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Beach Road
Beach Road
Author: James Patterson, Peter de Jonge
Welcome to Beach Road — Tom Dunleavy has a one-man law firm in legendary East Hampton. But his job barely keeps him in paper clips. His principal clients make a living serving the rich. The billionaires and megacelebrities swarming the beaches already have lawyers on their payroll. — EXPENSIVE — Then a friend of Tom's is arrested for a triple murde...  more »
ISBN-13: 9780446697798
ISBN-10: 0446697796
Publication Date: 2006
Pages: 390
Rating:
  • Currently 4/5 Stars.
 5

4 stars, based on 5 ratings
Publisher: Warner Books
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover, Audio CD
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed Beach Road on + 88 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 12
This summer, I wanted to try authors I haven't read before. I'm always looking for a good book to read. I picked up Beach Road by James Patterson & Peter De Jonge and took it with me on vacation. I've read good things about Patterson and his books. Beach Road is set on the east end of Long Island which appealed to me. I recognized many of the places Patterson mentioned in the story.

The trouble is ... I didn't like the book very much and felt disappointed.

It started out all right. Tom Dunleavy, the main character, is a sort of lack luster lawyer. He used to play pro basketball but washed out after an injury. Apparently he didn't have such a great family life because his older brother is more like a father to him. Naturally he used to have a wonderful girlfriend years ago but dumped her for reasons unknown and now she is a high power city lawyer. And also naturally, Tom has a dog.

Three of Tom's friends are murdered some time after a game of basketball at the home of one of those absent ritzy rich folks who happened to have a very nice court built on the property. Tom, his brother, and the three murdered friends challenged Dante Halleyville, a giant of a high school athlete, and four of his friends. There was a scuffle that turned a little ugly during the game and so when the three guys turn up dead, naturally suspicion falls first on Dante and his pals. Up to this point, I thought it was interesting.

The story is told from several view points. Among them: Tom, Kate Costello, Dante, a knowledgeable cop from Brooklyn named Connie Raiborne, a psycho drug dealer named Loco, Dante's grandma, and a very minor character named Nikki Robinson (cleaning person and cousin of Dante's).

Some of the obvious: Dante is arrested and accused of the murders. Although Tom doesn't step in at first to act as his attorney, he does become lawyer for the defense. He also persuades Kate to join him. Grandma is staunchly supporting her grandson. Raiborne does his job, carefully seeking out clues and figuring out what happened. All of these things aren't terrible, just predictable.

The reason I didn't like the book? There was a twist in it that just didn't ring true. If you read the book you'll see what I mean. When I read it, I thought there is no way that these people would act like that, I just don't believe it. I think it's because the authors didn't lay enough of a foundation to suggest the possibility. It just seemed to come out of thin air and that is very annoying.

I felt like one of the characters from the movie Murder By Death, who gathered all the great literary and movie detectives together to solve a murder. The character, Lionel Twain, totally bamboozles these detectives and then says: "You've tricked and fooled your readers for years. You've tortured us all with surprise endings that made no sense. You've introduced characters in the last five pages that were never in the book before. You've withheld clues and information that made it impossible for us to guess who did it." Like I said, that stuff is very annoying.

One more thing annoyed me: in the book, the press dug up a tidbit about Tom Dunleavy that I suppose was supposed to be a clue. Whether it was or not, we never found out whether it was true or not. That's one thing I would have liked to have known. There's several other questions but I don't care enough about the book to even post them.

I'm going to try another of James Patterson's books before I cross him off the list. Maybe it wasn't such a great book because he wrote it with someone else. I thought I would give one of the Alex Cross books a try. We'll see what happens.
tsatske avatar reviewed Beach Road on + 4 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 5
This is the first time I have read Paterson. I admit - I tend to be a bit of a snob about NYT Bestselling Authors - if I don't discover them on my own before they hit the NYT, chances are I will avoid them until someone suggests them or I have some other reason to try them. In this case, my reason was being caught out without a book, at a small deli with a very small used bookshelf. This looked like the most interesting of the bunch.
The book was fantastic for the first 145 chapters (that's right - chapters. Damn short chapters Patterson writes, and that's the truth.) I thought I had discovered a new favorite author, to add to my existing list of 30 or 50 or so favorites. I was already writing letters in my head to a few penpals, to tell them how great this guy was.
Then, in chapter 145, the book took a sudden nose dive. The end made no sense. The charcters, so well and carefully devoloped, broke from their own characters so greatly as to tear the hell out of my suspension of disbelief. The entire end was a writing trick that I call 'Daemns ex machina', and I care for that writing trick not a bit better than I like Dias Ex Machina.
I can not recomend this book in the least. I actually asked the bookseller at my local used bookstore her opinion of Paterson, she said she liked him, but warned me away from this book in particular - so I will have to, perhaps, try a couple of his others, to see if he is usually better than this.
suspenseprincess avatar reviewed Beach Road on + 51 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
A real page turner. I read it in two days, I could not put it down. The ending is a real twist.
ilovedale3 avatar reviewed Beach Road on + 524 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
Great story... until the last few chapters! The surprise ending really bothered me!
reviewed Beach Road on + 45 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Very fast read! You need to read this book quickly to be able to keep on track. Every chapter is told by a different character so it can get confusing if you don't read it quickly!
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sharalsbooks avatar reviewed Beach Road on + 259 more book reviews
When I pick up a James Patterson novel, I am guaranteed to be entertained, sometimes shocked, but always entertained. In Pattersons novels, I almost always find stories filled with very interesting characters; even the villains are intriguing. I cant ignore the fact that they reel me in, regardless of whether I love or hate the character. Pattersons ability to make these characters come to life and leap off the page is very impressive. In Beach Road, he does it again.

