James Patterson and Howard Roughan, Honeymoon

Honeymoon

James Patterson and Howard Roughan

Warner, Jan 2006, $13.95

ISBN: 0446696269

Interior designer to affluent men, thirtyish Nora Sinclair is a beautiful widow, having killed her first spouse to inherit his wealth. Currently, in Briacliff Manor, Westchester, Nora is engaged to successful hedge fund manager Connor while also being married to bestselling author Jeffrey in Boston. She plans to kill both of them for the money starting with poisoning Westchester and then Boston.

After poisoning Connor, Nora meets undercover FBI Agent John O'Hara, who pretends to be an insurance investigator but in fact believes she is a black widow who he needs to bring to justice though he admits that she is the total package of looks, brains, and charm. Quickly though he knows better and admonishes himself, John finds he cannot resist Nora's lure. She seduces him catching him in her web. John struggles to get past his obsession for Nora, as he needs to get on with the job, but she owns him.

Nora and John are extremely complex characters who play a kind of cat and mouse game, but who is the feline and who is the rodent keeps the audience wondering how John will survive this case. A final spin adds to a powerful storyline that when it centers on the black widow and her men, especially John, grips the reader as few books will. Though a running subplot involving money deposits to banks in the Cayman Islands requires a very late explanation to pull into and tie it back to the female serial killer prime plot, HONEYMOON is an enthralling thriller.

Harriet Klausner