“In this day and age, when so many people have decided to spend so much of their lives not reading books, I think to create a new habit for them is a smart thing,” says Patterson, 69, perched in the summer study of his Hudson Valley home, the room dominated by a sleigh bed where he reads and edits.
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He is an industry unto himself.Īnd now the author of popular thrillers - and children’s books and young adult novels and romances and mysteries - has launched BookShots, a series of short, cheap, plot-propelled novels directed at an audience more prone to reading smartphones than print. But his popularity among readers remains incontrovertible. His author bio: “James Patterson has written more bestsellers and created more enduring fictional characters than any other novelist today.” Beloved by critics and peers? Not so much. In book publishing, there is James Patterson - and basically everyone else. (Chris Sorensen For The Washington Post) (Chris Sorensen for The Washington Post) (Chris Sorensen/for The Washington Post)īRIARCLIFF MANOR, N.Y. 10.Bestselling author James Patterson at his home in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y. It’s a book you’ll want to read twice in order to spot how it all hangs together. Patterson and Ellis instead wield their twists like scalpels, slowly transforming and shaping the story. Twists are often used like sledgehammers in thrillers, exploding logic at the end of stories to shock and amaze. While the Murder House is obviously the center of the web, Patterson and Ellis continuously surprise the reader and keep them off-balance. Her investigation is as much about discovering her own past as it is about the current murders. Murphy has moved home after resigning from the force in disgrace, but a double murder in the town’s infamous “Murder House” where several violent tragedies have occurred over the years, pulls her back in. The opening sequence of The Murder House is pure bravado: No fewer than three seemingly unconnected mysteries are introduced in the first pages, including the mystery of what happened to the book’s protagonist, former NYPD detective Jenna Murphy, when she was a child. Working with frequent collaborator David Ellis, Patterson constructs a master class in fooling the reader without irritating them. No one weaponizes plot twists like Patterson. Combined with Patterson’s expertise in pacing and twisty plotting, and you’ve got a top-notch modern thriller. They could have existed simply to kick the plot into motion, but instead they come alive on the page. Amy’s reaction to an existential threat to her family lines up well with her training, career choice, and personality-but Patterson and DuBois don’t neglect the other Cornwalls, giving her family individuality and emotional heft. Patterson’s character work is once again exemplary.
This sort of impossible scenario where the protagonist has no good choices makes for a terrifically tense story.
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To secure their safe return, she has to find a way to free a mysterious prisoner, risking her life and her career. Army Intelligence officer Amy Cornwall comes home to find her husband and daughter have been kidnapped. Originally published under the title The Cornwalls are Gone, this collaboration with Brendan DuBois shows that Patterson sometimes produces his best work when he tweaks his usual thriller formula.
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