Absolutely love James Pattersons novels. Chapters are short but packed full of excitement and action. I have read many of his novels and am aware how he always adds a twist to the end and I have more often than not realised the twist before i have finished the novel, but this one I didnt get.. The twist in this one was brilliant and one i was not expecting.. This is definately one of Patterson better novels ( )

Tom. Dante. Kate. Loco. Raiborne. Each chapter bore one of the names. If you're familiar with James' books, you know that he likes his chapters short but packed with action. The ending makes the book worth your time.

IMHO, it'd make a good movie, maybe with Ben Affleck as Tom and Jennifer Garner as Kate. It'd be a third-rate movie, entertaining but nothing deep [no Mystic River, everyone!] Accordingly, I give this 3 stars instead of 2, out of respect to Peter de Jong, the poor guy needs it.

As I've mentioned before, I love the ending; I should give it to Patterson, it's so unexpected. It's the first Patterson book I read, and I was pleasantly surprised that it's one of the better ones; I read the Alex Cross series afterward and found that they can get pretty boring.

Tom Dunleavy is supposed to be the hero, being a small time washed-up lawyer in East Hampton, a sleepy vacation resort for big money people. Dante, the local basketball star on his way to NBA stardom, is the one who's suspected and arrested for triple murder that happened near some big money mansion. Dante turned to Tom for help, and the story goes from there. Kate is the third wheel, Tom's ex-lover, added to the mix to stir up more action.

As for the ending, I told you it'd be worth your time to read, so go on, read it. This would be the perfect companion during a trans-Atlantic or trans-whatever flight. You can finish it in 6h flat [I'm a slow reader!] ( )

I found the narrative style of this book a little confusing as between chapters it switches viewpoints from one character to another, even though the chapter heading tells you. The plot held my attention though up until the end, when I found it went in such an unexpected direction as to be frankly unbelievable. Disappointing. ( )

I like how Beach Road jumped back and forth between the different points of view. It helped keep my interest. This is one of the good non Alex Cross novels. ( )

I couldn't put this book down! It was a quick read, told in the voice of the various main characters. What I like most about Patterson's writing in this story is that he makes the African American characters believable. I can't stand when writers have the black characters, especially young men of the hip hop generation, sound so ghetto it's unreal. The plot develops quickly, and is about a triple murder committed in the exclusive Hamptons. A young black man is framed and he gets an unlikely lawyer to defend him. The intense anger of the 'townies' is captured, a peek into the slick underworld of ritzy drugs is revealed, and a an old relationship is rekindled. When the murderer is revealed, it is a definite shock which is both satisfying in that I would have never guessed the person in a million years...but also, kind of unbelievable because the killer has been so careful why would he make such a stupid mistake now? Despite that minor discrepancy, assuming you chalk up the killer's stupidity to arrogance or just plain being human, this book is an AWESOME read. ( )