Sail
by Howard Roughan, James Patterson
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Book Reviews of Sail
Book Review: Moves Quickly With Trademark Killer Twists
Summary: 5 Stars
James Patterson and Howard Roughan have produced another winning beach read guaranteed to keep the pages turning. SAIL is a stand-alone novel instead of one of his series (Alex Cross, Women's Murder Club), and has the added facet that everyone is at risk in this one. Nobody has to come back for the sequel, and some of the characters don't.
Cardiac surgeon Anne Dunne has been stressed out by the twists and turns her life has taken. Her husband has died and she barely held it together. Then she got swept off her feet by Peter Carlyle, a dashing attorney. They've been married for a couple years, giving Anne time to heal some of her hurts and get her feet solidly back on the ground.
I like Patterson's books for the sheer velocity of the story. He doesn't provide more than a skeletal background for his principle characters, but that's all that's needed to understand the machinations he puts them all through.
Although a lot of Anne's emotional turmoil is glossed over in the novel, I still felt her pain and uncertainty. But there simply wasn't time to dwell on Anne's loss because things constantly happened in the book. The authors introduced one vicious turn after another, and the Dunne family became more and more endangered.
However, the furious plotting robbed the characters a little. Anne organized the sailing vacation for her three children because she felt the family was falling apart. Everyone who has a busy family has felt that stress. Oldest son Mark has a drug problem, Carrie is suicidal, and Ernie has become strongly anti-social. These issues were introduced in a straight-forward manner, then resolved almost instantly. I feel I missed out on some of the character growth and interaction with the headlong pacing of the book, but I couldn't stop turning the pages, which is exactly what the authors designed the book to do.
I really liked the character of Jake Dunne. He stepped onto the page and became real to me at once. He's the solid kind of guy that will always see things through no matter how messy they get. But, like all of the characters in this novel, he has his secrets too.
Peter Carlyle, Anne's new husband, turns out to be one of the blackest hearted villains I've seen in a while. He's only out for himself. His relationship with his much younger girlfriend Bailey really sets the tone, and readers will learn to hate this guy, and fear his single-minded determination.
The international hitman Carlyle hires nicknames himself The Magician because of the ease with which he can make people disappear. He's cool and calculating, and fills the story with menace.
Lost at sea, injured and dysfunctional, the Dunne family's struggles will pull most thriller readers through to the end in a single sitting or two. They won't be able to put the book down as the authors pile on one surprise after unexpected twist after impending doom. SAIL runs before the wind as a perfect beach read now that summer is upon us.
Book Review: Set Sail into the latest James Patterson page-turner
Summary: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Narayan Radhakrishnan for RebeccasReads (4/08)
James Patterson is an institution by himself. I mean this both literally and figuratively. With at least one fresh Patterson title coming in print every third month, it's now an open secret that James Patterson does not always write these novels. But as the author himself pointed out in an interview, he just gives the idea for the stories; the words are put in by his writer/collaborators. Thus, James Patterson is no longer an author; he is a brand name.
With that said, did I enjoy the book? Did I find "Sail" as engrossing and enthralling as previous James Patterson titles? And, the answer is yes--I absolutely, fantabulously loved and enjoyed "Sail."
The third outing of Patterson and Roughan, who previously collaborated with "Honeymoon" and "You've Been Warned," has all the sizzles and chills usually associated with a Patterson thriller. The Dunne family is on the brink of breakup. Three years after her husband died, Katherine Dunne finds herself in a mess. True, she has achieved stupendous success as a surgeon, but on the home front it's disaster to the core. With a suicidal teenage daughter and a pot-addict son, Katherine is on the verge of a nervous breakdown; and the only saving grace is her younger son Ernie. The only thing Katherine can think of to bring her dysfunctional family back together is a trip in their luxury yacht, The Family Dunne. They are joined by Katherine's brother-in- law Jake, and together the four set sail across the Caribbean. But disaster strikes from day one, and it's not a natural disaster. Someone out there is all set to kill Katherine and her children. The initial few attempts fail due to the rugged and fighting spirit of Jake. But when the whole family is shipwrecked following an explosion, Katherine finds herself knowing more about her children. And finally, in the midst of disaster, the family is back to normal.
But who is behind the blast? Who wants Kathy and the children dead? Is it lawyer Peter Carlyle, the second husband of Katherine, who will inherit everything if something nasty happened to the kids and his wife....or is there something more than what meets the eye?
What follows is suspense at its Pattersonish best and one that would keep the fans of this institution quite happy.
Nothing more, nothing less-- what we always demand and get from Patterson. "Sail" is recommended for James Patterson fans, and all lovers of suspense mysteries. And I just can't wait to get my hands on the July Patterson novel, "Dangerous Days of Daniel X."
Book Review: Just a bit overblown
Summary: 2 Stars
I did enjoy this book a little but not, I suspect, for the reasons intended by the authors and publisher. In fact, I laughed aloud at several of the wrong places. Let me explain. A woman heart surgeon sets out on a sailboat with her three children and her deceased husband's brother. Her fancy dancy crimanal defense attorney husband is left in New York. Things start to go wrong right away on this junket.
