Nora Sinclair has a successful husband who is a famous author. Their marriage is a secret since most of his fans are women. Nora also has a fiance. He, too, is wealthy. These two men have no knowledge of each other. In fact, most folks -- including Nora's best friends -- have no clue regarding the truth about Nora. What is a beautiful lady supposed to do with two gentlemen? No worries. As a black widow, Nora knows how to take care of the men in her life. Unlike the spider, Nora does not eat her suitors. No, she prefers to make them special omelets after sex and transfer their wealth to off-shore accounts. Not getting caught by the authorities is also exciting.

FBI agent John O'Hara enters Nora's life posing as an insurance salesmen. Under the pretense of a huge settlement due to the "unexpected" death of Nora's fiance, John is able to get closer to this murderess as he investigates her guilt. What ensues is a fast-paced thriller as the two go back and forth between who has the upper hand. During the ride, the listener will find out interesting secrets about both characters as well as their families. My favorite secret has to do with Nora's mother (but I won't spill the beans here).

Honeymoon is written by James Patterson and Howard Roughan. Patterson has written numerous books including Kiss the Girls and The Big Bad Wolf. Howard Roughan has written The Promise of a Lie and The Up & Comer. This new collaboration seems to work quite well. Honeymoon is quite engaging. The seven CDs fly by as the story does not seem all that long at all.

Good writing is an integral part of an audiobook. But without decent readers, a good book can fall flat when read aloud. Fortunately, that is not the case here. Hope Davis and Campbell Scott do a commendable job bringing the various characters to life. These two shared the big screen together in The Secret Lives of Dentists, which came out a few years ago. Davis has also appeared in About Schmidt and Hearts in Atlantis. Scott was in Singles. These two play off each other expertly regardless which characters in the audiobook they portray at any given time.

I was definitely entertained listening to Honeymoon. I think there is some fluff in the novel that could easily be removed without detracting from the book. There were also some questions left unanswered (or perhaps I missed them) as well. Overall, though, I enjoyed this tale at least as much, if not more, than any other Patterson audiobook I've listened to. I am not familiar with Roughan's other works, so I cannot make a comparison here. I will say that my curiosity is piqued and I think I will have to go check him out. As for Rambles.NET readers, have fun with this Honeymoon, and be wary of omelets served to you by beautiful women.

by Wil Owen
Rambles.NET
25 February 2006