The multi-million dollar beachfront property at 7 Ocean Drive, Bridgehampton, is everything you might dream of in a beach cottage – it has location, location, location and magnificent rooms and a private beach.
But the locals call it the Murder House and it is no secret that it has been the debauched playground of six generations of psychopaths named Holden for whom torture and murder have been seemingly genetic.
When a high-profile couple is found dead in the house, local handyman Noah Walker is rousted from the bed he is sharing with the town bigshot’s wife and arrested for the murder by local sheriff Langdon James.
James has been threatened by the bigwig that failure to obtain Walker’s conviction could lead to the end of his career but Walker is released on bail and the day before James is due to testify, that Walker has confessed, James is also killed.
James’s niece, Jenna Murphy, is a former New York Police Department homicide detective who left under a cloud and is offered a job on the local police force by her uncle.
Convinced that Walker is not only guilty of the murders for which he was charged but also of killing her uncle, Jenna is convinced by the prosecutor to lie at Walker’s trial and Walker is sent to prison.
But as the bodies continue to pile up, Jenna recants her testimony and Walker is freed to try to clear his name.
Meanwhile Jenna, who was a frequent visitor Bridgehampton as a child, starts to discover why it is that the visits were suddenly stopped by her parents.
If you are an astute reader, well versed in the vagaries of mystery writers, you may gradually start to suspect whodunnit.
But the little sting at the end will still come as a shock.
In truth, this is not the best offering we have had from Messrs Patterson and Ellis.
At times the narrative is a bit pedestrian.
But Patterson, even on an off day, can generally beat most authors for holding the reader’s attention – and he does.
