Find Out What Happens When An Affair Goes Wrong In The Quickie by James Patterson (Book Review)

Book Summary:

When Lauren Stillwell discovers her husband is cheating on her, she decides to beat him at his own game. After a quickie with a co-worker, Lauren hears a struggle outside her window and looks out just in time to see her husband loading her lover's body into the trunk of a car. When the body shows up in a pool of shallow water, she races to the scene of the crime. Lauren Stillwell is an NYC cop—and she's just been assigned to this case. Unable to tell anyone what she saw and unwilling to turn her husband in, Lauren is paralyzed by a secret that will tear her life apart.

Review:

With a coy title and the tagline "Murder never felt so good" I was promised a shower with no vents. Steamy. Though it didn't live up to its name, the Quickie by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge is still an exciting summer read about a one-night stand gone wrong.

With digestible two to three page chapters and no flowery language, the Quickie is an easy read that feels similar to a haunted house. Full of unexpected surprises. A new secret is revealed in every chapter, drawing readers deeper into the twisted lives of these seemingly innocent characters.

Though this book lacked description, the Quickie is immersive. Every time I opened the book I was sucked into a world of cheating, lies, and deceit. Patterson considers himself above all, an entertainer, and I was thoroughly entertained. Everything was fast paced and easily moved from one event to another. Considering this is an easy summer page-turner, the minimal writing style worked in its favor.

One of the qualms with this book is the lack of the emotional depth. The first thing they teach you in writing class is to show, not tell, yet I found myself reading the main character’s conflict. It never made me think, “What if I was in this situation? What would I do?”

The characters were like the descriptions in the book, basic but still enough to create an (albeit fuzzy) picture. The main character Lauren had the potential to be an awesome no-nonsense gal. You could see peaks of her personality shine through. She had supposedly sassy one-liners and showed on the spur thinking and genius when covering up evidence. By the end, with everything she had gone through, the reader couldn't help but root for her.

One of the clever things about this book was actually how readers got to know the characters. It wasn't a four-paragraph describing their whole lives, bits and pieces were dropped in here and there for you to think you know them, only to be surprised by them.

Patterson is known for his thrillers and he proves it again in the Quickie. Even though I read while laying down, I found myself gradually sitting up with every flip of the page. By the last page, I understood how Patterson's books came to account for one out of every 17 hardcover novels sold. One thing's for sure, the Quickie will make you rethink having an affair!

Tell me which James Patterson novel is your favorite in the comments below!