Product Description

As Peter Carlyle waves his wife, children and brother-in-law off on a sailing holiday, all they have in mind is lying back and relaxing. But as a violent storm breaks out, an explosion causes the boat to vanish without a trace and the family are lost, presumed dead. Until now. When a message in a bottle is washed up on a shore, it becomes apparent that there must have been at least one survivor. Peter is a broken man, he appears to struggle to contain his grief as he holds a heartfelt TV interview about his loss. But all is not as it seems, beneath the grief lies a more sinister side, Peter is involved with a beautiful - and dangerous - younger woman and it soon transpires that he knows more about his family's disappearance than he is letting on.He seeks to find whatever remains of his family, but is he really looking for a happy reunion? And could it be that it isn't just Peter who is hot on the Dunne family's trail? The race is on to rescue any survivors and discover what happened aboard the luxury yacht.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #36546 in Books
• Published on: 2008-06-05
• Released on: 2008-05-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 400 pages

From the Back Cover
As Peter Carlyle, a smooth-talking, super-successful lawyer, waved his family off on a sailing holiday, all they had in mind was lying back and relaxing. But as a violent storm broke out, an explosion caused the boat to vanish without a trace and the family were lost, presumed dead.

Until now. When a message in a bottle is washed up on a shore, it becomes apparent that there must have been at least one survivor.

But all is not as it seems. The race is on to rescue the Carlyles, but does everyone looking for the family really want to find them alive? Survival may be the least of their concerns. In fact, being found may be the last thing they should be hoping for.

Praise for James Patterson:

‘Pacy, sexy, high-octane stuff’ – Guardian

‘Unputdownable’ – The Times

About the Author
James Patterson is one of the best-known and biggest selling writers of all time. He is the author of some of the most popular series of the past decade: the Women's Murder Club, the Alex Cross novels and Maximum Ride, and he has written many other number one bestsellers including romance novels and stand alone thrillers. He has won an Edgar award, the mystery world's highest honour. He lives in Florida with his wife and son.

Customer Reviews

Man overboard!
`Sail' is the new stand-alone thriller from the fastest writer on the planet James Patterson, again teaming up with co-author Howard Roughan. The story begins when Katherine Dunne and her family are not getting along very well after the death of her husband and the children's father in a boating accident a few years ago. So, in an attempt to bring the family closer together again, Kath, her 3 children and her brother-in-law Jake take to the seas for 2 months of family time. Kath has also recently re-married to handsome, rich and charming New York lawyer Peter Carlysle who is staying behind to work on one of the biggest cases of his life and to also sit back while his family goes missing - something that he is behind in order to inherit Kath's $100 million fortune following their "mysterious" deaths. First a storm hits and then a bomb on the boat smashes the boat to pieces leaving the family stranded in the middle of the water, unable to be found because of the fake co-ordinates that Peter and his accomplice have deliberately set up to send the coastguard completely off-course.

I started this book on Sunday morning and had it finished by Sunday evening, so it's not short of exciting thrills and fast-paced storyline, but I just felt that the book was completely let down by Patterson's (or maybe Roughan's) terrible style of writing with this one. For a start it feels like it has been written aimed at 12 year olds as it is just so simply written and everything that was just explained was repeated in a way that I haven't came across since I used to read young adult novels back when I was in my early teens, so I can only imagine that he must have been still in Maximum Ride/Daniel X-mode when writing this one. Then it is just full of product placements and stupid and childish catchphrases that just became annoying after a few chapters.

The story itself is actually pretty good with a decent plot, likeable characters and some great and unexpected twists. The short chapters keep the pace flowing smoothly and quickly, so you'll fly through it in no time at all. It's not the best book Patterson has ever written by a long shot but it's definitely not the worst, but of all of the co-authors Patterson has written with I'd have to say that Roughan is the worst with this being the second in a row (as well as You've Been Warned) that has been nothing more than average.

Overall, if you can put up with being baby-fed the story this isn't a bad book that I think is actually a perfect holiday read that can be read with no real thought involved and can then be forgotten about. Just don't expect nothing near the quality of Patterson's Alex Cross or Women's Murder Club novels.

Trite and forgettable
I thought this would be a nice easy read which would pass the time while I find the book I'm supposed to be reading and which has hidden itself somewhere in the house. I've read James Patterson before and really like the Alex Cross books but this is a different ball game completely. The story is rushed, the characters are one-dimensional and boring and the language is early high school essay. If my 13 year old had written this, I would have suggested that she get back to work and flesh it out some more.

Why did I carry on....
I should have stopped reading after the first 10 minutes when I had already decided that this book was cliche ridden with no depth and had a predicable and at times ridiculous storyline. I carried on to the bitter end as it's been chosen by our reading group and now I feel really angry that I wasted time on this truly terrible book.

The only saving grace is that I borrowed it from the library so hopefully Mr Patterson will not have made too much money by insulting my intelligence getting this book published as a thriller.