In James Patterson’s book The Quickie, written with Michael Ledwidge, we meet Lauren Stilwell, whose marriage is quietly disintegrating. Her husband works long hours, travels, and seems permanently welded to his cell phone. Her demanding job only widens the gulf developing between them.
After Lauren spots her husband entering a hotel on his lunch hour with an attractive woman, which he later lies about, she becomes miserable enough to have a one-night fling with a charming coworker, with disastrous results.
The murder of a police officer sets off a desperate race between those investigating the crime and those scrambling to cover it up, and Lauren is caught in a frantic web of lies and intrigue. Shock piles upon shock as she discovers neither of the men in her life was what he appeared to be.
This book is an excellent thrill ride from start to finish. An amazing assortment of twists and turns will keep you breathlessly turning pages into the wee hours. Patterson, who is well-known for his series of books featuring Alex Cross, a tough D.C. homicide detective, handles his female protagonist’s point of view very realistically, and the collaboration with Ledwidge is quite seamless; there’s never a jumbled-together feeling, as with some partner-written stories. I was happy to find that there is another recent collaborative book by the two, Step on a Crack, which I am looking forward to reading, and the two authors have yet another work, The Dangerous Days of Daniel X, which is scheduled to be released this coming July. Could be a good ‘beach read’!
With its intriguing characters and roller-coaster pacing, The Quickie is begging to be quickly optioned by Hollywood, but don’t wait for the movie; the book is now playing at a library or bookstore near you!
