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158 of 166 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Lacking any Real Substance or Charm, June 9, 2008
Katherine Dunne and her three children are taking a long over-due family vacation. It's been four years since her ex-husband died, and Katherine is afraid she is losing her kids. Desperate for help, she goes to her former brother-in-law, Jake Dunne. He agrees to take the family out for a summer trip on board the family yacht. Jake loves his brother's kids and wants to do whatever he can to reach out to them. He also still has strong feelings for Katherine, whom he has loved for years. The Dunne's hit the high seas and immediately things begin to go wrong. Mark is caught smoking pot. Carrie hurls herself into the ocean in an attempt to end her life. All the while, young Ernie looks on as his family is starting to self destruct before his eyes. Unfortunately for the Dunne's, the trouble is just beginning. Someone wants them all dead and will do anything to make sure their vacation becomes permanent. James Patterson fans will no doubt eat up his latest summer thrill offering. Sail is a suspense filled story, and one that will have most readers flying through the pages. This is a not a typical Patterson whodunit story keeping readers guessing until the end. The antagonist is revealed early on and the motive is never in doubt. All the tension and suspense are found in the Dunne's fight for survival and the antagonist's race to cover his tracks. Sail held my attention, but there is nothing new or overly exciting here. This is just one more addition to James Patterson's long line of summer chillers. It's fast paced and fun, lacking any real substance or charm. The one twist we do get at the end is forced and unnecessary. Luckily for him, Patterson has reached that lofty level for bestselling novelists where it really doesn't matter what reviewers say. He will always sell a jillion copies of whatever he writes. This will certainly be no exception.
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58 of 61 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A good thriller from Patterson, better than I expected, June 25, 2008
SAIL is the latest thriller to be churned out from the James Patterson book factory. I didn't have high hopes for this one. It seemed like Patterson decided to write a novel about one of his hobbies. I didn't look forward to 300 pages of a family facing troubles on the high seas. However, as the book played out, I found myself drawn into the standard Patterson plot twists and characters and winded up enjoying this novel quite a bit. Cahterine Dunne 45 year old heart surgeon with three kids. Her cheating first husband died while sailing, and she's determined to go on an extended sailing trip to reunite with her kids, each of whom has their own problems. The novel is standard Patterson, which isn't a criticism. You get standard characterization: one kid smokes pot, one is bulemic, ex-CIA bad guys, determined DEA agent, daibolical, philandering new husband. Catherine believes a two-month sailing trip will be just the thing to reunite her family. She's lost her kids since the death of their father. Almost immediately, the boat starts having problems. Thankfully, her brother-in-law Jake is there to help them. Peter Carlyle, Catherine's new husband is a rich defense attorney. He urged Catherine to take this trip and was very supportive. But, as soon as she leaves, we find out he isn't all he claims to be. That's enoug of the plot. This is a good book. It actually throws a lot at you other than sailing, but covers it in Patterson's usual cursury manner. This book isn't as good as THE QUICKIE, but is much better than STEP ON A CRACK, HONEYMOON, or JUDGE AND JURY. You will find absolutely nothing new in this book. Patterson is what he is. This book just happens to be better than his others. Patterson will never recapture the magic of his early Cross books, but that doesn't mean he still can't write good thrillers.
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27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Just a bit overblown, July 21, 2008
I did enjoy this book a little but not, I suspect, for the reasons intended by the authors and publisher. In fact, I laughed aloud at several of the wrong places. Let me explain. A woman heart surgeon sets out on a sailboat with her three children and her deceased husband's brother. Her fancy dancy crimanal defense attorney husband is left in New York. Things start to go wrong right away on this junket. The teenage boy lights up a joint in the head. The daughter tries to commit suicide. A huge storm almost swamps them. Then there's an explosion, putting them all in the drink, whereupon a shark smells lunch, before they make it to a deserted island and a giant snake attacks. I could see it all coming, like dominoes falling. I could see the writers listing all the hazards that could possibly affect this curious crew. It became downright funny. Then toss in the fact that someone is trying to kill them--the doctor's second husband, the hotshot villainous lawyer, assisted by an ex-CIA operative. The lawyer is a piece of work, strictly one-dimensional nasty and completely unbelievable. Even his bosomy girlfriend is silly, thrown in just to have a sex scene. In fact, there isn't a character in this book that feels right, to say nothing of the events that are phony. And I haven't touched upon the errors of fact and logic, but to take those on would be to give away the plot for those who enjoy this sort of thing. One example: the sailboat, which apparently has an inboard engine, sets out from New England and a couple of days later is in sub-tropical waters, in the vicinity of the Bahamas. Some sailboat. Then there is the writing itself. The authors obviously don't trust their own words very much or their own readers. They use lots of exclamation points, the certain spoor of the bad writer. Then they compound this with italicized sentences and bold sentences on every page. Joseph Conrad and Ernest Hemingway they are not. It reminded me of the movie "Betelgeuse," with all the lights and arrows to show where he was. The movie was intenced to be funny. "Sail" isn't. Mr. Patterson and his various co-authors just keep turning these out, using the same basic pattern for every book. They would do well to slow down and try something worthwhile. But that would perhaps cut into the income. Silly me.
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