The great James Patterson teams up once again with sports journalist and fellow bestselling author Mike Lupica to bring us the second installment in their series featuring fearless attorney Jane Smith.

The book’s title, HARD TO KILL, can be taken literally as Jane is dying of cancer. The opening novel, 12 MONTHS TO LIVE, is aptly named as that was the initial prognosis. However, a staunch round of chemo and visits to a cancer treatment center in Switzerland appear to have bought her some time. Jane is never as alive as when she has a juicy case to defend in court, and she is not letting on that the Grim Reaper may be waiting around the corner for her.

"HARD TO KILL features the master plotting you expect from a James Patterson thriller, and he and Mike Lupica continue to make a formidable writing duo."

In 12 MONTHS TO LIVE, Jane successfully defended the highly unlikable Rob Jacobson, who had been on trial for killing three members of a family. At the start of HARD TO KILL, Jane and her best friend/investigative partner, Jimmy Cunniff, are outside the courthouse in Mineola, Long Island. They are watching Jacobson and his new attorney, a little guy nicknamed Howie the Horse, march up the steps for their first meeting with the judge and the prosecution. Jacobson has been accused in yet another triple homicide, and of course he claims his innocence again.

Rob mouths “call me, please” to Jane, as he would love to have her represent him instead of Howie the Horse. In a book full of surprises, no one will be shocked when Jane does indeed take him on as a client. Readers will need a scorecard as so many names, past cases and red herrings are tossed around, making it impossible to predict where Patterson and Lupica are taking us.

Things will get far more dangerous and difficult before they get any easier for Jane and Jimmy, who are in deadly peril both separately and together more than once. All we can do is hang on and go along for this wild ride, where we hope they will get answers to all of their questions.

Jane Smith and her colleagues are such great characters that I can only cross my fingers that her battle against cancer lasts long enough for us to spend more time with her. HARD TO KILL features the master plotting you expect from a James Patterson thriller, and he and Mike Lupica continue to make a formidable writing duo.