I’m a big fan of James Patterson; I think you’ve heard me say that before. Well, I’m less of a fan now than I was a couple of days ago.His latest book, “Sail,” is responsible for that. For some reason, Sail didn’t quite resonate with me.
It was more or less fine up until the point where the trial started, and then everything just whizzed by at hyper speed, as though Patterson and co-author Howard Roughan had a dinner to go to and they had to finish the book so they wouldn’t be late. The upshot? Huge gaps galore.
The premise of the story is interesting enough. Katherine Dunne and her three kids are off on a sailing cruise with her brother-in-law Jake – rather, her former brother-in-law, because her ex-husband had died in a boating accident.
The family-yacht cruise is supposed to help bring Katherine and kids together – no small feat, for one son is a druggie and her daughter is self-destructive. Young Ernie seems to be the only child who can hold it together. What it ends up being is a horrible experience for all.
Katherine’s current hubby, a hot-shot egotistical sleazy lawyer, has an agenda that’s made pretty obvious early on, robbing us of suspense and the exercise of trying to figure out who the real villain is whose trying to get rid of the family.
Some of the stuff is pretty incredible (as in “not credible”). A 20-foot shark is scared off by a flare gun … puhleeze! The family finds itself on a desert island … puhleeze! And they are rescued because of a Coke bottle … puhleeze!
There are some twists, but they aren’t anything to get excited about. The one regarding the sleaze ball lawyer and his girlfriend became obvious pretty early on, and the one at the end, I could see coming before it even got underway.
The book took only two and a half hours to read. That’s one reason why I generally like his books – they are page-turners. This time, I was turning pages back to see what it was that I’d missed. And you know what I discovered? I didn’t miss anything because there wasn’t anything there!
I wish Patterson would concentrate on writing more Women’s Murder Club and Alex Cross stories.
3 comments:
I did not like Sail. In fact, I don't really like any of his non-Alex Cross and Women's Murder Club series. Although I did enjoy Breakfast at Tiffany's. And The Jester. I really liked The Jester. It was so different from any of his other books.
I actually dissuaded a lady from buying Sail today at Costco. Felt kinda bad about that, but she did ask my opinion of it. I got her to buy Patterson's 7th Heaven, however.
How about the part where her fever breaks and she is now fine~protruding, infected bone notwithstanding. I think I am of a very minor segment who actually did enjoy this book, even though there were some big gaps and some glaring far fetched things ~ it's a "story" after all, even if a little far out there. :)
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