Lauren Stillwell feels like her life is crumbling when she sees her husband coming out of a hotel room with another woman. They have already been struggling with their relationship recently, a problem she partially attributes to their inability to get pregnant. As you can imagine, she assumes that this is an indication that Paul is cheating on her. The book could easily have been called You Know What Happens When You Assume. From this point on, Lauren rashes from one irrational decision to the next, creating a destructive spiral that will change everything.

The first thing she does is an act of instinct. When a younger officer she works with at the New York Police Department indicates that she is interested, and they have a "quickie." Immediately afterward, Lauren steps out of the room and returns only to see Scott, the officer, murdered by what appears to be her husband Paul. At first she does not know what to do, particularly once she and her partner are assigned as the lead detectives to look into the murder of a fellow cop.

From here on, the tale spins completely out of control as Lauren, a woman who appeared to be a dedicated officer, messes with evident, implicates witnesses, and starts threatening officials at different levels to protect her husband, with whom she has yet to confirm his involvement. The question is where this whole thing will lead since the reader has already seen how quick she is to make assumptions.

I have to say this is the first book by Patterson that I hated. I know that it is purely me. I do not tend to like stories in which everyone in it has no ethical standards whatsoever. I have trouble having compassion for them, just wishing they would get their comeupance, and this story is exactly that. Everyone has a disreputable backstory that they are keeping quiet from those around them. I only kept reading because I was curious to see how everything would play out, only to find my disbelief at how outrageous the story kept getting. Soap operas have more realism.

OK ... now that you have heard my perspective, it is only fair to say that all of the professional reviews of this one that I have seen have praised this as being one of his best. I guess it goes to show that I can be off target on this one.

I will say the writing was up to Patterson's usual standards, and the story moves along at the usual quick pace. It is filled with tons of cliffhangers and lots of action.