James Patterson and Peter de Jonge, Beach Road

Beach Road

James Patterson and Peter de Jonge

Little, Brown, May 2006, $27.95

ISBN: 0316159786

East Hampton lawyer Tom Dunleavy runs a one person shop with few clients, and those are always the working class serving the rich and famous that makes this Long Island playground renowned. Still, the former St. John's basketball star ekes out an existence, mostly working petty crime and real estate closings.

He is the last person future NBA star Dante Halleyville should hire as his lawyer since Tom has no experience in murder trials. However, Dante knows Tom and trusts him to do right by him, as he insists he never killed the three victims. Tom is in over his head, so in spite of the fact that this case could make his career as the latest trial lawyer of the century, he needs help. Tom enlists his former lover, Manhattan based attorney Kate Costello to join the team. She does, but neither anticipated the reactions of the rich and famous, as they violently react to the defense team's investigation into whom could have framed the teen basketball star so perfectly and why.

As always when James Patterson is involved (this time with Peter de Jonge), the action is no-stop, and the suspense gripping from start to finish. The storyline is fast-paced with a light shining on the activity of the Hamptons' billionaire club. Tom is terrific, and he is a delightful protagonist, while the woman he still loves Kate is sort of like a sabra, tough on the outside, but sweet and caring inside. Though their antics seem over the edge for attorneys as they play cat and mouse with an unknown assailant, fans will not care, as the trek on BEACH ROAD is fun, entertaining and more of an investigative tale than a legal thriller.