Now You See Her [Paperback]

This book is awful! Characters have no substance. The plot revolves around a series of unlikley coincidences and highly implausable events combined with very predictable surprise developments (the killer is always just around the corner...) that the authors attempt to explain away at the end as they, predictably, correct injustices, dispatch the villains and send the heros off into the sunset. Don't waste your time.

Now You See Her

By James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge

Attention all beach-minded readers---this is the one!

Well, actually, you'll not even know where you are once you dive into this baby, and maybe, in all honesty and considering the dangers of too much sun, skip the beach altogether because once you start reading this, you're a goner. Take it from me, I was so immersed in this story that I sunburned the tops of my feet and had to hobble around shoe-less for several days.

The beginning is actually the middle of the story and then, when you leap off into it, the story jumps back to the past and boy is this a story to remember. Then, both of these stories meet in Key West and all hell breaks loose.

Nina Bloom, alias Jeanine, has a major skeleton in her designer closet and, of course, it's about to make an appearance and this is the last thing New York lawyer Nina needs, wants or has the clothes for.

Fifteen years ago on college spring break, Jeanine, her boyfriend Alex, and two gal-pals headed off to Key West to do some serious partying. In the process, Jeanine's best girlfriend sleeps with her boyfriend and in a weird sort of retaliation; Jeanine zooms off in Alex's hot-rod. Only problem is, she ends up crashing into a local hoodlum and kills the guy. Oops.

Enter drop-dead handsome Police officer Peter Fournier and you'd think Jeanine's life is pretty much over. Think again.

"I'm making a judgment call here," he said as he undid my cuffs. "Get back in your car and get out of here. Go back to school, Jeanine. This never happened."

Right. What does our heroine do? She stays in Key West and marries the cop. The cop; seems like a nice enough guy, life unfolds down in the keys and then, naturally, along comes a bit of a complication. Our good ol' boy cop isn't exactly what he seemed and suddenly Jeanine's idyllic life is shattered. He basically wants to kill her for knowing too much of what a corrupted cop he is.

It's now fifteen years later and Jeanine has morphed into Nina Bloom, after faking her death. Her life in New York is once again pretty normal-seeming. Well, that's no fun. Several things are tossed into her path and off to Key West she once again must return. This time it's to save a man on death row and of course, bad-boy Peter is right in the middle of it all.

Not to give away too much of the really good stuff, (trust me, there's tons) but Peter is really pretty red-hot angry when he realizes his wife is far from dead. So while trying to right that rotten wrong, he confesses something rather surprising while trying to kill her for good.

"Don't go yet, Jeanine. Time for one last round of truth or dare. Remember Ramon Pena? That night on the beach? Yeah, well, you didn't actually kill him. That was all me."

Honestly, you think that's the end of this crazy story. Hardly.

Trust me on this; murder is so darn messy.

This book is awful. It's badly written. The story is ludicrous and implausible. It was painful from beginning to end. Don't bother.