Sail
by Howard Roughan, James Patterson
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Book Reviews of Sail
Book Review: Lacking any Real Substance or Charm
Summary: 3 Stars
Katherine Dunne and her three children are taking a long over-due family vacation. It's been four years since her ex-husband died, and Katherine is afraid she is losing her kids. Desperate for help, she goes to her former brother-in-law, Jake Dunne. He agrees to take the family out for a summer trip on board the family yacht. Jake loves his brother's kids and wants to do whatever he can to reach out to them. He also still has strong feelings for Katherine, whom he has loved for years.
The Dunne's hit the high seas and immediately things begin to go wrong. Mark is caught smoking pot. Carrie hurls herself into the ocean in an attempt to end her life. All the while, young Ernie looks on as his family is starting to self destruct before his eyes. Unfortunately for the Dunne's, the trouble is just beginning. Someone wants them all dead and will do anything to make sure their vacation becomes permanent.
James Patterson fans will no doubt eat up his latest summer thrill offering. Sail is a suspense filled story, and one that will have most readers flying through the pages. This is a not a typical Patterson whodunit story keeping readers guessing until the end. The antagonist is revealed early on and the motive is never in doubt. All the tension and suspense are found in the Dunne's fight for survival and the antagonist's race to cover his tracks.
Sail held my attention, but there is nothing new or overly exciting here. This is just one more addition to James Patterson's long line of summer chillers. It's fast paced and fun, lacking any real substance or charm. The one twist we do get at the end is forced and unnecessary. Luckily for him, Patterson has reached that lofty level for bestselling novelists where it really doesn't matter what reviewers say. He will always sell a jillion copies of whatever he writes. This will certainly be no exception.
Book Review: A great summer read.
Summary: 4 Stars
At this point in his career, James Patterson has written so many thrillers that it must be hard to create a new angle. This may be why he so often writes with others, and this is one book where I think his co-author had a lot to say and I think it was well worth saying.
As a summer thriller, this book more than satisfies. It is a very good tale of survival (although the mom in the story engages in a little too much introspection and self-flagellation for my taste) of a family in crisis, each member having his or her own issues apparently arising from the fairly recent death of the father/husband in an accident connected with the family sailboat. We know from fairly early on that the family's own accident, on that same sailboat while trying to heal some of their familial wounds, is no accident, and there is no doubt about the identity of the perpetrator. That removes some of the usual whodonit type of tension and transfers it to the very compelling story of the family's survival: will they survive at all, and if they do, will they survive their family crisis or will it be even worse? Will this process be rendered better or worse by the capture and/or conviction of the perpetrator of this viciously violent crime?
The family is far from a perfect unit, but each of it's members brings some unusual abilities to the many crises they face. They are wonderfully fallible and likable. I enjoyed reading their story. As to the demons among them, they are truly ogres, and their stories were also interesting if a little too pat. I must say I am just a little tired of the lawyer always being the one with absolutely no scruples or humanity, even if he is not the only one!
All in all I don't think Mr. Patterson's readers will be disappointed in this one. It was quite a tale, well told and with enough twists of an unusual variety to hold one's interest.
Book Review: Snakes, Sharks and an Exploding Boat
Summary: 5 Stars
Katherine Dunne lost her husband four years earlier to a scuba diving accident. Eleven months ago she married a shark of man, Attorney Peter Caryle. Carlyle is after Kathy's dough and he doesn't want to wait for it. To that end he employs Gerard Devoux, a sailboat savvy hitman to smooth his way to all that cash.
Katherine feels she's going bonkers, her oldest, eighteen-year-old Yalie freshman Carrie is a bulimic on the verge of suicide, next in line is sixteen-year-old, pot-smoking, spoiled Mark and lastly there's ten-year-old quiet and troubled Ernie. These people are about as dysfunctional as you can get and to bind them together, heal them maybe, Katherine decides to set sail in the Caribbean on the family boat. Of course they need an experienced captain and who better than an ex-lover, brother in law named Jake.
