Sail

Written by James Patterson and Howard Roughan

Narrated by Dylan Baker and Jennifer Van Dyck

A classic summer vacation thriller from the most popular storyteller of our time. 

A mother and her three children struggle to survive on the most shocking sailing trip of their lives. 

Since the death of her husband, Anne Dunne and her three children have struggled in every way. In a last-ditch effort to save her family, Anne plans an elaborate sailing vacation to bring everyone together once again.But only an hour out of port, their summer getaway is already turning into the trip from hell.

Anne’s teenage daughter, Carrie, is planning to drown herself. Her teenage son, Mark, is high on pot, and ten-year-old Ernie is nearly catatonic. Somehow, Anne manages to pull things together, but just as they begin feeling like a family again, disaster strikes. 

But this catastrophe is just a tiny taste of the true danger lurking ahead — somewhere out there, someone wants to make sure the Dunne family never leaves paradise alive. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hachette Audio
• Release date: Jun 9, 2008
• ISBN: 9781600242052

Reviews for Sail

[atticusfinch1048 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sail is set around the Dunne family, the mother, Katherine, a doctor, the kids, Mark, Carrie and Ernie along with the step father Peter Carlyle and Uncle Jake Dunne. Peter Carlyle is a nasty piece of work and worse still he is an obnoxious American lawyer.

Katherine has taken a sabbatical from work as she wants to spend more time with her children who have struggles since the death of their father and their mother’s remarriage. The family boat will be skippered by Jake Dunne her former brother-in-law but what they do not realise is that they are being watched.

Once they set to sea, Carrie tries to commit suicide which does not really bode well for the rest of the summer. As they get further away from the coast of Florida the boat springs a leak which some how Jake repairs. As a tropical storm approaches for worse is about to happen and when the boat blows up all are presumed dead. Even with the emergency beacon set off the coastguard they have a problem with the beacon itself showing a false position.

An entertaining read with some proper bad guys for a change.

[feralcatbob · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Overall this was an entertaining, easy read. The location/character jumps between chapters, which sometimes makes for "choppy" reading, were smooth and had a natural feel to them. The one exception to this was from the island to the courtroom. The large constrictor on what I took to be a small island seemed a little unlikely as well. I'm not an herpetologist, I thought that the only agressive (towards humans) constrictor was the anaconda.

But there is a happy ending though; The scum-sucking lawyer dies.

[rmarcin-630843 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A very quick read as usual for James Patterson. Lots of twists, although I had figured out most of it early in the book. Still enjoyable!

[amyghilton · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Full of suspense. I read it in one sitting.

[petrichor8 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Not my favorite patterson, but still not a bad choice for some light reading

[jvizza-1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This book reminded me of a view finder where you see snapshots of a story line. Of course with those you get the story without caring anything about the people in the story... Or the story.. Or the top twenty ideas pulled off the story board just to throw them in there... Thank you library for letting me experience this without actually wasting my money.

[nataliec7 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I liked this book. It was however quite far fetched. This family go out for a sailing holiday, things start going wrong on the boat like water leaking and something wrong with the fuel line. They continue to keep sailing! Why? Your boat is falling apart - go get it repaired and start again. Then the boat explodes and they all happen to be in the water except the captain.
Anyway, I find it hard to not enjoy James Patterson books and so he gets 4/5. If you are not familiar with Patterson, don't judge him on this book!

[hobbitprincess · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I haven't read a lot of Patterson's works, but this one was pretty good. It kept me occupied on a snowy day, and it was good enough that I wanted to keep reading to see what would happen. It's not going to become a classic, but it was a nice diversion. I was a little unsettled by the ending, however. I guess that's just the way it goes.

[diva0301 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This falls into the realm of guilty pleasure, it moves like a rocket and the lack of actual characterization didn't keep me from staying up late to finish it. And I doubt I'll be going on a family sailing trip anytime soon!

[bsquaredinoz · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

It’s been a while since I read a James Patterson book and even longer since I read one of his co-written adventures. I have to say they haven’t improved in my absence.

