the end of this book had me saying wow as i did not see the end coming

I'd give it a 2.5. I did zip through it and was constantly being surprised but sometimes these kinds of books reach the point for me where I'm just thinking "Really? Everything that can go wrong is going wrong?"

Possibly the worst book I have ever read. I read Patterson and others of the ilk between more literary texts and often refer to them as 'pallete cleansers'. Just to be clear, if your pallete needs cleansing this book works about as well as a spoonful of shit.

Great court room drama with a tiny twist at the end. I wonder how the movie in the book turned out.

Booklist Queen’s 2020 reading challenge # 23; a beach read. 3⭐️, and I’m being generous. Typical beach read. A week out one will likely remember little of what read other than it was just ok.

This book totally rules...
much the way it rules when you are in the mood to channel surf and you happen upon a special presentation of some crappy lawyer drama from the late 90's and you go "sweet...there goes the next two hours...brain? off."
I couldn't help cracking up at James Patterson's writing. So many shout-outs! He is so hip and now! Williamsburg junkies in vintage sneakers! Parties at Steven Spielberg's house! Sudden, random and completely out of place raunchy sex stuff!

All in all it's a lazy, cheap, predictable piece of tripe. Exactly what I needed on a relaxing Saturday afternoon. Thanks, James! Oh yeah and the other guy too. Thanks, other guy.

Although I have noted that many reviews were disappointed in this offering by Patterson and DeJonge, I found the story engaging and well done. However, I listened to it on an audiobook,and that may reflect my overall satisfaction. Unlike most CD books, there was a variety of actors, a different one for each of the many characters. This provided a very interesting listen since I felt the readers characterized their roles with considerable skill. Since the story was told from the variety of viewpoints, one chapter devoted to one voice, it was possible to keep the reader/listener unaware of the villain's identity. The twist at the end took me completely by surprise, but was a satisfactory turn of events for this story. The tricky device of multiple points of view allowed the authors to keep the reader/listener 'in the dark' until the unusual climax arrived. This book doesn't measure up to an Alex Cross novel, but it has merit and is a good crime drama.

Actual rating 3.5

The bizarre ending twist fails utterly!

Tom Dunleavy is a very good athlete who never quite made it to the top. After a very few minutes of near fame as a white NBA basketball player, Dunleavy bottomed out with a career ending injury and retired to a quiet life managing a very mediocre one-man law firm in New York's East Hampton, summer home to America's über-wealthy glitterati set. Dante Halleyville, an old friend of Tom's and arguably the finest young black high school basketball player in the country has been arrested for a triple murder following a pick up game of hoops against a team of all white players. The murder has celebrity, racial and drug overtones and Tom is astonished to find himself in the thick of the affair as Halleyville pleads with him to serve as lead defense attorney in a trial that promises to be front page news across the nation. Dunleavy, intuitively recognizing Halleyville's innocence but sensibly realizing he will be way over his head during this trial, pleads with Kate Costello, an old girl friend and rising star in one of America's upper crust law firms, to join him as co-counsel for the defense.

Beach Road is no exception to Patterson's now easily recognizable style of writing short, snappy two to three page chapters that keeps things moving along at a rapid fire pace. But he's introduced a very interesting and quite effective twist - entitling each chapter with only a character's name and writing those few pages from the viewpoint of that particular character. That makes for some very novel fast-paced changes in perspective. But, sadly, this particular style rests for its success strictly on dialogue and action leaving absolutely no margin for error in plot development because it also leaves absolutely no room for the redeeming features of narrative description, atmosphere and character development.

Beach Road succeeds admirably and is a lightweight, enjoyable and quite compelling page-turner until the eagerly anticipated and much vaunted twist that the dust jacket exclaims will leave readers gasping in shock. Like a downhill mountain-biker that jams on the front brakes, Beach Road vaults up over the handle bars and lands flat on its face! Weak, weak, weak ... the twist is certainly an unpredictable surprise but it is so bizarrely unrealistic and utterly off the wall as to completely derail what was looking to be a pretty darn good book. Thankfully, the twist occurs very close to the end of the book so the disappointment lasts for only a very few pages. That means a summer beach or hammock reader can still derive a little enjoyment from the book and not feel they wasted hours upon hours of their time.

Recommended for die-hard Patterson fans! If you've never read Patterson before, you'd better not be starting here.

Paul Weiss

absolute worse Patterson book ever. I hated the ending and the fact that Tom was the killer and drug dealer. completely not what I expected

I loved this....totally shocked me at the end. Fast read.

This novel is about Tom Dunleavy and Kate Costello fighting the case of Dante Halleyville. They both know he is innocent, and he has a bunch of supporters from around the country. Dante was on his way to becoming a NBA player when he was falsely accused of four murders.


In this book Patterson brings up the issue of race and corrupt city officials.
The whole time, I found myself rooting for Dante and siding with Tom and Kate the whole time. All of the characters were likable.
When I first started the book, I thought it was pretty slow and not as exciting as his other novels, and as quick as I came to that conclusion, I realized I was already over halfway through it.
It is a novel that keeps you hanging on even though you aren't exactly sure why.


And then there is the end.


Guilty vs. Non Guilty.


Who do you think is the criminal? Well, you will just have to wait until the end of the book. Make sure you are sitting down for this one.
It blew me away, and I can usually figure out the endings of books.
Ill insert one of the reviews from the back of the novel here


"Gripping... Races toward a conclusion so shocking that even longtime Patterson devotees won't see it coming." - Booklist
Once I read that review, I knew I had to give it a shot. i didnt understand how it could be so shocking.


Then I realized that Patterson had pulled more tricks out of his sleeve.


A Must Read!


4.5/5 Stars for me. Slow start, but it will keep you going right up to the last page.