Sail

by: James Patterson and Howard Roughan

Published by: Little, Brown and Company (August 1 release)

Review by Susan Palmer

Katherine Dunne has decided her family of three needs a little vacation. Katherine decides that Carrie, Mark, and Ernie need a little family time together to pull themselves out of the slump they are in. Katherine enlists the help of her brother-in-law Jake to sail her husband’s boat. Katherine’s husband Stuart died four years ago in a scuba diving accident. It’s been four years since the family has dealt with the grief of losing a husband, father, and brother. To all it seems this is a little summer vacation that anyone would want, including Katherine’s new husband Peter.

As the trip starts Carrie decides to commit suicide by jumping off the boat. It takes Jake and Katherine to pull her back aboard. Mark hasn’t even left shore good before he’s lighting a doobie, which his mother catches him doing. Exasperated she demands all of the marijuana he has and dumps it overboard. Ten-year-old Ernie never gives either Katherine nor Jake any trouble. All is set for Sail until a terrible accident occurs.

James Patterson and Howard Roughan set a tale on a tiny sailboat that suddenly has more disasters than can be counted. As the mystery rolls across the ocean, the reader is anxious for more information about how the Dunne family really exists—and what makes husband Peter Carlyle tick. Suddenly the reader is speeding along in a speedboat rather than taking a sail on a sailboat when getting to the end of the story.

Armchair Interviews says: Sail is another great read by James Patterson and Howard Roughan.

Author’s Web site: http://www.JamesPatterson.com