Abusive Husbands and Murder

Haven’t read a Patterson thriller in a long time, but picked this 1996 book up for free and gave it a whirl. Pretty scary actually, with multiple villains. Maggie is sitting in jail writing her tragic story and awaiting trial for the murder of her husband. Oh wait, for the second murder of her second husband!

The story starts out really creepy, with her and her baby daughter hiding under the porch while her insane alcoholic abuser husband with a gun searches for her. He ends up dead, she is ultimately not charged, and traumatized mother and daughter move to New York City where our sensitive heroine breaks into the song-writing business because all of her angst impresses the toughest agent in the business. She rapidly soars to the top (stretching credibility yet?) and is happily involved with a super-wealthy older man and has a baby with him. Before they can marry, though, he has a heart attack and dies. His nasty son from the first marriage is royally pissed, as Maggie inherits everything.

And then along comes Will Sheppard, a beautiful golden boy and international soccer star who becomes entranced by Maggie’s songs, and determined that Maggie can fix what ails him. Against her better judgment, Maggie marries Will, and for a while she is happy. Only what ails Will isn’t fixable, as we learn soon enough.

What can I say? The story of the victimized woman and abusive husband is an old one, and Patterson successfully portrays the evolution of homicidal psychosis in terrifying and believable details. What is less believable, unfortunately, is Maggie and the plot itself. But for a Patterson, not bad.