Beach Road (2010-09-02) (2024)

Spoiler alert, the main character is the killer. Shocking. Do yourself a favor and throw this book out the window and hope it hits one of the authors.

Beach Road by James Patterson and Peter De Jonge is one of many books that I read by Patterson. It takes place in the resort town of East Hampton Tom Dunleavy is a lawyer barely making ends meet when a friend, Dante Halleyville, is arrested for murder. Dante asks Tom to represent him. Additionally, Tom recruits his high school girlfriend and current Manhattan lawyer, Kate Costello, to help him with the case.

This book has some very current themes in it including race, drugs, poverty and corruption. It has the usual short chapters, but in this case, the chapters are told from a first person point of view by several different characters. The good thing is that each chapter has a heading with the character that's talking. However, the first third or so of the book felt somewhat choppy to me. However, the rest of the book was fast-paced and page turning.

There is a mystery here and it is also a legal thriller. There is a huge twist at the end. I did not see that one coming. Some people will think the ending is fantastic and others will think it is a total shock or disappointment. I have read a lot of mysteries and this is one ending that certainly surprised me so for that reason alone, I gave it an extra star.

Easily one of my favorite Patterson books. The characters seemed more compelling. The story moves very quickly, without feeling rushed. The mystery and the twist(s) were beyond intriguing.

To me, it is as if other Patterson books are beautiful in black-and-white, Beach Road is spectacular in vivid color.

The bizarre ending twist fails utterly!

Tom Dunleavy is a very good athlete who never quite made it to the top. After a very few minutes of near fame as a white NBA basketball player, Dunleavy bottomed out with a career ending injury and retired to a quiet life managing a very mediocre one-man law firm in New York's East Hampton, summer home to America's über-wealthy glitterati set. Dante Halleyville, an old friend of Tom's and arguably the finest young black high school basketball player in the country has been arrested for a triple murder following a pick up game of hoops against a team of all white players. The murder has celebrity, racial and drug overtones and Tom is astonished to find himself in the thick of the affair as Halleyville pleads with him to serve as lead defense attorney in a trial that promises to be front page news across the nation. Dunleavy, intuitively recognizing Halleyville's innocence but sensibly realizing he will be way over his head during this trial, pleads with Kate Costello, an old girl friend and rising star in one of America's upper crust law firms, to join him as co-counsel for the defense.

Beach Road is no exception to Patterson's now easily recognizable style of writing short, snappy two to three page chapters that keeps things moving along at a rapid fire pace. But he's introduced a very interesting and quite effective twist - entitling each chapter with only a character's name and writing those few pages from the viewpoint of that particular character. That makes for some very novel fast-paced changes in perspective. But, sadly, this particular style rests for its success strictly on dialogue and action leaving absolutely no margin for error in plot development because it also leaves absolutely no room for the redeeming features of narrative description, atmosphere and character development.

Beach Road succeeds admirably and is a lightweight, enjoyable and quite compelling page-turner until the eagerly anticipated and much vaunted twist that the dust jacket exclaims will leave readers gasping in shock. Like a downhill mountain-biker that jams on the front brakes, Beach Road vaults up over the handle bars and lands flat on its face! Weak, weak, weak ... the twist is certainly an unpredictable surprise but it is so bizarrely unrealistic and utterly off the wall as to completely derail what was looking to be a pretty darn good book. Thankfully, the twist occurs very close to the end of the book so the disappointment lasts for only a very few pages. That means a summer beach or hammock reader can still derive a little enjoyment from the book and not feel they wasted hours upon hours of their time.

Recommended for die-hard Patterson fans! If you've never read Patterson before, you'd better not be starting here.

Paul Weiss

This book totally rules...
much the way it rules when you are in the mood to channel surf and you happen upon a special presentation of some crappy lawyer drama from the late 90's and you go "sweet...there goes the next two hours...brain? off."
I couldn't help cracking up at James Patterson's writing. So many shout-outs! He is so hip and now! Williamsburg junkies in vintage sneakers! Parties at Steven Spielberg's house! Sudden, random and completely out of place raunchy sex stuff!

All in all it's a lazy, cheap, predictable piece of tripe. Exactly what I needed on a relaxing Saturday afternoon. Thanks, James! Oh yeah and the other guy too. Thanks, other guy.

It was my 6th grade year and I was riding the bus to school. The bus was generally a scary place, but the mornings weren't so bad. Most everyone was either passed out or drooling over their morning coffee. I would just close my eyes and listen to the radio the bus driver had playing. This morning while I was listening, I heard a commercial for this book. The voice-actors were saying things like "I thought I had it figured out, but oh, was I wrong!" and "I never saw that coming!!" and "Wow!!!" In my naive 6th grade mind, I thought "Now I have to read this book. It sounds awesome!" But oh, was I wrong.