The teenage boy lights up a joint in the head. The daughter tries to commit suicide. A huge storm almost swamps them. Then there's an explosion, putting them all in the drink, whereupon a shark smells lunch, before they make it to a deserted island and a giant snake attacks. I could see it all coming, like dominoes falling. I could see the writers listing all the hazards that could possibly affect this curious crew. It became downright funny.
Then toss in the fact that someone is trying to kill them--the doctor's second husband, the hotshot villainous lawyer, assisted by an ex-CIA operative. The lawyer is a piece of work, strictly one-dimensional nasty and completely unbelievable. Even his bosomy girlfriend is silly, thrown in just to have a sex scene. In fact, there isn't a character in this book that feels right, to say nothing of the events that are phony.
And I haven't touched upon the errors of fact and logic, but to take those on would be to give away the plot for those who enjoy this sort of thing. One example: the sailboat, which apparently has an inboard engine, sets out from New England and a couple of days later is in sub-tropical waters, in the vicinity of the Bahamas. Some sailboat.
Then there is the writing itself. The authors obviously don't trust their own words very much or their own readers. They use lots of exclamation points, the certain spoor of the bad writer. Then they compound this with italicized sentences and bold sentences on every page. Joseph Conrad and Ernest Hemingway they are not. It reminded me of the movie "Betelgeuse," with all the lights and arrows to show where he was. The movie was intenced to be funny. "Sail" isn't.
Mr. Patterson and his various co-authors just keep turning these out, using the same basic pattern for every book. They would do well to slow down and try something worthwhile. But that would perhaps cut into the income. Silly me.
Book Review: Don't waste your time
Summary: 1 Stars
I agree with just about every 1-star review. The last Patterson book I read was one where he also tried, and failed, to write from a woman's perspective. It just doesn't ring true and it's offensive that what he does come up with is ridiculously obvious and lacking in depth. When writing from the woman's perspective, and this woman is supposed to be a highly educated physician, the woman sounds like she may not have even graduated from high school. He should also try to have some contact with actual 10, 16 and 18 year olds. Only in sophomoric and idiotic novels like this do all young brothers call each other "bro", do girls with bulimia get better because they find out their mother really does love them, do pothead teenagers give up pot because they're asked and suddenly feel productive, do 10 year olds who find out their biological father is actually their dead uncle "wink knowingly" at their mother when the uncle is referred to. What?!
Nothing read here sounds credible, not the behavior of the CIA agent, the ignorance of the physician/mother, the actions or words of the children, the events entailed in sailing, the courtroom or in "spying", the thoughts and spoken words of the bad guy--this whole book made me sorry I wasted my precious reading time on a mediocre story which lacked substance, depth, plausibility and even intelligence. Many of the action scenes were stopped right in the middle only to be reflected upon afterwards--is this a "technique"? If so, it didn't work. Scenes that could actually have been comparatively exciting were made even duller when the character "remembered" them.
I don't know how this could possibly get 4 or 5 stars, unless it was for "book most likely to be used as a cottage couch leg" or kindling, or to be recycled. I guess that's why there is a such a huge selection at Border's--something for everyone, because this certainly wasn't for me. I like my books and authors to be able to present something new and interesting. I'm no author but this book made me feel like I could probably do just as well as this. Don't waste your time. Read something that will actually make you think, or even seem believable, or where the author actually seems to have put some research into writing about events in which he clearly has no expertise.
Book Review: When fun in the sun ends in tears and screams
Summary: 3 Stars
I wouldn't say this book is filled with terror and is better than Jaws but it was a fun read. Short and fast paced making it a cinch to read in a day or two, "Sail" delivers entertainment and some tension but overall the seas aren't as rough as the editorial reviews would lead one to believe.
Family on the brink of total disconnect decides to sail for two months on their luxury yacht. Katherine Dunne and her kids along with her ex-lover and brother of her deceased husband look forward to some time in the sun and hopefully some much needed bonding. Her new husband Peter Carlyle is absent due to a stressful trail he's preparing for and is unable to travel with his family, as time and ocean space lengthens the distance between the married could so do their morals. Pretty soon all sorts of disasters strike the boat and the family is not only in danger from the elements but something else, something sinister that has been set in motion before the trip even started.
After reading it I can see both negative and positive things about it so I understand the varied rating for "Sail". Some positive things worth mentioning would include the short chapters that often end with anticipation, the book is very easy to read, sometimes too easy and there are few cool twists that surprised me, perhaps because I didn't read many reviews before I got to it. The negatives issues are more about one dimensional characters, especially the kids; they don't really stand out other than being a group of dysfunctional spoiled brats as knows why they act in such a way. The time at sea is not really lengthy, the sailing seems to be more of an afterthought, and the book lacks depth, making it more of a fun, easy read rather than an emotional stunner. It's hard to say what this book is about, on one hand there's the sailing adventure that sort of falls apart and at the other is a marriage gone wrong, with people whom we know nothing about acting in bizarre ways, at the end it all somehow comes together but with much help from the authors who patched it up for the finish. Not the strongest from Patterson but worth a read.
- Kasia S.