The Barnes Noble Review
James Patterson''s novels are unpretentious thrill fests,
narrative roller coasters that keep you glued to your seat by the
centrifugal force of his rapid-fire, pithy chapters and his
unadorned yet effective prose. The megabestselling author of Kiss
the Girls, 2nd Chance, and Suzanne''s Diary for Nicholas sets out to
tell a story, plain and simple -- and always does so with
irresistible chemistry.
In The Beach House, Patterson reunites with his writing buddy
Peter
內容簡介：
Jack Mullen is a driven student of the law. His brother Peter
is a servant of the rich, parking the cars of the Hamptons''
elite-and perhaps satisfying their more intimate needs as well.
Then Peter''s body is found on the beach. Jack knows the drowning
was no accident, but someone''s unlimited power and money have
bought the cops, the judges, the system. Now Jack is learning a
lesson in justice he never got in law school ... and his
astonishing plan to beat the billionaires will have you reeling-and
cheering-to the very last page.
關於作者：
James Patterson
Not making any bones about his bid for success, James Patterson
once declared he wanted to be known as “the king of the
page-turners.” While that may seem like a pretty grand ambition,
Patterson is as worthy of that title as any author working
today.
Biography
James Patterson had been working as a very successful advertising
copywriter when he decided to put his Masters degree in English to
a somewhat different use. Inspired by bestselling hair-raising
thrillers like The Day of the Jackal and The Exorcist, Patterson
went to work on his first novel. Published in 1976, The Thomas
Berryman Number established him as a writer of tightly constructed
mysteries that move forward with the velocity of a bullet. For his
startling debut, Patterson was awarded the prestigious Edgar Award
for Best First Mystery Novel—an auspicious beginning to one of the
most successful careers in publishing.A string of gripping
standalone mysteries followed, but it was the 1992 release of Along
Came a Spider that elevated Patterson to superstar status.
Introducing Alex Cross, a brilliant black police detectiveforensic
psychologist, the novel was the first installment in a series of
bestselling thrillers that has proved to be a cash cow for the
author and his publisher. Examining Patterson''s track record, it''s
obvious that he believes one good series deserves another…maybe
even a third! In 2001, he debuted the Women''s Murder Club
with 1st to Die, a fast-paced thriller featuring four female crime
fighters living in San Francisco—a homicide detective, a medical
examiner, an assistant D.A., and a cub reporter. The successful
series has continued with other numerically titled installments.
Then, spinning off a set of characters from a previous novel
1998''s When the Wind Blows, in 2005 he published Maximum
Ride: The Angel Experiment. Featuring a "flock" of genetically
engineered flying children, the novel was a huge hit, especially
with teen readers, and spawned a series of vastly popular fantasy
adventures.In addition to continuing his bestselling literary
franchises, Patterson has also found time to co-author thrillers
with other writers—including Peter de Jonge, Andrew Gross, Maxine
Paetro, and Howard Roughan—and has even ventured into romance
Suzanne''s Diary for Nicholas, Sam''s Letters to Jennifer and
children''s literature santaKid. Writing at an astonishing pace,
this prolific author has turned himself into a one-man publishing
juggernaut, fulfilling his clearly stated ambition to become "the
king of the page-turners."
Good To Know
Patterson''s Suzanne''s Diary For Nicholas was inspired by a diary
his wife kept that tracked the development of their toddler son.Two
of Patterson''s Alex Cross mysteries Along Came a Spider and Kiss
the Girls have been turned into films starring Morgan
Freeman; in 2007, a weekly television series premiered, based on
the bestselling Women''s Murder Club novels.
內容試閱：
The Beach House
Chapter OneEVEN BY THE HEADY NORM of millennial boomtown
Manhattan, where master craftsmen paint frescoes on subway walls,
the new law offices of Nelson, Goodwin and Mickel were over the
top. If the great downtown courthouses around Broadway were palaces
of justice, the gleaming fortyeight-story tower at 454 Lexington
Avenue was a monument to winning. My name is Jack Mullen, and as a
summer associate at Nelson, Goodwin, I guess I was winning, too.
Still, it wasn''t exactly what I had in mind when I entered Columbia
Law School at the advanced age of twenty-six. But when a secondyear
student with $50,000 in college loans is offered a summer position
at the most prestigious firm in the city, he doesn''t turn it
down.
The phone started ringing the instant I stepped into my small
office.
I picked up. Female operator on tape: "You have a collect call
from Huntsville, Texas, from ..."
Male voice, also recorded: "The Mudman." Female operator again on
tape: "If you wish to accept, please say yes or push the
number-"
"Yes, absolutely," I interrupted. "Mudman, how are you?" "Not
bad, Jack, except maybe for the fact that the state of Texas is
pissing its pants at the thought of putting me down like a dog."
"Dumb question."
The surprisingly high-pitched voice at the other end of the line
belonged to outlaw biker Billy "Mudman" Simon, and it was coming
from the pay phone in Huntsville Prison''s death row. Mudman was
there waiting for the lethal injection that would put him to death
for murdering his teenage girlfriend nineteen years earlier.
Mudman is no saint. He admits to all manner of misdemeanors and
an occasional felony during his run in the Houston chapter of the
Diablos. But killing Carmina Velasquez, he says, wasn''t one of
them.
"Carmina was a great woman," the Mudman told me the first time I
interviewed him. "One of my best friends in this miserable world.
But I was never in love with her. So why would I kill her?"
His letters, trial transcripts, and records of repeated failed
attempts to win a new trial were dropped on my desk three days
after I started working for the firm. After two weeks decoding
every wildly misspelled word, contorted phrase, and hundreds of
footnotes painstakingly transcribed in tiny block letters that
looked as if they had come from the unsteady hand of a
grade-schooler, I was convinced he was telling the truth.
And I liked him. He was smart and funny, and he didn''t feel sorry
for himself, despite a truckload of reasons why he should. Ninety
percent of the convicts on death row were as good as screwed the
day they were born, and Mudman, with his deranged junkie parents,
was no different.
Nevertheless, he had no enthusiasm for blaming them for what had
happened.
"They did their best, like everyone else," he said the one time I
mentioned them. "Their best sucked, but let ''em rest in
peace."
Rick Exley, my supervisor on the project, couldn''t have cared
less about Mudman''s character or my rookie intuition. What mattered
to him was that there were no witnesses to Velasquez''s murder and
that the Mudman had been convicted completely on the basis of blood
and hair samples from the crime scene. That all happened before the
forensic breakthrough of DNA testing. It meant we had a reasonable
chance to be granted our request that blood and hair samples be
taken to confirm that they matched the DNA of the physical evidence
held in a vault somewhere in Lubbock.
"I''d hate to get your hopes up for nothing, but if the state lets
us test, we could get a stay of execution."
"Don''t ever worry about getting my hopes up for nothing, Jack.
Where I''m at, insane hope is welcome anytime. Bring ''em on."
I was trying not to get too excited myself. I knew this pro bono
project, with the pompous name of "the Innocence Quest," was
primarily a PR stunt and that Nelson, Goodwin and Mickel didn''t
build forty-eight stories in midtown by looking out for the
innocent poor on death row.
Still, when the Mudman was cut off after his allotted fifteen
minutes, my hands were shaking.
Continues...
Excerpted from The Beach House by James Patterson Copyright ?
2002 by SueJack, Inc.
Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this
excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in
writing from the publisher.
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