I love a well written mystery book! And this one was very well written!
When I first read the title of this book, the first thought that crossed my mind, was “I should have read this book next summer, not now... so near the Christmas holiday”, but now, after finishing it... I’m so happy that I didn’t wait so long. Because I really enjoyed it.
I couldn’t guess what the ending would be like and this impressed me. Usually I guess the ending when I’m done with 50% of a book. But this time I was impressed to be amazed and kept in the dark.
Good job, James! 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thursday, June 25, 2009
Book Review - The Beach House by James Patterson & Peter De Jonge

The Beach House


I'm going to get right into it, without any skirting around - if you've never read a James Patterson novel, here's a great place to start. I've only read one other book by him, but The Beach House impressed me so much that it gets an ultimate recommendation.

It's not that Patterson's thriller breaks a lot of ground in the suspense/thriller literary genre, in fact opting for a simple storyline touching on themes of money as power and the ease the rich have in covering up their dirty deeds. After his brother is murdered by a rich and powerful family, main character James sets out to get revenge and uncover the truth after the family is able to convince the police that the death was a suicide. It's a fairly straight-forward detective case for most of the novel, until a few twists in the plot push the intensity and mystery higher.

But what stands out as a great achievement, and factors into an extremely pleasurable read, is the voice of James. As he narrates, the reader grows closer and closer to him, almost to the point where we're so associated with James that we are as hard-pressed to uncover the truth as the characters in the story are. Patterson paints a vivid picture of each character, especially the rich family's history that leads to the reader's constant emotional attachment to James and his brother. Effectively moving and comedic at the same time, Patterson's main character gives The Beach House a much more invigorating tale.

And as we work our way into James' revenge, the plot escalates so well that it's a relief when we finally learn how James will uncover what he knows is true. It's not much of a surprise, but the elaborate and believable setup that Patterson stages is suspenseful enough to keep the reader flipping every page until they finally get to the inevitable conclusion.

Patterson does sometimes switch from James' narration to a third-person perspective, though, and it diverts our attention from James enough to be a bit bothersome. Towards the end, we find that the character that we follow in these third-person parts is actually a pretty minor character, adding a bit of frustration to those of us who want to read more of James' thoughts (or was I the only one in love with his personality?)

But that's only a minor quibble. The fact of the matter is, The Beach House is an excellent novel full of intrigue, emotion, and mystery. It may be formulaic, but the perspective from which it's told held my attention so raptly that I couldn't put the book down. And even though the "whodunnit" part of the novel is solved early on, James' solution is much more entertaining. A great book for those of you with an insatiable appetite for crime drama, with a good, if a bit trite, critique on the power of the rich.

James Patterson’s ‘The Beach House,’ has nothing in it profound enough to be a picking point. But this seems to be the problem for this flat and unmoving work, that doesn’t resemble the reputation that the writer has acquired from classics, such as ‘Kiss the Girls.’

‘The Beach House’ moves steadily through the story with no real fault, except that it is mostly predictable and nothing really exciting is going on. But there is a point between sections where a vague chapter or two tells us some sort of plan is being made, and then, right in front of us, the climax is being thrown full speed. It didn’t make a lot of sense to me at all. And to cap it all off, the climax wasn’t what I expected, but only some mediocre compromise that is meant to be ‘good enough.’

http://www.benjaminsolah.com/blog/?p=192

When Patterson writes a book they are fantastic. When he "co-writes" a book it's not him doing it and it shows. This is a perfect example. It's a good story but it's not a true James Patterson story and you can tell that quite easily in the writing and the way the story is told. It's too bad that he does this more often than not at this point in his career. Alone he is one of the greats but when he "co-writes" he is only as good as the co-writer.

While I don't agree with vigilante justice, I am so glad that Jack was able to get Neaubauer and his cronies to confess to their crimes and to be held accountable. I am also glad Jack and his friends got off lightly with time served and six hundred hours of community service.

Huh!! I wasted almost a week for this book!! I could not switch to other book and at the same time this was not very interesting!!

If u want to waste some time read this book

A James Patterson book written by Peter de Jonge.
A little hit and miss which is unfortunately the case generally these days at times but overall I did enjoy it.

James Patterson writes first class books and this was no exception, fast paced and compelling, would recommend!

I very nearly didn't pick this book up when I saw the tag in 'James Patterson does John Grisham' because quite frankly I can't stand John Grisham books.
However do not let that put you off. There are two court scenes and the main character is a law student but there the similarity to John Grisham ends.
This is a story of murder and justice in a place where money talks. Can Jack get justice for his brother even though he was just a valet parker when the billionaires he parks cars for don't want the killer found.
Read on and find out.

Wuiihhh... sekali lagi saya nyatakan kalau saya adalah penggemar berat James Patterson. Buku-bukunya tidak pernah gagal membuat saya terpaku dan tidak melepaskan pandangan dari kalimat-kalimat yang terpampang.

Jack Mullen, mahasiswa hukum tahun kedua, pulang berakhir pekan kerumah orangtuanya dan disambut dengan berita kematian adiknya Peter. Polisi menyatakan kematian Peter adalah karena tenggelam dilaut, sedangkan tubuh Peter dipenuhi memar-memar bekas pukulan dan banyak tulang retak.

Tidak puas dengan pernyataan polisi, Jack dan teman-temannya berniat menyelidiki kematian adiknya. Niat mereka ini kemudian berhadapan dengan ancaman-ancaman kematian yang ditujukan kepada setiap orang yang terlibat penyelidikan ini. Tapi Jack yang gigih walaupun pengadilan sudah menyatakan kematian Peter adalah karena tenggelam terus menggali kasus adiknya tersebut.

Dalam penyelidikannya ini Jack harus berhadapan dengan keluarga Neubauer, miliarder kaya pemilik rumah pantai tempat lokasi kematian Peter. Selain itu ia juga menemukan banyak hal yang disembunyikan Peter darinya. Dan pada akhirnya, ketika penyelidikan terungkap, Peter hanyalah salah satu pion dari permainan orang-orang kaya yang mampu membeli hukum dengan uang mereka...

A murder of 3 men. Who did it

This was riveting as an audio "read"!!!

Pulled this from the "beach reads" book display at my library, thinking it might be a summer fling Patterson. I was wrong - and, I'm glad I was wrong! I love the thrillers!

This is an older Patterson; however, the style is the same. Rich families on Montauk getting away with murder, sadistic pleasures among the rich and famous, and all at the expense of a young boy make this story...that is until the brother gets revenge after finishing law school...using means that may not ever allow him to practice law again. In the court of public opinion, unjustified deaths are reconciled and the rich guys are found guilty as sin.