I wound up finding a copy of Beach Road at a book sale, so bought it and sat it on my shelf. And there it sat. For years. Finally, when I went on vacation to Florida last year, I decided it might be a good beach read to bring along. Hence the title Beach Road. Sounds beachy, right?

It was "meh" for a chapter, and after that it was pretty terrible. The characters, the story, the writing... everything about this book was flat and dry. I got about 120 pages in before I had to put it away and read something else. I didn't need to force myself through a boring book on vacation, ya know?

Bottom line, I just now picked this up and finished reading it. Well... finished skimming it. I wasn't interested in finding out whodunit, but I still like seeing books through to the end. From what I saw, it never picked up. It remained dull and uninteresting to the end. Never once was there a single twist. Ugh. That's what I get for listening to an ad on the radio. Do those even exist anymore? *shrugs*

I know James Patterson's books are very hit-or-miss, so I'll be giving him another shot. Mostly because I have several of his books that I picked up at the book sale I got this one from. They were 10 cents, okay? Anyway, can't say I recommend this one. In fact, I say stay far away from it. It is not worth your time. Or your 10 cents.

I had shelved so many James Patterson books when I worked at the library, but had only read one, the similarly titled Beach House. I enjoyed the setting of Beach Road as well as the characters, suspense and courtroom drama, until chapter 107. I just didn't believe the turn Patterson took with his protagonist. There should have been more clues as to why the perpetrator did what he did and why. In my opinion, it's just not enough to say that "people often lie," and "the full extent of their lies can be almost beyond our comprehension." That's a writer's copout for not making the effort to hide some clues in the novel, which would have made the reading more interesting. As it is, all you get is one moment of shock in chapter 107, instead of honing your detective skills. There are so many more suspense/thriller writers who do a better job of explaining their characters motivations, even when the character is a liar.

I'll have to try harder to find skillful writers instead of just popular ones!

i would never read the best seller trash on my own but someone had it and I had nothing else to read. Unbelievably bad. might be the worst book I've ever read. who decidedes that this is what people should buy? complete absense of writing style, real characters, or plot. the whole book hinges on a twist that does nothing to explain or payoff anything that happened anywhere else and is completely unsupported by the events of the story. just awful.

I was really not impressed with this one. Most of the book dragged on, in my opinion, leading to the “big” reveal at the end. The remainder of the story after the reveal seems rushed and does not really provide a lot of detail to support why these crimes were committed. I love James Patterson’s Alex Cross series, but something about co-authoring with someone else takes away some of the appeal for me.

I gave the novel three stars, largely because I prefer a much more challenging plot and story. While the authors managed to hold my interest (admittedly, not an easy task), the work lacked stimulating intricacies. Although many readers may feel they've been duped, the ending was possibly the book's salvation.

Couldn't put this book down. This is the first James Patterson book I've read and I'm now hooked, I can't wait to read more from him. There are a ton of twists and turns, and surprises. Such a great book.

Great court room drama with a tiny twist at the end. I wonder how the movie in the book turned out. 😂🤣 This one was twisty, even for Patterson. Definitely a lot of fun.

The story is easy to read but the plot is not really believable. I enjoy the story until chapter 107 when the big reveal is made of who is the actual murderer. However, there was no information or back story of why Tom is a drug dealer.

The reason why he killed the three boys made no sense. Over $1000 of which they returned and he decides to make an example of them. To who? The millionaires and billionaires he has his nephew Sean sell drugs too. Why would a successful drug dealer want to bring police into an investigation?

Many of the characters are one dimensional. The doting Grandmother, the corrupt cop, the beautiful successful lawyer and Dante the perfect basketball player and human being.

I get it that he is a psychopath and subtle clues are there such as why would he dump Katie 10 years ago for no real reason. Also if he is hardly working as a lawyer then where does his money come from to live in the Hamptons.

