Honeymoon
by James Patterson is just another one of his mystery/thriller stories that
became an instant best seller just because it has his name on the cover. The
name on the cover is the reason it was “2005 international thriller of the
year” because, quite frankly, there had
to be a better thriller made in 2005 than Honeymoon
by James Patterson.
With all of the books James Patterson has written (he has
written 95!) there has to be a few duds, and this is one of them. The basic
premise is Nora, a beautiful interior designer with charisma and spunk, leads a
secret life of many husbands/fiancés/boyfriends and somehow they all end up dead. The other half of the story is John
O’Hara, and undercover FBI agent, trying to get the full picture when it comes
to Nora and the deaths surrounding her. The beginning of the book gives the
reader a feeling of hey maybe this book will finally be a book that doesn’t let
me down in the end, spoiler alert, it does. With the confusing switch of plot
lines and short introduction to all of the characters, it’s hard to figure out
the true personality of each character. Take O’Hara for example, he is supposed
to be a strong, determined undercover agent for the FBI, and he is portrayed as
that until almost the end of the story. “If Nora had thoughts of storming in,
I’d be ready for her. I gripped the gun in both hands and waited. Where are you Nora-love of my life?” How
could that happen? How could an FBI agent fall in love with a suspected serial
killer? I felt duped and disappointed when I found out he is weak and so easily
manipulated. How could he ever be an FBI agent? How could he have even gotten
the job? That I’m not sure of. 
Then there is Nora. I don’t really get her or connect with
her in any way. Her mindset is so far away from reality it’s hard to
understand. Her mom is in a mental hospital, but really I think Nora should be
there too. The way she poisons the ones she “loves” and then stands and watches
them die a horribly painful death is disturbing on so many levels. As we watch
her kill her first victim in the book- “All she could do was wait for the
shaking and convulsing to stop again, which is finally did. Permanently.” It’s
scary how she has normal friends and is a very rich, well known designer, yet
nobody even suspects her being a murderer, except the FBI of course. Yet what’s
so confusing is the fact the Nora feels as if she has to kill the ones who get close to her. The killings aren’t
random at all; they are planned out over months and even years. That’s the
thing about this book that is really hard to understand, Nora’s past is briefly
described. How bad of a childhood did you have to have in order to become like
this? That’s one question that doesn’t get answered fully in this book, and
would make the story so much better if it was.
The ending was exciting yet so unexpected you know it has to
be fiction. That’s one of the main problems with this book. It screams fiction
in so many ways that it’s hard to comprehend or really understand how this
would even happen. If Patterson left the part out of Connor’s sister (Connor
was Nora’s fiancé and her first victim) killing Nora, the story might have been
more believable because with all the drama in what you thought was the ending,
reading this part just throws it way out of proportion. Connor’s sister is
perfectly normal, and lives over 3,000 miles away. Yet somehow she ends up
flying across the country, and then gets ahold of the poison Nora uses on her
victims, sneaks into Nora’s house and poisons her successfully? And then she’s
not even held responsible for Nora’s death? It just doesn’t make much sense.
This book would be a 6 out of 10 just because the beginning
of the ending was really suspenseful; it was definitely the highlight of the
book. The rest of the book is very average and at times confusing. If the plot
was more believable and put together in a more understanding way it might be
worth reading.
