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Beach Road
Books: CookBooks: Julia Child: Item 3
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Beach Roadby James Patterson and Peter de Jonge
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105 of 112 people found the following review helpful: Exciting Thriller Is Another Patterson Page-Turner, June 2, 2006 Reviewer:Antoinette Klein (Hoover, Alabama USA) - As usual, James Patterson has given us the perfect summer beach read. His setting is the exclusive Hamptons, more specifically the street of the super-rich known as Beach Road. Tom Dunleavy, a mediocre but seemingly sincere attorney, is plodding along in his lackluster career after a short stint in professional basketball. He still enjoys a pick-up game with the locals at an exclusive estate owned by a black tycoon. It is here that he becomes friends with Dante Halleyville, a high school senior so talented at the game that he is already being pursued by the pros. When a triple murder charged with racial and class overtones occurs and is quickly followed by two seemingly related murders, Dante Halleyville is accused, arrested, and tried. Tom agrees to take the case, although his background has certainly not prepared him to defend Dante in the trial of the century. Knowing he needs help, he turns to his ex-girlfriend, Kate Costello, a high-powered Manhattan attorney. Kate is still reeling from Tom's rejection years ago and has no desire to put herself in a vulnerable position again. But Tom can be charming, and it isn't long before they are both working night and day on a defense for Dante and rebuilding their personal relationship. A dirty cop, a lying witness, and a notorious drug dealer keep the reader riveted until the verdict is read. But it is the events after the trial that makes this one of Patterson's best, in my opinion. Not since watching the movie version of Agatha Christie's "Witness for the Prosecution" have I been so surprised at the after-trial events. The stunning shocker of an ending left this reader feeling quite entertained and eager for the next Patterson novel.
From Publishers Weekly
Bestseller Patterson shows signs of having gone to the well too often in this slapdash collaboration with de Jonge, his coauthor on The Beach House (2002). Tom Dunleavy, a former professional basketball player and local East Hampton legend, is getting by as an underworked and unmotivated attorney. His sports glory days and his one true love are long in the past, but he gets second chances at personal and professional redemption when three locals are gunned down, apparently in the aftermath of racial tensions arising from a heated pickup game of hoops. The police seize on Dante Halleyville, the country's best high school star, as their suspect, and Dunleavy must dust off his old courtroom skills and enlist his lost love, Kate Costello, as his partner. Patterson readers know to expect a surprise ending, but he leaves too few possibilities for many to be genuinely fooled. Fans can only hope that Patterson soon returns to the level he achieved with his Alex Cross series. (May)
Copyright © Reed business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
The gripping Beach Road returns to the world of the Hamptons, where Patterson set The Beach House (2002). Tom Dunleavy is a small-time lawyer who lands a big case when three young men he plays basketball with are found shot to death execution-style at a billionaire's basketball court. The evidence points to a rising high-school basketball star, Dante Halleyville, who scuffled with one of the other young men earlier on the day of the murder and who apparently was seen disposing of the gun used to commit the murders. Tom reluctantly takes the case, convincing his ex-girlfriend, Kate Costello, a high-powered lawyer in Manhattan, to help him prove Dante innocent. The novel races toward a conclusion so shocking that even longtime Patterson devotees won't see it coming. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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