The Beach House by James Patterson and Peter De Jonge is all wet. I’ve never read a Patterson book before but everyone talks him up so when I saw The Beach House at our libraries book sale on three dollar bag day, I decided to give it a try. I tried to post it on paperbackswap.com but there are a few hundred others posted so I decided to read it. Boy do I regret that. It’s not that The Beach House was horrible, it just wasn’t good.
For a crime drama; something I love, I found this book very boring. The only thing that kept me turning pages was the fact the chapters are so short. Most are less than two pages.
I hope his other books are better otherwise I don’t know where his reputation came from. I’m starting to suspect he’s the Steven King of his genre. You know the authors who get so famous people will love anything with their name on it no matter how craptastic it may be. King proved this true when he was published under another name and flopped.
I was also distraught to learn that the books are largely not works from Patterson. Now I have no supporting evidence but my Mother, has informed me that the second person listed on the cover is the real author. She has heard that authors send in their manuscripts to Patterson who edits them and publishes them with his name if they’re worthy. Again, I have no real evidence of this except the fact it sounds believable. This is how rumors get started so remember I warned you this is not researched fact.
I thought De Jonge was listed on the cover because maybe he helped with research or something. It appears all Patterson’s books have secondary authors which makes the claim even more believable. If my Mothers scenario is true then I’ve lost even more respect for Patterson. And either way I won’t be reading another one of his books for some time.
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