Mark, a boy from a poor upbringing is given an opportunity for a football scholarship at a local midwestern college. At the end of his senior year, he finds the body of another scholarship winner, Angela, a young black woman. He had last seen this woman leaving a party celebrating his final college football achievement on the arm of his best friend, Steve. As Mark leaves for Ivy-league law school, Steve is taken to jail. As Mark becomes a rich attorney, Steve is convicted of murder.

Years pass. Mark loses his wife and unborn child to an accident. He returns to the college that gave him his start to help the college recover from the recent embezzlement of a great deal of money from the alumni trust fund. He goes to visit Steve, then starts to think again about the night Angela died. He begins asking questions.

Well-done thriller, if a bit predictable. ( )

Good book, but very predictable towards the middle of the book. The antagonist and the ending was pretty much telegraphed halfway through the book. Other than that, though, the book was good, characters were well fleshed out and the plot was engaging. ( )

Patterson's latest revolves around Mark Darrow, a lawyer who owes his current life and career to his football scholarship and to his professor, Lionel Farr. Now, years later, Farr calls on the recently-widowed Darrow to give back to his alma mater, asking him to return as the college's president and rebuild its reputation.

I have to say that of all of Patterson's thrillers, this was the least, well, thrilling. It was a little too predictable, a little too pat. ( )

I liked this book because it was different than what I normally read and different from what I expected. It wasn't a suspenseful book in that the action was taking place as I read. It was more in retrospect. Written this way worked for this book and made the love story part of the novel that much more poignant. I wasn't sure how that was going to work with this book, but it really did. At the end, I liked how it all tied together.

This book is very well written. While not something that is totally 'drop everything and read this' it's still really good. It touches on a tough topic; race. Not only that, but interracial dating, and then murder.

The main character, Mark is incredibly interesting. His broken home made him lean to anyone who would show an interest in him. So, when Farr approaches and helps him get in to college, Mark adopts this man and strives to be someone. He ends up being an incredibly smart lawyer, perfect for this book and all that his return to Caldwell needs.

Overall, I'd like to read other books by this author. This book would make a great book club read because of the issues that he brings into the book. Not to mention his skill in weaving the story together between murder and love. Liked it a lot! ( )

I consider RNP one of the masters of the character-driven thriller. Here, he gets away from the politics of his last few books and takes us to a small college campus (a particularly compelling venue for me). Mark Darrow is being called back to the place where he found himself, Caldwell College. The current president is caught up in an embezzlement scandal, and Darrow, now a corporate lawyer, is being asked to take his place.

It’s not exactly a happy reunion. Darrow has had his share of personal tragedy, and returning to campus brings back the memories of an awful murder that his best friend was convicted of. He is supposed to be devoting his time to pulling the college out of its doldrums, but instead he can’t stop himself from trying to prove his friend’s innocence. And along the way, well, he just happens to fall in love with his mentor’s daughter.

I like how RNP gives every character a secret. No one is black and white, even the most minor character. The story does turn out to be a little predictable… I realized who the bad guy was going to be almost immediately, and the final confrontation is a giant cliché that you expect as soon as the location is declared. But all of that doesn’t take away from another winning story. ( )