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The Coast-to-Coast Murders

Review

The Coast-to-Coast Murders

Over the past few weeks, I have encountered a lot of advertising hype about THE COAST-TO-COAST MURDERS. James Patterson is a household name among fans of genre fiction, while J. D. Barker is well known for his imaginative novels --- always with a twist or five --- concerning murderers, serial and otherwise, including the recently published and wonderfully titled SHE HAS A BROKEN THING WHERE HER HEART SHOULD BE. One might expect that the combined talents of these gentlemen would produce a work more than equal to the advance praise that precedes it. One would be correct.

THE COAST-TO-COAST MURDERS is a riveting, wild ride from one end of the country to the other. Michael Kepler, an ordinary if somewhat unlikely long-distance truck driver, has returned to his residence in Los Angeles following a delivery and hopes to get some well-deserved sleep. But before he can do that, he discovers the body of a woman submerged in his bathtub. Michael calls the police and soon finds his life plunged into turmoil. He has no recollection of meeting or even seeing the victim before, yet it appears that they have had an ongoing relationship. There are pictures of them all over her apartment, there’s an intimate video of them together, and each has clothes at the other’s residence.

"Patterson and Barker provide all manner and sorts of red herrings, plot twists and corkscrews to the story while throwing an occasional hand grenade into the tent just to ensure that the reader is paying attention..."

None of it makes sense to Michael. Neither does the appearance of an FBI agent, Jessica Gimble, who has been investigating a series of murders around the country that she is able to link to Michael. It seems to be a slam dunk. The locations documented by the tracking device on his truck match the dates and times of various murders committed there. Michael’s background is another complex factor, considering that his mother, a drug addict, died under mysterious circumstances, which resulted in his adoption by a husband-and-wife psychology team. Michael protests his innocence almost to no avail.

Gimble, as driven an FBI agent as one is likely to encounter, slowly comes to doubt her own case. There are a number of unseen agencies at work that seem to be set on either freeing Michael or killing him. None of them, though, are interested in the truth, which becomes all too apparent by the time the novel reaches its ultimate conclusion.

THE COAST-TO-COAST MURDERS bounces across a number of perspectives --- all of them well labeled and clearly delineated --- as Michael’s backstory is slowly revealed in order to shine a light on what is occurring in the present. Patterson and Barker provide all manner and sorts of red herrings, plot twists and corkscrews to the story while throwing an occasional hand grenade into the tent just to ensure that the reader is paying attention and not becoming too certain of what will happen next. There is also plenty of mayhem.

Warning: Don’t get too attached to any particular character as he or she may not make it to the end of this well-written, action-packed tale.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub on September 25, 2020

The Coast-to-Coast Murders
by James Patterson and J. D. Barker