Needless to say a lot of bad stuff goes wrong on this three hour tour (well it was more than tree hours). Carrie tries to kill herself, Mark gets caught smoking dope, they almost sink, the boat blows up, they're lost on an island, where they fend off sharks and a really big snake and their epirb (emergency position indicating radio beacon) has been rigged by Devoux to tell the world that the castaways Dunne are they aren't.
Meanwhile hitman Devoux's got himself a seaplane and guess who he's coming after?
Okay, did I like it. Yeah, I did, though one has to wonder these days if Mr. Patterson is really writing these stories. The characters were quickly sketched, not really fleshed out, but that's okay in this kind of story. There were too many sharks, but that's okay too. That snake was a bit much, but it'll give you goose bumps. And as one who has actually been on a boat in the Caribbean when it's sinking, I can tell you I was right there with these people. This is good entertainment
Reviewed by Vesta Irene
Book Review: A good thriller from Patterson, better than I expected
Summary: 4 Stars
SAIL is the latest thriller to be churned out from the James Patterson book factory. I didn't have high hopes for this one. It seemed like Patterson decided to write a novel about one of his hobbies. I didn't look forward to 300 pages of a family facing troubles on the high seas. However, as the book played out, I found myself drawn into the standard Patterson plot twists and characters and winded up enjoying this novel quite a bit.
Cahterine Dunne 45 year old heart surgeon with three kids. Her cheating first husband died while sailing, and she's determined to go on an extended sailing trip to reunite with her kids, each of whom has their own problems. The novel is standard Patterson, which isn't a criticism. You get standard characterization: one kid smokes pot, one is bulemic, ex-CIA bad guys, determined DEA agent, daibolical, philandering new husband.
Catherine believes a two-month sailing trip will be just the thing to reunite her family. She's lost her kids since the death of their father. Almost immediately, the boat starts having problems. Thankfully, her brother-in-law Jake is there to help them. Peter Carlyle, Catherine's new husband is a rich defense attorney. He urged Catherine to take this trip and was very supportive. But, as soon as she leaves, we find out he isn't all he claims to be.
That's enoug of the plot. This is a good book. It actually throws a lot at you other than sailing, but covers it in Patterson's usual cursury manner. This book isn't as good as THE QUICKIE, but is much better than STEP ON A CRACK, HONEYMOON, or JUDGE AND JURY. You will find absolutely nothing new in this book. Patterson is what he is. This book just happens to be better than his others. Patterson will never recapture the magic of his early Cross books, but that doesn't mean he still can't write good thrillers.
Book Review: This yarn reeks of bilge, me hearties
Summary: 1 Stars
This was my first Patterson book, and it's so bad I wish I could say it was written with a humorous tongue-in-cheek intent...but I know it wasn't. If it's representative of his work, he should be embarrassed.
There are so many informational and technical flaws, it's hard to know where to begin. Here's just a few: the passages about sailing were superficial and would only impress a landlubber (important because the title draws in readers with the promise of a book about sailing)...I suppose there could be rabbits on a deserted island in the Bahamas, but I doubt it....the attack by the "giant (unidentified) snake" was absurdly phony...as were the descriptions of the Coast Guard search and rescue efforts (for example, searchers home in on the signal sent out by the EPIRB, so how could it be "adjusted" to appear to be hundreds of miles away?)...it would be extremely difficult to land a small pontoon plane on the open ocean (and it's unlikely the villain, a hobby pilot, would have the necessary skill)...not only would the fake court-room heart attack have no physical medical evidence that it was real, but trial participants would demand proof (especially the heart specialist wife)....and so on...
Even worse were the constant cliches and the sophomoric play on words. Every page seemed to have at least one: "He's putting the cross in cross-examination"..."The jig was up"..."When they kissed, it was tongue-on-tongue tonsil hockey"..."The second bullet went straight through his cold heart"...you get the idea...
The only right proper way to read this yarn, me hearties, is to pretend it be written as a farce. Or better yet, just scuttle 'er and send 'er down to Davie Jones.