In this outing a dysfunctional family tries a last-ditch ‘save our family' bonding session on a sailing boat but things don’t go to plan. Shock horror.

The characters are universally one-dimensional and generally unbelievable. Evil lawyers, perfect mothers and cute-but-precious ten-year olds included. The writing is scattered with all sorts of pop culture references that will date the book terribly in a year or two and which are so clumsily inserted that it seems as if the authors are trying too hard to fit in with the cool kids rather than write a book for adults. In addition there are loads of unnecessary details such as ‘...he answered his Motorola 1000’ as if knowing what kind of phone the philandering lawyer uses somehow adds to the story rather than the word count. But the most annoying feature of this book is the predictability of the storyline. There are few surprises to be found among the clichés and it reads like one of the formulaic film scripts Hollywood is so enamoured with these days. There are multiple ‘in the nick of time’ rescues, ageing blokes having sex with gorgeous young women and all the good guys have Oprah-like moments of realising what’s really important in life. Ho hum.

If allowed I'd give this a 1.5 but can't bring myself to go all the way to 2 :)

[leseratte30 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Fast paced. Didn't really hook me though. Characters are "lifeless".

[jbemrose_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A mom decides to take her family on her deceased husband's sail boat to put her family back together. The vacation ended up the worst trip ever. Carrie, Mark, Ernie, Catherine, and uncle Jack was in danger because the new stepdad plotting to murder all of them on the boat. The Dunne family rediscover the meaning of family and pull together to surviver to be alive.

[winecat · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

An all to true these days story of a family falling apart. Mom decides to take the kids on deceased Dad's boat for a few weeks to rebond with her kids. In the meantime, Stepdad is plotting the murder of all 5 of the passengers on the boat.

Not Patterson's best work, somewhat predictable in several places .

[moosenoose · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was my first James Patterson book and I was disappointed. I have heard good things about Patterson, and although I have not read any of his other books, I have seen some of the Alex Cross movies which were fantastic, so I was expecting the same level of edge of the seat action with Sail. However, the story was quite unbelievable in many places, such as the family having so many issues with the boat in a short period of time, yet carrying on rather than turning back to the safety of land. Also, the chapters were extremely short and the characters did not seem to develop well, with too many impossible happy endings. OK so I kind of get the idea that when you are almost murdered but survive, you sort your life out, but how does the daughter recover from anorexia, one son give up his drug habit, another son happily accept that his just-dead uncle is his real dad, the mother get over the fact that she married a murderer and the step-father/murderer then gets murdered himself in the space of a few months?! Life is not that neat and things do not go from complete shite to smelling of roses in this way!! I guess this explains why the jacket contains lots of praise for Patterson’s other books, but not a single good comment for Sail!

[jpsnow · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a comic book without pictures. Each chapter is only a couple pages and it quickly bounces between characters, fulfilling the needs of readers in this modern era of short attention spans. The story is captivating but not always believable. For example, the characters found themselves overboard 3 different times in a very short period.

[sonicquack · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Sail is a quick and straightforward story. As with most of Patterson's standalone novels it centres around betrayal and murder, spiced up with entertaining villains and the usual rapid-fire chapters. Sail is the most basic of efforts though, barely enough of a story to hold it together with rather unsubstantial characters. Fortunately the evil masterminds are lavishly despicable, although thoroughly stereotypical, and they alone make it worth reading. Although it still presents a few twists Sail is Patterson's weakest novel, however it's still an easy and just-fun-enough way to pass a few hours.

[relaxedreader · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was not a favorite of mine, however, still very enjoyable. James Patterson is one of my favorite authors.

[kc9333 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Predictable...I saw the guilty party a mile away.......

[djupstrom · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

While James Patterson never will fall into the category of literature, he certainly can spin a good yarn. Sail was no exception.

[c5ibarra · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed reading this one. Not one of Patterson’s best books but still a nice, suspenseful ride that kept me turning the pages.

