Promotional Information

The honeymoon is over - now the murders can begin

About the Author

James Patterson has written numerous international number one bestsellers, the most recent being 3RD DEGREE (with Andrew Gross). He lives in Florida. KISS THE GIRLS was made into a number one hit movie, and the film version of ALONG CAME A SPIDER is currently out on video. Howard Roughan is the author of THE UP AND COMER and THE PROMISE OF A LIE. He lives in Connecticut with his wife and son.

Reviews

To be published on Valentine's Day, this solid and enjoyable but not exceptional thriller about a Black Widow killer has been selected by Bookspan as the "2005 International Thriller of the Year." That's obviously jumping the gun, and probably has more to do with the unusual sales gambit by which Bookspan was allowed to sell the book prior to bookstore distribution than with the novel's quality. Still, megaseller Patterson, here writing for the first time with Roughan (The Up and Comer), again shows his usual flair for brisk narrative, strong suspense and genuine twists in tracing the story of how FBI agent John O'Hara tracks down serial killer Nora Sinclair. As the novel opens, beautiful Nora, an interior designer for the very rich, and already wealthy after having killed her first husband for his inheritance, is juggling an engagement to a hedge-fund manager in tony Briarcliff Manor in upstate New York and a marriage to a bestselling author in Boston. She intends to kill both, but chooses the hedge-fund manager first; after she poisons him, enter O'Hara, posing as a sympathetic insurance investigator but secretly working to nab Nora. In time, Nora seduces O'Hara, so his attempt to catch her is compromised by lust; there's also a major subplot involving a suitcase containing documents pointing to more than a billion dollars transferred to Cayman Islands banks, a subplot fully tied into the main plot only near book's end. O'Hara and particularly Nora stand as two of Patterson's most complex characters yet, but the narrative, while nearly impossible to stop reading, doesn't have the emotional pull of the author's Alex Cross novels or some of his Women's Murder Club titles. This is one canny thriller, though, and Patterson's millions of fans will be most pleased. Expect sky-high sales. Agent, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh. Major ad/promo. (Feb. 14) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

'Honeymoon is all pacy, sexy, high-octane stuff, refreshingly free of the cruelty that often dominates his plots' Guardian, 19 February 2005 -- Guardian 20050219 'HONEYMOON!has all the familiar traits: satisfyingly tortuous plotting, and a narrative trajectory that never pauses for breath. Agent O'Hara is drawn with economical skill, as is his sexual obsession with the bewitching Nora Sinclair. This story has elements of Hitchcock's Vertigo, and its page-turning quality is in a class of its own' Independent, 12/2/05 -- Independent 20050212 'This author knows precisely how to manipulate his readers' Independent, 12/2/05 -- Independent 20050212 'O'Hara and particularly Nora stand as two of Patterson's most complex characters yet! This is one canny thriller and Patterson's millions of fans will be most pleased' Publishers Weekly, 31/1/05 -- Publishers Weekly 20050131 'This story has elements of Hitchcock's Vertigo, and its page-turning quality is in a class of its own' -- Independent 20050212 'O'Hara and particularly Nora stand as two of Patterson's most complex characters yet' -- Publishers Weekly 20050131