Nope nope nope nope but lol at the ending

Spoiler alert! Don't bother anyway! It's 3:45 AM and I just finished Beach Road after awaking and needing to get up for a bit to read. I finish Chapter 107 out of 116 and decide that James Patterson is a hack who goes for the cheap crappy shocker just to piss people off. I have slogged through the 106 other chapters, almost giving up during Chapter 1 when three black boys face off to three white boys in a cliche pick up game in a not so cliche place, the Hamptons of all settings, for what I think is an attempt to present a half-baked murder mystery with a feeble cultural sensitivity twist. The plot involves a young African American lad with super, almost Michael Jordan, abilities accused of a quadruple gangland style execution (of the three white players), an bad cop, a white ex-pro ball player with a blown out knee turned loser lawyer who convinces his exgirlfriend of 10 year past to leave her high-powered lawyer job in a firm that caters to rich old guys who sexually harass and rape their female employees. She does this because of her social consciousness of course. Did I say cliche? Anyway, the story progresses and sloppy evidence mounts up that would never really be accepted in a court case, and the young black dude struggles to maintain his innocent persona in a maximum security prison while he awaits trial. His grandma staunchly supports his innocence and the lawyers fight for and get his freedom. I'm sure I said cliche. Well, here's where the clive ends and the ridiculously unplausable shocker ending gets wrapped up in 9 more clumsily slapped together chapters. The white guy loser and his nephew are the bad guys who actually set up the teen b-ball star. Out of nowhere! No hints, nothin'! Then, the cop that actually figures it out, a minor character, by the way, arises from the dead after the lawyer shoots and buries him (cuz he was wearing a vest), and so does the nephew who is also killed and buried (also apparently wearing a vest) by the lawyer for no apparent reason. The cop takes down the lawyer, who ends up getting slashed to death in prison, and girlfriend goes to the beach with her murderous dead lover's dog, Wingo, and thinks about how life goes on...or something. Do I feel like an idiot for finishing this loser? Absolutely! it's the first time I am so angry about reading a book to it's stupid ending that I would submit it for book burning if the circular file wasn't within tossing distance. Clunk! I made the bucket! And not the recyclables.

What a let down. This book was terrible. There did not seem to be anything to it just a bunch of words.

The plot is suppose to be this...Tom Dunleavy is an attorney who is suppose to represent Dante Halleyville. Tom and Dante with some others were playing a game of basketball. Some shoving occurred, then someone from Dante team (all black) threatened some of the guys that were on Tom's team (who was all white). Next thing you know, 3 white guys are dead and Dante is to blame.

In usual Patterson form, the chapters are super short, and you need to see who the name of the chapter is to see who it is talking. Not much else makes sense. The trial is very, very short..Dante defense only calls one person, his grandma and that is it. The prosecution makes there case with a few witnesses then the jury is out for a few days. Next thing you know, you are in another country--I know, I know, what the heck am I talking about..yep, that is how the book goes. Very little thought was put into this book in my opinion except to get it published quickly to make some sales. I am happy that I only borrowed it from my public library and did not spend a penny on it.

Done reading BEACH ROAD. I am amazed by how the author writes a simple but well-written story. It is an easy read too. Dante Halleyville is an active athlete who is accused of murdering three men in East Hampton - the summer home to billionaires and A-List Celebrities. There is one man who can prove his innocence. He is a lawyer friend of his and his name is Tom Dunleavy. Will Tom saves the day? Well, I can't give an answer as there is one major problem I have with this book. There are seven POV written in first-person perspective all in present tenses. Even with a name at the top of every chapter, it is inevitable that there are times that I still get confused as who narrates the chapter.

I would have rated this book a 4, till the last disc, which took me totally by surprise. Maybe more surprised by an ending then I ever was before. Wow. I will keep on reading his novels.

Although I have noted that many reviews were disappointed in this offering by Patterson and DeJonge, I found the story engaging and well done. However, I listened to it on an audiobook,and that may reflect my overall satisfaction. Unlike most CD books, there was a variety of actors, a different one for each of the many characters. This provided a very interesting listen since I felt the readers characterized their roles with considerable skill. Since the story was told from the variety of viewpoints, one chapter devoted to one voice, it was possible to keep the reader/listener unaware of the villain's identity. The twist at the end took me completely by surprise, but was a satisfactory turn of events for this story. The tricky device of multiple points of view allowed the authors to keep the reader/listener 'in the dark' until the unusual climax arrived. This book doesn't measure up to an Alex Cross novel, but it has merit and is a good crime drama.

My first Patterson read. Good, definitely gets you hooked & wanting to keep reading. The book is told from the point of view of basically 5 different people and I did not feel that Patterson was 100% succesful with this. As the book would switch to a different character as first person, it really just felt the same. His writing style didnt really vary as he changed point of view. I think this is a hard thing to do but Barbara Kingsolver did it beautifully in the Poisonwood Bible so I always compare other books that try to do this to that one. This one did not have the same effortlessness.

Lastly, there is a twist at the end (don't worry, no spoiler) that I really did not like or buy. It just didnt fit for me. That was the major downer of the book.

If this book was any good I never got to find out. I gave up on page 78. Frankly at that point I could not care less who the killer was. Poor writing, No disrespect to Peter De Jonge, he is probably a very capable writer. Patterson probably wrote this in his sophom*ore year and found it at the back of a drawer when his publisher started pushing him for a new book. I will not bother going into the story, its enough of a popular book, unfortunately it did not do it for me.

