This book will not disappoint the James Patterson fans.  From the first page to the last you are riveted to the fast moving thriller.  Woven together in a way only real life can, Second Honeymoon brings readers into the story at the murder of two lovers on a honeymoon they have waited and saved for.  They are professionals with their priorities in place, until.  The story moves at lightning speed with John O’Hara (suspended FBI Agent) on the trail to solve the crime, as a privately hired expert.  John’s back story reads like an early Alex Cross book.  Reading about this crime is only the beginning, and I would do an injustice to reveal it; the story line moves quickly to complete this case (or is that true ).  Book 2 (same physical book, however, broken into stories) has us meeting a new heroine Sara; she is FBI and a profiler.  Sara leads us through another fast paced crime adding even more intrigue to the story line; taking Sara through real life trials and moving about in a male dominated world of firearms, crime and judging.

Now our story line moves on through story without so much as a missed beat, letting us get know Sara and all of her human qualities.  Sara moves us on in the elaborate flow of a story twisted in background and thrilling consequences.  Sara is moving in on a serial killer who may just be hunting the hero of our first story.  Our story will take us across the continent and back.  While working through the weave and learning about the background of our protagonist; who is also dealing with demons of her own.  James Patterson weaves these into the stories which are now, in our mind, Sara’s story.  Just as captured in the Alex Cross Book’s we learn to appreciate Sara as our friend with very human qualities.   

When Sara’s objective is shown to be moving for our first book O’Hara, things start to speed up yet again.  Will she continue in a profession which drains her of the pleasures of love and the expectation of living her life in relative safety?  After all, Sara is a person who demands control and the ability to foretell the future of the plot.   Patterson is one of the few authors taking two story lines and turning them into one which imitates our lives and cultures.  There are parts of everyone’s life named and brought to the forefront of our consciousness.  Naming different cities and following the hyper-travel of business life prior to 2001, this book brings us the rhythm of life in a twenty first century United States.  We follow law enforcement from the local small town to the height of our countries leading protection agency.  The story gives us back faith in our most prestigious law enforcement bodies, wiping away the memories of Argentina and the failure of decorum and valor. 

This story also calls to questions our health care issues and how we have for so long turned our backs on the mentally ill and justice long sought but not quite achieved.  Could it be that Patterson has some foretelling of his own?  Is this a story of what could be or what is? 

Sara and John are our new most rooted for protagonists.  They have the charisma and strength of any Patterson characters, and yet there is something more.  As we move from one crime scene to another we build respect and caring for these two.  The twists and turns are many, and of course the outcome is a scene only Patterson could envision; turning many crimes into the culmination of a story well told, easy to read and with enough twists and turns to keep us guessing who the bad guy is.

When you sit down to read this book do so with the aforementioned knowledge of reading this book in at the very most two seating.  This is the kind of story that reaches out from the pages and grabs hold and will not turn loose until the last dot is in place.  James Patterson has done it again.  I leave you to read the book to get the ending; it would be an injustice to tell on a wordsmith like Patterson.

I would of course recommend this book to James Patterson readers as they will enjoy the comfort and fast pace of this book.  Any readers looking for action, romance, truth and honesty tied up with a puzzle to solve will enjoy the intrigue and romance.  There are twists and turns which allow the reader to begin the ‘I got it” sentence only to have a new twist on the next page.  Mystery readers I know will appreciate this.  Patterson’s writing style of fast pace and ending a chapter in the middle of a thought only to complete that thought at the beginning of the next chapter, keeps readers going.  This is an excellent book.  The only question remaining is will Sara and John continue on in more books to come.

The key to this book and the two stories is how they are woven together just as if they came out of the newspaper. Patterson readers will of course be enchanted by the master at work; new people on the Patterson scene will be mesmerized by how well the words take them down a highway speeding to yet another conclusion.  The story shares equal parts good and evil to make a plot that is riveting and yet easily read.  This is a book for mystery lovers, romance seekers and thrill seekers wanting to see the bad guy lose.