I'm not exactly sure what James Patterson is trying to do here. He is certainly compiling a burgeoning bibliography, writing and publishing books as if Planet X's rumored collision with our world in 2003 is all but a certainty. THE BEACH HOUSE, by my count, marks his fourth book, either by himself or in collaboration with another, in the past 12 months, but he is varying his output enough that no one should complain.
Of the Patterson books published most recently, THE BEACH HOUSE would be my clear favorite. The presence of Peter de Jonge, who ably collaborated with Patterson on MIRACLE ON THE 17th GREEN, is most welcome here, providing a bit of a deviation from Patterson's tried and true methods of keeping his old audience while reaching out to a new one. No one is going to accuse Patterson of going deep; his prose reflects his background in advertising, written in terse sentences with short paragraphs and chapters to keep the story moving and the reader reading. If he appears, at times, to have written at a speed commensurate with the action of the story, it can be chalked up to transmutation, perhaps. No matter; THE BEACH HOUSE is a page-turner of the highest order.
THE BEACH HOUSE opens with the murder of Peter Mullen, a 21-year-old living in the fast lane of East Hampton. The reader knows it's a murder; the official verdict is death by drowning. Jack Mullen, Peter's older, more levelheaded brother, is immediately suspicious. Jack is everything Peter was not. A law student at Columbia University with a summer clerking job at one of the country's most prestigious law firms, Jack seems to have the world by the string. Everything, however, is shattered by the mysterious and unexpected death of his brother. Stymied by the police who doggedly and steadfastly refuse to investigate the circumstances surrounding Peter's death, Jack enlists the help of his lifelong friends to conduct his own investigation. It appears at first that it will be easy to establish that Peter was murdered. The coroner's report indicates that Peter was beaten to death long before he was ever in the water, and a number of people in town, members of the city's wealthy elite, are behaving as if they something to hide. It soon becomes evident, however, that these same powerful forces are determined to keep what they are hiding hidden for good and will do anything to keep the truth behind Peter's sudden demise buried with him. Although it initially seems that justice will be denied to Peter and his family, a clue --- actually, several of them --- suddenly appears from a wholly unexpected source, and Jack's investigation is given new life.
There are some flaws to this book --- the resolution is highly unlikely, to say the least --- but Patterson and de Jonge do such a great job of building suspense while keeping things moving that you're not even going to care. What is especially impressive here is the way the authors handle the central theme of the book. The reader knows Peter was murdered. The question is, why? This is a question that is not answered until one is well into THE BEACH HOUSE and headed for the conclusion. It should also be noted that, in Patterson fashion, the motive for murder is not the only issue to be resolved herein.
THE BEACH HOUSE lives up to the seasonal relevance of its title. This book will be right next to the Coppertone bottle on every beach in America this summer, with readers devouring it so quickly that they will have to beware of spontaneous combustion. Maybe, ultimately, Patterson is trying to prove that there is no such animal as too much of a good thing, at least where his writing is concerned.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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