A disappointing thriller with an implausible twist. Patterson's style is choppy and the ending of the book is so far fetched it doesn't make any sense. I'd read Patterson books before and even though I've never been a huge fan of his, I thought they were OK. This one was pretty bad and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Great book with a serious twist at the end.

This was really intriguing, and I was shocked by the ending. But there are some questions that still don't make sense. I hate it when there are loose ends.

Why didn't Kate, Tom, and Raiborne talk about the investigation before the trial? Raiborne had reason to believe Dante wasn't guilty.

Why didn't Manny Rodriguez recognize Tom right away?

How did Raiborne know that Sean was Loco?

Why didn't any of the people at the basketball court mention that Tom was a drug dealer. Ardis was a drug dealer, so wouldn't he know that Tom was a drug dealer?

I re-read it to see what I missed. Here are some parts of interest/irony:

In the intro: "Keep in mind that people often lie..."

When Tom questions Dante: "What are you saying, Dante? You saw Feifer, Walco, and Rochie get shot? Are you telling me you're a witness?" Fortunately for Dante, he says, "Didn't see it, no..."

When Dante said that he didn't know Michael had a gun, Tom thinks, "I wonder if Dante is telling the truth about that." Only someone with a guilty conscience would think everyone else lies as well.

Sean: "So, uncle," he asks between reps, "how's it make you feel to be the least popular person around Montauk?" I assumed this was because Tom helped Dante turn himself in, but now I think it's because Tom killed the 3 men.

Tom: "Don't feel bad, Sean. For us Dunleavys, squandered talent is a family tradition." What is left unsaid is that the other thing they have in common is that they are both drug dealers.

Tom: "A cigar. Maybe belonging to one of the killers.
The news that somebody else may have been at the murder scene who could confirm or add to Dante's story, who maybe saw the three kids killed. Both are significant leads that need to be tracked down." I thought this was because Tom was trying to find proof that Dante wasn't the murderer. Now I know this was Tom covering his tracks.

Loco: "If you ask me, nothing's ruined the city more than headphones and iPods and computers." It makes sense that Sean thought this, since he worked in a record store.

Kate: "I'm warning you, screw up again and you'll answer to Macklin." And he did.

Aslında 3 yıldız verecektim kitabı okurken kafamda notu belirlemiştim hatta sonu tatmin etseydi 4 yıldız bile verirdim ta ki sonunu okuyana kadar. Sevmedim yani cidden saçmaydı bir sürü karakterin gözünden ve katilin gözünden bölümler vardı. Ana karakterimiz bi avukat başarısız bir avukat. Basketbol oyuncusuymuş eskiden sakatlanınca bırakmış falan. Sonra cinayetler işlenip siyahi bir gencin üzerine yıkılınca hemen avukatı oluyor ve onu savunup katili arıyorlar. Son bölümlere kadar katilin kim olduğu belliydi aslında bölüm vardı adına ama katil bizim avukat çıktı. Ben hayatımda böyle saçma şey görmedim yani tamam katil olsun hatta hiç beklemediğim kişinin katil çıkmasına bayılırım ama adamın gözünden BÖLÜM vardı be. Ben kitaptaki bi karakter değilim ki beni kandırmaya çalışasın. İnsan kendi bölümünde hiç mi pas vermez. Saçmalık resmen. 300 sayfa sonunda kötü yüzünü gösteriyor. Hayır anlamıyorum katil olarak tahmin edildiği kişi uyuşturucu satıcısıymış falan da kimse bu adamın bizim avukat olduğunu farketmedi mi allah aşkına. İşte bu yüzden her polisiyeyi sevmiyorum. olmuyor yapamıyorlar.

James Patterson and Peter De Jonge return to Beach Road for this very very very good suspense thriller novel… an all-star Black college basketball player is seemingly framed for the murder of three white men in the Hamptons. His cause is taken on by two old friends, both former lovers, and as the investigation and case veer into race and class issues, the truth behind the murders seems to be drifting away under the hyperbole of the court case. With some terrific twists, this is actually one of, if not Patterson's best book! 8 out of 12. For once, James Patterson...

James Patterson book written by Peter de jonge.
Another decent read straight out of the James Patterson book factory, usual formula, fast paced, short chapters and in this case it works.
An ok read but lacks the excitement of the earlier books written by the author.
There are better books out there in this genre.

Did not see that coming! You would think Patterson was a baseball player rather than a writer with all the curve balls he throws! An amazing read; regardless of what others right. After all, this story teaches us the old saying "don't hate the player; hate the game."

When it comes to fast paced suspense novels with completely unbelievable plots, Patterson doesn't disappoint. The perfect book to read on a sunny afternoon in a couple of hours. What a page turner.

58th book read in 2018.

Number 703 out of 718 on my all time book list.

Patterson book are hit and miss; this one is the latter.