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Summary
Summary
"Maggie Bradford is on trial for murder, and this is the celebrity trial of the decade. Maggie is one of the most beloved singer/songwriters anywhere. She's also the devoted mother of two children. She seems to have it all." "And so, the whole world wants to know, how could she have murdered not just one, but two of her husbands?"--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Author Notes
James Patterson was born in Newburgh, New York, on March 22, 1947. He graduated from Manhattan College in 1969 and received a M. A. from Vanderbilt University in 1970. His first novel, The Thomas Berryman Number, was written while he was working in a mental institution and was rejected by 26 publishers before being published and winning the Edgar Award for Best First Mystery.
He is best known as the creator of Alex Cross, the police psychologist hero of such novels as Along Came a Spider and Kiss the Girls. Cross has been portrayed on the silver screen by Morgan Freeman. He has had eleven on his books made into movies and ranks as number 3 on the Hollywood Reporter's '25 Most Powerful Authors' 2016 list. He also writes the Women's Murder Club series, the Michael Bennett series, the Maximum Ride series, Daniel X series, the Witch and Wizard series, BookShots series, Private series, NYPD Red series, and the Middle School series for children. He has won numerous awards including the BCA Mystery Guild's Thriller of the Year, the International Thriller of the Year award, and the Reader's Digest Reader's Choice Award.
James Patterson introduced the Bookshots Series in 2016 which is advertised as All Thriller No Filler. The first book in the series, Cross Kill, made the New York Times Bestseller list in June 2016. The third and fourth books, The Trial, and Little Black Dress, made the New York Times Bestseller list in July 2016. The next books in the series include, $10,000,000 Marriage Proposal, French Kiss, Hidden: A Mitchum Story (co-authored with James O. Born). and The House Husband (co-authored Duane Swierczynski).
Patterson's novel, co-authored with Maxine Paetro, Woman of God, became a New York Times bestseller in 2016.
Patterson co-authored with John Connoly and Tim Malloy the true crime expose Filthy Rich about billionaire convicted sex offender Jeffrey Eppstein.
In January 2017, he co-authored with Ashwin Sanghi the bestseller Private Delhi. And in August 2017, he co-authored with Richard Dilallo, The Store.
The Black Book is a stand-alone thriller, co-authored by James Patterson and David Ellis.
In April 2018, he co-authored Texas Ranger with Andrew Bourelle.
In May 2018, he co-authored Private Princess with Rees Jones.
In August 2018 he co-authored Fifty Fifty with Candice Fox.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
If Thomas Harris's psycho-thrillers are the crème de la crème of the genre, then Patterson's (Kiss the Girls; Along Came a Spider) are the skimmed milkfluid, but low in substance. In his new novel, the author again lays down a narrative line so grippingan effect achieved partly through a plethora of one-sentence paragraphs, à la Sidney Sheldonthat the reader may not notice, or care, that characterization and originality have fallen by the wayside. Patterson tells his story through two points of view: there's the the first-person voice of Maggie Bradford, who kills her abusive husband in the novel's flashback prologue and has now become a world-famous singer-songwriter (``I love your music, Maggie,'' Barbra Streisand tells her); and there's a third-person narration that is often filtered through the eyes of Will Shepherd, the celebrated soccer star who romances Maggie after her interim lover, an older tycoon, dies of a heart attack. The devastatingly handsome Will likes to hurt women (``there was a distinctly good part in him, but also a bad part''), however, and sometimes even to kill them. Will seems to want Maggie to save him from himself. Using his beauty and charm on her and her children, he wins her hand in marriage. That union sets up a major-league déjà vu, two murder trials that aren't quite riveting and a final Big Twist that will only surprise those fresh to the thriller genre. Still, Will's descent into cartoonishness, and various loose threads, will probably not bother readers swept along by this lightweight pop fiction. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Another chill-free thriller from Patterson (Kiss the Girls, 1995, etc.), this one pitting a chanteuse with a past against one of recent history's more improbable psychopaths. Maggie Bradford (a blond beauty who narrates perhaps half the tale) heads to Manhattan with daughter Jennie in search of a fresh start after offing her husband, a physically abusive Army officer assigned to West Point. With help from mentor Barry Kahn, whiny Maggie soon makes an international name for herself as a singer- songwriter. Still, despite superstardom as a pop-music diva, she's vaguely discontented. Wealthy Patrick O'Malley, a Westchester widower whose home is just down the road from Maggie's country digs, briefly brings her to life and sires a baby brother for Jen before succumbing to a heart attack. O'Malley's untimely death leaves earth-mother Maggie vulnerable to the demented attentions of Will Shepherd, an American-born, English-reared soccer star who obsesses on her compositions and engages in any number of antisocial acts to forget his perdurable sorrow at mum's of him desertion when he was a child. While handsome Will (a.k.a. Blond Arrow) eventually beds and weds neurotic Maggie, the marriage quickly turns sour. Returning to the violent, cocaine-snorting ways that gave brother Palmer the means to blackmail him, the aggrieved footballer turned film actor vows vengeance. In a late-night confrontation, however, Will's apparently slain by Maggie, who's put on trial for his murder by a politically ambitious DA. Neither the implausible resolution of this sensational homicide nor Maggie's fate will come as much of a surprise, let alone shock, to readers masochistic enough to stay the course. Fit only for those who find Sidney Sheldon too sophisticated. (First printing of 250,000; Literary Guild main selection; $200,000 ad/promo)
Booklist Review
Patterson takes his titles from nursery rhymes and child's play: Along Came a Spider (1992), Kiss the Girls (1994), and here the somewhat menacing game of hide-and-seek, a perfect tip-off to the mix of sweetness and evil in this quick read about a celebrity murder trial. Now there's an original idea. At any rate, Patterson's protagonist is a tall, blonde songwriter named Maggie who had a rotten childhood, then made a rotten marriage. When hubby attacks Maggie and their three-year-old daughter, Maggie shoots to kill, does, and then, mercifully, isn't charged with murder. Life goes on, and Maggie channels her grief into her music, moves to New York, and BAM! she's a star. The money pours in, she plays to adulating crowds, her music fills the airwaves. She falls in love with a wonderful man. Then he dies. Two down. Meanwhile, a very nasty boy named Will--whose mother abandoned him and his brother, whose father committed suicide, and whose aunt seduced him at a dangerously young age--is becoming a lethally nasty man. Will, a soccer star, is also famous and just happens to love Maggie's songs. When they marry, the media goes wild; when Will is shot dead, they're positively frenzied. Is the lovely songstress a killer, a black widow? Oy. This ranks right up there with chewing gum, but, hey, sometimes that's all you want, or can handle. (Reviewed November 1, 1995)0316693863Donna Seaman
Library Journal Review
Beautiful Maggie Bradford seems to have it all: a successful career as a singer/songwriter, fame, money, and two precious children. However, she killed her first husband in self-defense and now she's in jail awaiting trial for the murder of her second husband, Will Shepherd, a charming, psychotic professional soccer player. At first, Maggie's marriage seems fine, but soon Will begins to act irrationally. The increasing tension comes to a head when Maggie comes to believe that Will has been sexually abusing her daughter; the resulting confrontation ends in Will's death and Maggie's arrest. Climaxing in Maggie's celebrity trial, this page-turner delivers a solid punch, complete with a surprise ending. Patterson (Kiss the Girls, Little, Brown, 1995) offers a vivid, emotionally revealing tale. Recommended for public libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9/15/95.]Stacie Browne Chandler, Whitman P.L., Mass. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.