jamespatterson – T.A. Henry

I can’t remember what I was looking for in the non-fiction section, but this caught my eye. James Patterson, writing NON fiction? And only his name is on the cover? Murder Beyond the Grave came home with me.

Basic Summary (Courtesy of Amazon):

A wealthy kidnapped man fights for his life and a real estate deal turns deadly in these two true crime thrillers that inspired Discovery’s Murder is Forever TV series.

Murder Beyond the Grave (with Andrew Bourelle): Stephen Small has it all: a Ferrari, fancy house, loving wife, and three boys. But the only thing he needs right now is enough air to breathe. Kidnapped, buried in a box, and held for ransom, Stephen has forty-eight hours of oxygen. The clock is ticking . . .

Murder in Paradise (with Christopher Charles): High in the Sierra Nevada mountains, developers Jim and Bonnie Hood excitedly tour Camp Nelson Lodge. They intend to buy and modernize this beautiful rustic property, but the locals don’t like rich outsiders changing their way of life. After a grisly shooting, everybody will discover just how you can make a killing in real estate . . .

My thoughts:

Ah, of course, this is all to promote his TV show. sigh.

I brought the book on my 4 hour flight to Texas, thinking with a little nap, this should get me through.

Not even close. It’s a quick read, very quick read. Told in standard Patterson style of bold strokes, third person Omniscient. Not enough detail for me.

I ran through the book in 2 hours. Twiddling my thumbs for the remainder of the flight and mentally comparing this fluff piece to an Innocent Man by John Grisham, which I just watched. Patterson comes up short. Again. When will I learn?

I LOVE teaching teenagers. I do. They are at this amazing time in life where they have begun to develop opinions about almost every subject under the sun. But they haven’t quite refined their thought process yet. So it’s often the funniest things that pop out of their mouths.

A couple of Friday’s ago, this one kid pops off with he hates rich people.

I say why?

“Because they have soooo much money.”

“And you want that money?”

“Who doesn’t?”

I manage to say, without laughing, “It is almost impossible to become that which you hate. Maybe you should try learning from them. How did they make their money? Where did they get? How can you do that?”

Drop the microphone, baby. Stunned teenagers.

But my subconscious didn’t want to drop the microphone. It started niggling me in the back of my mind.

“Hi There. Come here often? Anyone you might be hating on you could learn from?”

Aw man.

I started thinking about James Patterson in the shower the next day. (Don’t go there, when you have kid/s the shower is often your only refuge.) I refuse to read his books anymore. They aren’t his. He doesn’t write anything anymore. He suggests, someone else writes, he looks it over. I’ve been angry about that for quite some time. I liked his early books, the ones he wrote, rather a lot back in the day. But one could say, I kinda hate him.

The other side of that, he’s a household name. He’s got so much traction in readers, he can not even write his own books and they still SELL.

What can I learn from him?

He published his first book in 1976 (I was born that year, FYI). It took him ten years to publish his first five books. He releases a couple of more and then he starts a series. Popular series that lands him a couple of movie deals. He puts out a book a year in that series, while dabbling in a few other interests. Then hits on a second series. Shortly after that he starts getting co-authors and his books per year expand exponentially.

What can I learn from that?

— It takes time. He’s been building since I was born (clock check – 42 years). I’ve been building for 3 years.

—- A series always helps.

— Don’t bite off so much I feel the need to get co-authors to keep up with publication. LOL Wouldn’t that be a nice decision to have to make?

Tag: jamespatterson

Book Review: Murder Beyond the Grave

Fiendish Friday: “I hate rich people”