Tom Dunleavy is a likeable guy. Hes a guy you could be buddies with. After his career with the NBA is sidelined, he becomes a lawyer, though hes not a very prominent lawyer.

Kate Costello is tough as nails. If you are the underdog, you will want her in your corner. She demonstrates a dogged determination to do the right thing; she even walks away from her law firm rather than defend a man she knows is guilty. She is one of those people that will walk through fire for the people she cares for. She used to care for Tom Dunleavy until he broke her heart and she hasnt forgiven him yet.

Dante Halleyville is a young man that bad luck seems to follow. Raised by his grandmother, he struggles to overcome the adversity that has plagued his life and rise above the tragedy that has followed him. He is talented and intelligent and is on his way to a superstar career in the NBA. When he is accused of murder, his life hangs in the balance.

This book is narrated by several points of view. Tom, Kate, Dante and Loco, a local drug dealer, who has a keen sense of what is going on, offer their perceptions on the events surrounding them. Tom and Kate agreed to defend Dante and are convinced hes being set up. Convincing a jury of enough reasonable doubt leaves Tom and Kate with their work cut out for them.

This story was a little slow to get going in the beginning, but it changes direction without warning and takes off at high speed. Suddenly, I am caught in the story watching the events unfold, unable to look away. With every visit Tom and Kate make to Dante in jail, the tension mounts. If Dante is innocent, then the killer is still out there and loose ends will need to be tied up. I found myself worrying about the safety of Dante, Tom and Kate. Defending Dante doesnt sit well with the community and Tom and Kate arent highly experienced lawyers.

This isnt one of James Pattersons best stories, but Beach Road is a story that will pull you in and rip the rug out from under you. When everything is revealed, I felt like I had been hit by a bus. I was shocked and surprised and that is what Patterson is good at. Fans of James Patterson will enjoy this story knowing they are in for a great ride and readers new to his books will enjoy the suspense and intense twists.
butchsmom avatar reviewed Beach Road on + 23 more book reviews
James Patterson's book are always an easy read, but this was such a page turner I finished it in a single day! Good story, great twist at the end I did not see coming. If you are looking for an interesting story with an unexpected ending this is it.
1ging avatar reviewed Beach Road on + 8 more book reviews
I didn't see the ending coming! A good fast read as usual with Patterson. Probably one of his better ones.
reviewed Beach Road on + 4 more book reviews
very good.
harley-gal avatar reviewed Beach Road on + 12 more book reviews
Another intriging James Patterson. Well written!
rfdudley avatar reviewed Beach Road on + 75 more book reviews
A surprise ending and a bit out of left field, in my opinion. Nonetheless I did enjoy the book.
reviewed Beach Road on + 7 more book reviews
An ending that I didn't see coming. I enjoy James Patterson's book and this one did not disappoint!
reviewed Beach Road on + 37 more book reviews
James Patterson's books are always a good read!
beckhamdd avatar reviewed Beach Road on + 12 more book reviews
This is a ridiculous book! My husband & I listened to it while traveling. The story was written in such a way that it told the thoughts of main characters. Both in actions and expressed thoughts, characters were portrayed in one light. In the huge twist ending, they were shown to be something else entirely. That means that the thoughts expressed throughout the book until the end were actually lies. What a cop out just to have a shocking ending!!
reviewed Beach Road on + 19 more book reviews
great read suprise ending
reviewed Beach Road on + 43 more book reviews
Great read, keeps you going until the end and the change is shocking truth.
Inside cover:Welcome to Beach Road Tom Dunleavy has a one-man (and dog) law firm in the richest resort town in America--the legendary East Hampton, summer home to billionaires and megacelebrities. But his job barely keeps him in paper clips. His clients come from the year-rounders he grew up with, the people who make a living serving the rich. The movie moguls, models, and corporate honchos who swarm the beached every summer alreday have lawyers on their payroll.
Then an old friend of Tom's, a local star athlete, is arrrested for triple homicide on the beach near a movie star's mansion. Tom know in his gut that Dante Halleywille is innocent. Dante asks Tom to represent him in what could be the new Trial of the Century, and for the time Tom is on the spot and in the public eye. Tom recruits Manhattan superlawyer Kate Costello to help fight the case. She's a tough hire, because Kate is his ex-girlfriend, and she's seen him at his worst-but she comes back. All the two have to do is discover who really executed three locals and why they went to such incredible lenghts to set up Dante as the killer. Evan as Tom wonders whether he can ever get Kate to forgive him for his past sins, the case takes on astonighing dimensions, revealing a world of illegal pleasures, revenge and fear among the superrich. With the nations eyes on him, Tom orchestrates a series of revelations to lure the real killer out of hiding-and what emerges is staggering. No one could imagine a killer this ruthless.
reviewed Beach Road on + 165 more book reviews
I liked this book, some of his latest have not been the best for me. I did enjoy this one!
reviewed Beach Road on + 16 more book reviews
Wow, I didn't see that ending coming!
reviewed Beach Road on + 29 more book reviews
great book you just cant beat James Patterson he is one of my favorites!!!!!!!!!!
reviewed Beach Road on + 42 more book reviews
Very suspenseful and a quick read!!
reviewed Beach Road on + 431 more book reviews
I always enjoy Patterson's books and this one was set near where I grew up, which made it even more interesting.
reviewed Beach Road on + 81 more book reviews
The end of this BLEW me away. I loved it and I love Patterson.
reviewed Beach Road on + 13 more book reviews
Excellent Patterson book...you will love the ending!


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