I enjoy each and every collaboration involving the great James Patterson. However, something special happens each time he teams up with J.D. Barker, who already is a master of the horror and thriller genres.

Their latest effort is called THE WRITER, and it utilizes different storytelling elements to paint the picture of a locked-room-style murder and the famous suspect that the NYPD is trying to prosecute. Specifically, several chapters include transcribed pages from audio recordings and taped interviews revolving around the death of a teen and the connection that the case has with the present-day one, which is baffling NYPD Detective Declan Shaw.

"Patterson and Barker have created a delightful conundrum of a thriller, and THE WRITER becomes a speed read as the pages seem to turn themselves. I eagerly await their next brilliant effort!"

In October 2018, 14-year-old Maggie Marshall went missing and was found not long afterwards. Her abused and bloated body was unceremoniously left amidst the fall leaves in a nearby park. It was obvious from the marks on her neck and the DNA results that she was strangled to death.

Declan Shaw is facing a crisis of faith. When we join him in the current timeline, he is on a subway platform preparing for a fourth attempt at taking his own life. He meticulously works out in his head the exact moment to leap in front of the speeding subway car to prevent from getting pulled beneath it or hitting the side. Fortunately, his phone goes off at the moment he is about to fulfill his death wish; it’s his partner, Jarod Cordova. He doesn’t jump and instead returns the call, which ends up being a request to visit a nearby upscale apartment building where an alleged murder has been committed.

Upon arriving at the scene, the detectives check the security footage to see who might have come and gone from the apartment. Prior to Shaw entering, he is warned that an armed individual is inside. He eventually is able to disarm the catatonic woman; she is sitting on the floor next to the body of a deceased man, who is later identified as her husband. When he peruses her bookshelves, he sees several identical titles from the same writer and quickly surmises that the woman is none other than bestselling true-crime author Denise Morrow. Shaw and Morrow have a connection as one of her most popular releases is a factual skewering of the NYPD, specifically Shaw's investigation of the Maggie Marshall case.

Before you can say conflict of interest, Geller Hoffman, who is Morrow's attorney and was a good friend of her husband, shows up, and the shenanigans begin. When a second murder is committed that allegedly involves DNA from the Morrows, the situation becomes truly perplexing.

A deep dive into everything that has come up so far takes place during Morrow’s initial trial. The prosecutor and detectives realize that they do not have enough evidence or even concrete motive to win the case, and their search for both continues. A terrific plot twist will make readers realize that nothing they have read up to this point can be trusted, and something else may be at play here.

Patterson and Barker have created a delightful conundrum of a thriller, and THE WRITER becomes a speed read as the pages seem to turn themselves. I eagerly await their next brilliant effort!