[imbookingit · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

As I reflect over my reading, it seems that I read a lot more romantic suspense than straight thrillers these days. In many cases, the things I didn't like about Sail were what made it a good thriller, and made it not fit in the romantic suspense category.The book was well written. It has me on the edge of my seat, waiting to hear what would happen next. There were many twists of the plot that I didn't expect.I just kept waiting to see who the couple was going to be! I'm more used to books where the plot moves the relationships along, rather than having relationships to hang the plot on.The characters were interesting, but not deeply drawn. We're told about the issues the kids are having in their lives, rather than learning about them ourselves. I never really connected with Anne, even though she seemed like she would have been an interesting person. I really would like to read a more character-centered book about Jake.I felt that for much of the book, I was quickly flipping back and forth between "Another bad thing happens to the Dunne Family" and "We learn more about how bad the bad guy is". Again, this is probably what makes it a good thriller.

[meags222_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this book. I've been on a bit of a Patterson kick the last wk and a bit but this one was not part of the Alex Cross series. I enjoyed this book a lot better than the Cross series. I don't know if it was the co-author or not but the writing was much more intriguing. I couldn't put this book down and read it in one day. I give this book 4.5 stars out of 5.

[24girl_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Since the death of their father Katherine Dunne’s three children have been drifting further and further apart from her and each other. In a last ditch effort to bring her family closer together Katherine plans a two month long sailing trip aboard their boat, The Family Dunne, along with their uncle Jake Dunne.

Almost immediately things start to go wrong. The boat springs a leak, 16-year Mark is smoking marijuana, 18-year old Carrie is recovering from an eating disorder but throws herself overboard in a suicide attempt and 10-year old Ernie is overweight as a result of his own self-diagnosed “stress eating”. Shortly after Jake saves Carrie, the family is awakened by an approaching storm. Caught in the middle of the storm the family fights for their lives and get through it only to be faced with another catastrophic disaster.

Meanwhile Katherine’s new husband of less than one year, Peter, is betting on the fact that the family never returns and is scheming behind the scenes.

The book opens with instantaneous action and intrigue. Throughout the whole book just when you think the drama is over a new wave (snicker) of trouble rolls in. From the very beginning we learn that Peter is a villain but there’s still a lot more revelations to come and I found the action kept me on the edge of my seat.

My review is based on the unabridged audio and it was narrated by both Dylan Baker and Jennifer Van Dyck. I’ve always thought the male/female approach to an audio book would make the book more interesting and I loved it. I hope to hear more this way soon.

My vote is that this is another Patterson winner. It doesn’t have the same depth as the Cross series but it’s one of the better collaborations from him that I’ve read. I recommend this one for all action and thriller lovers.

[librarian1st · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Very predictable, one afternoon read

[blockbuster1994 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

What a fun sea adventure. The bad--cliches, predictable plot, black and white characters, is far outweighed by the good- compelling atmosphere and energy of this novel. Never a dull moment. Sail worth a read for sheer entertainment value even if it won't win an Edgar

[rustbucket_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sail was not an intense riveting mystery/adventrue, but a light and enjoyable mystery/adventure. Realism was a bit lacking, but I still enjoyed the twists and turns.
This was an attempt at a deeply emotional love story for mother and children to reconnect. It was a bit shallow on that end, and a bit predictable at times. Still, the best boon was that I discovered James Patterson as an author and the next read I engaged: "When the Wind Blows. That's one of his earlier novels but unsurpassed and in a class of it's own.

[willowwaw · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A very good book by James Patterson! Quick read and fast! Easy to understand with nice twists and turns. Good book!

[loosha_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Simple mindless but exciting quick read (scan a lot) mystery. Mostly plot, largely predictable,stereotypical characters. Will make a great movie of the week.

[busyreadin · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A really quick beach read. A family taking a summer off to sail around the world is met with disaster & danger. My only complaint is it's one of those books with chapters that are a page and a half long. Don't know why, but I hate that.

[buchanst · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Love Patterson, loved this book!