It was the trial that electrified the world. Not only because of the defendant, Maggie Bradford, the woman whose songs captivated the world's heart. Not only because of the victim, Will Shepard, the world's most glamorous athlete. But also because everyone said Maggie had murdered not just one husband, but two. And because in Maggie's world - the world she feared and despised but could not escape, the world of the powerful, the rich, and the ruthless - both death and life could never be what they seemed. From James Patterson, bestselling author of KISS THE GIRLS and ALONG CAME A SPIDER, comes his most brilliantly realized thriller, a story that will shatter your expectations...and hold every last one of your nerves in thrall, with each twist of the plot and every turn of the page.

**

From the bestselling author of Along Came a Spider, Kiss the Girls and Cat and Mouse, a breathtaking novel of terror and suspense. Already a bestseller around the world - now reissued in striking new cover style. Maggie Bradford is on trial for murder - in the celebrity trial of the decade. As one of the world's best-loved singer-songwriters, she seems to have it all. So how could she have murdered not just one, but two of her husbands? Will Shepherd was Maggie's second husband. A magnificent athlete and film star, he was just as famous. But Will had dark, dangerous secrets that none of his fans could have imagined...that his own wife could never have dreamed of.

From Publishers Weekly

If Thomas Harris's psycho-thrillers are the creme de la creme of the genre, then Patterson's (Kiss the Girls; Along Came a Spider) are the skimmed milk?fluid, but low in substance. In his new novel, the author again lays down a narrative line so gripping?an effect achieved partly through a plethora of one-sentence paragraphs, a la Sidney Sheldon?that the reader may not notice, or care, that characterization and originality have fallen by the wayside. Patterson tells his story through two points of view: there's the the first-person voice of Maggie Bradford, who kills her abusive husband in the novel's flashback prologue and has now become a world-famous singer-songwriter ("I love your music, Maggie," Barbra Streisand tells her); and there's a third-person narration that is often filtered through the eyes of Will Shepherd, the celebrated soccer star who romances Maggie after her interim lover, an older tycoon, dies of a heart attack. The devastatingly handsome Will likes to hurt women ("there was a distinctly good part in him, but also a bad part"), however, and sometimes even to kill them. Will seems to want Maggie to save him from himself. Using his beauty and charm on her and her children, he wins her hand in marriage. That union sets up a major-league deja vu, two murder trials that aren't quite riveting and a final Big Twist that will only surprise those fresh to the thriller genre. Still, Will's descent into cartoonishness, and various loose threads, will probably not bother readers swept along by this lightweight pop fiction.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Beautiful Maggie Bradford seems to have it all: a successful career as a singer/songwriter, fame, money, and two precious children. However, she killed her first husband in self-defense and now she's in jail awaiting trial for the murder of her second husband, Will Shepherd, a charming, psychotic professional soccer player. At first, Maggie's marriage seems fine, but soon Will begins to act irrationally. The increasing tension comes to a head when Maggie comes to believe that Will has been sexually abusing her daughter; the resulting confrontation ends in Will's death and Maggie's arrest. Climaxing in Maggie's celebrity trial, this page-turner delivers a solid punch, complete with a surprise ending. Patterson (Kiss the Girls, Little, Brown, 1995) offers a vivid, emotionally revealing tale. Recommended for public libraries.
-?Stacie Browne Chandler, Whitman P.L., Mass.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. 

"Patterson joins the elite company of Thomas Harris and john Sanford in concocting riveting and truly unique serial killers, while creating sleuths who are heroic and fascinating."
--San Francisco Examiner

It was the trial that electrified the world. Not only because of the defendant, Maggie Bradford, the woman whose songs captivated the world's heart. Not only because of the victim, Will Shepard, the world's most glamorous athlete. But also because everyone said Maggie had murdered not just one husband, but two. And because in Maggie's world--the world she feared and despised but could not escape, the world of the powerful, the rich, and the ruthless--both death and life could never be what they seemed.

From James Patterson, the bestselling author of KISS THE GIRLS and ALONG CAME A SPIDER, comes his most brilliantly realized thriller, a story that will shatter your expectations...and hold every last one of your nerves in thrall, with each twist of the plot and every turn of the page.

"Robert B. Parker's Spenser, Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta...It's time to get out the party hats, welcome James Patterson to the club."
--Grand Rapids Press

"The story moves like lightening."
--Cosmopolitan