consists of a slowed-down recording of singer Maynard James Keenan squeezing his cat

25

-Wayne Static, of Static-X, was in a band called Deep Blue Dream, with Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins

24

-On the front of Ozzy Osbourne's solo album, Diary of a Madman, the little boy seen in the background, is his son Louis

23

-The first singer for an early lineup of Iron Maiden, Dennis Wilcock, left after the band refused to don Kiss-inspired makeup

22

-Prior to joining the band Judas Priest, front man Rob Halford worked briefly at a pornographic movie theater

21

-Chuck Billy of Testament and lead guitarist Stephen Carpenter of Deftones are first cousins

Chuck Billy



Stephen Carpenter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

20

-Prior to the unveiling of the members of Slipknot, bassist Paul Gray took advantage of the sense of anonymity by going on tour with a former stoner metal band called Unida

19

-Phil Anselmo of Pantera worked under the pseudonym of Anton Crowley on Necrophagia's 1999 album Holocausto de la Morte. He used the false name for legal reasons

18

-After getting fired from Metallica, Dave Mustaine worked as a telemarketer before forming Megadeth

17

-Kirk Hammett of Metallica and Eric Peterson were married to the same woman once, but not at the same time

Kirk Hammett



Eric Peterson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

16

-"Dragula", the first single by shock rocker Rob Zombie, was inspired by the 1960s TV series The Munsters, specifically the dragster driven by Grandpa Munster, Al Lewis

15

-The band System of a Down got their name from a poem called Victims of a Down by Daron Malakian. They changed "victims" to "system" so that their albums could sit closer to Slayer in record stores

14

-Bob Rusay, guitarist for Cannibal Corpse, was fired in 1993 and traded in his guitar for a golf club, becoming a fully certified golfing instructor at an Arizona country club

13

-When Motorhead front man Lemmy Kilmister tried to follow Keith Richards' idea of blood transfusions, doctors refused. They said his blood was so toxic with drugs that normal blood would probably be fatal to him

12

-Slaughter bassist Dana Strum helped recruit Ozzy guitar player Randy Rhoads and later on suggested Kiss guitarists Vinnie Vincent and Mark St. John

Dana Strum

Randy Rhoads

Mark St. John

Vinnie Vincent

11

-Current Judas Priest guitarist Richie Faulkner's first public performance after replacing former guitar player K.K. Downing was on the stage of American Idol

10

-In 1993, the Humane Society's Genesis Award was given to Megadeth for the title track of their Countdown to Extinction album for raising awareness about animal rights

9

-Prior to joining Metallica, Cliff Burton was in a band called Easy Street with Mike Bordin and Jim Martin, who would go on to form Faith No More

8

-Black Label Society founder Zakk Wylde originally named the band Hells Kitchen, which is a reference to the kitchen appliances and decorations on the band's Sonic Brew album

7

-Slayer guitar player Kerry King was a fan of breeding show dogs

6

-When Derek Riggs designed the cover for Iron Maiden's 1984 album Powerslave, he hid secret messages within the art, which included Mickey Mouse and funny phrases like "Bollocks" and "Indiana Jones was Here"

5

-When he was younger, former Pantera member "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott asked for a BMX bike instead of a guitar

4

-When Black Sabbath lost Ozzy, Sharon Osbourne recommended the band's next singer, former Rainbow singer Ronnie James Dio

3

-While serving time in prison for petty theft, Ozzy Osbourne used a piece of graphite and pen ink to tattoo the letters O-Z-Z-Y with a needle across his knuckles. In fact, a lot of his tattoos are homemade

2

-The first released edition of Metal Massacre, which is a compilation, misspelled Metallica's name with two T's

1

-No one knows the whereabouts of the mysterious woman who graces Black Sabbath's debut album. This album was also photographed at the Mapledurham Watermill