Book Reviews of Beach Road

This summer, I wanted to try authors I haven't read before. I'm always looking for a good book to read. I picked up Beach Road by James Patterson & Peter De Jonge and took it with me on vacation. I've read good things about Patterson and his books. Beach Road is set on the east end of Long Island which appealed to me. I recognized many of the places Patterson mentioned in the story.

The trouble is ... I didn't like the book very much and felt disappointed.

It started out all right. Tom Dunleavy, the main character, is a sort of lack luster lawyer. He used to play pro basketball but washed out after an injury. Apparently he didn't have such a great family life because his older brother is more like a father to him. Naturally he used to have a wonderful girlfriend years ago but dumped her for reasons unknown and now she is a high power city lawyer. And also naturally, Tom has a dog.

Three of Tom's friends are murdered some time after a game of basketball at the home of one of those absent ritzy rich folks who happened to have a very nice court built on the property. Tom, his brother, and the three murdered friends challenged Dante Halleyville, a giant of a high school athlete, and four of his friends. There was a scuffle that turned a little ugly during the game and so when the three guys turn up dead, naturally suspicion falls first on Dante and his pals. Up to this point, I thought it was interesting.

The story is told from several view points. Among them: Tom, Kate Costello, Dante, a knowledgeable cop from Brooklyn named Connie Raiborne, a psycho drug dealer named Loco, Dante's grandma, and a very minor character named Nikki Robinson (cleaning person and cousin of Dante's).

Some of the obvious: Dante is arrested and accused of the murders. Although Tom doesn't step in at first to act as his attorney, he does become lawyer for the defense. He also persuades Kate to join him. Grandma is staunchly supporting her grandson. Raiborne does his job, carefully seeking out clues and figuring out what happened. All of these things aren't terrible, just predictable.

The reason I didn't like the book? There was a twist in it that just didn't ring true. If you read the book you'll see what I mean. When I read it, I thought there is no way that these people would act like that, I just don't believe it. I think it's because the authors didn't lay enough of a foundation to suggest the possibility. It just seemed to come out of thin air and that is very annoying.

I felt like one of the characters from the movie Murder By Death, who gathered all the great literary and movie detectives together to solve a murder. The character, Lionel Twain, totally bamboozles these detectives and then says: "You've tricked and fooled your readers for years. You've tortured us all with surprise endings that made no sense. You've introduced characters in the last five pages that were never in the book before. You've withheld clues and information that made it impossible for us to guess who did it." Like I said, that stuff is very annoying.

One more thing annoyed me: in the book, the press dug up a tidbit about Tom Dunleavy that I suppose was supposed to be a clue. Whether it was or not, we never found out whether it was true or not. That's one thing I would have liked to have known. There's several other questions but I don't care enough about the book to even post them.

I'm going to try another of James Patterson's books before I cross him off the list. Maybe it wasn't such a great book because he wrote it with someone else. I thought I would give one of the Alex Cross books a try. We'll see what happens.

This is the first time I have read Paterson. I admit - I tend to be a bit of a snob about NYT Bestselling Authors - if I don't discover them on my own before they hit the NYT, chances are I will avoid them until someone suggests them or I have some other reason to try them. In this case, my reason was being caught out without a book, at a small deli with a very small used bookshelf. This looked like the most interesting of the bunch.
The book was fantastic for the first 145 chapters (that's right - chapters. Damn short chapters Patterson writes, and that's the truth.) I thought I had discovered a new favorite author, to add to my existing list of 30 or 50 or so favorites. I was already writing letters in my head to a few penpals, to tell them how great this guy was.
Then, in chapter 145, the book took a sudden nose dive. The end made no sense. The charcters, so well and carefully devoloped, broke from their own characters so greatly as to tear the hell out of my suspension of disbelief. The entire end was a writing trick that I call 'Daemns ex machina', and I care for that writing trick not a bit better than I like Dias Ex Machina.
I can not recomend this book in the least. I actually asked the bookseller at my local used bookstore her opinion of Paterson, she said she liked him, but warned me away from this book in particular - so I will have to, perhaps, try a couple of his others, to see if he is usually better than this.

The begining is a little slow and I wanted to just put the book down. The way its written is a little different from Patterson's usual style. Once you get to about the middle of the book it picks up speed. The endding is not what I expected at all!

Awsome James Patterson and Peter DeJonge. At twist at the end that was never expected. I'll give 5 stars on this one!

This was a well written book. The end has quite an interesting twist that I did not see coming.

This book was just ok for me. I really liked the short chapters. The ending was a complete let down. :-(

another wonderful book co-written by james patterson. the story kept my interst and the book was very hard to put down. the ending is truly a shocker!!!!!!!!!!
tom dunleavy has his own law firm in the wealthy resort town of east hampton. but business isn't busy because the local rich people already have their own lawyers. but when a friend of tom's is arrested for a triple murder his gut feeling tells him that dante halleyville is innocent. tom recruits manhattan superlawyer kate costello to help with what could be the trial of the century. how tom orchestrates to expose the killer with the entire nation's eyes on him is great. but what emerges as the story developes is staggering and truly will shock everyone. it did me! a must read for james patterson fans.

Very fast moving with quite a twist at the end. I was incredibly surprised which is quite a feat since I usually figure out the endings.

Good

very good.

Another intriging James Patterson. Well written!

A surprise ending and a bit out of left field, in my opinion. Nonetheless I did enjoy the book.

Awesome surprise ending, but not my favorite Patterson book. It jumps around from chapter to chapter with a different character narrating.....not my favorite format. Worth reading if you are a Patterson fan

I truly enjoyed this book with it's twist and turnes but I was blown away with the LAME ending to this book...SHAME ON YOU PATTERSON YOU SHOULD KNOW BETTER!

This is a typical Patterson book. Very easy read with lots of twists and turn. If you have read Patterson before, you know his style. Hang in there till the end, you will be floored!!

I really liked this book!

This was the first James Patterson book I have read. After this one I went hunting for others.

Super quick read...there were nights that I couldn't put it down. And, the ending was quite a surprise. WOW!

Good book.

Awesome book with an interesting twist at the end. Very suspenseful!

Great book. I could not put it down. Surprise ending really get you!

This book was excellent! It kept me flipping pages as fast as I could to the very end. And the ending was such a shock! I didn't see that coming at all.

Another good Patterson but an especially excellent twisted ending that I never saw coming!

This novel takes a complete turn in the end. Great book.

Each chapter is written from the view of one of the characters all about a murder in the Hamptons. It has quite a twist at the end. I thought it started out kind of slow but I was really anxious to get to the end as I read through it.

I enjoyed this book. Different from his others. Fast read with an amazing twist at the end.

A surprise ending and one you will never guess!!! Pam T.

I really enjoyed this book, it is written in the first person, a little different than his usual style, a very different twist at the end...

This is not your typical JP book. Each character tells his own side of the story. I lost interest right away but finished it out of curiosity and it's a JP book. If you don't like a book in the first person this book is not for you. In the beginning of the book JP says since each character is telling their own story you have no idea just who is lying. I was very disappointed in the book, if he writes another in this style I'll skip it.Thank goodness it wasn't any longer or I'd have put it down.

Wow! This is my first Patterson mystery I have read and I have ordered more since reading this book. What a twist at the end, I did not see that one coming!

Sometimes a little difficult to follow as each chapter is written from the viewpoint of one of the characters, but I doubt that you will figure out the final twist in advance. A very interesting and sometimes thought-provoking read.

Fabulous! A breakneck story that keeps you guessing and never disappoints.
You won't be able to put it down.