Now You See Her by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge, 2011

In Now You See Her, a woman is terrorized by a man, then is rescued by a man who terrorizes her, then is terrorized again by that man and is rescued by yet another man. The third man makes the boo-boos all better and she lives happily ever after. I don't think Patterson is going to end up on my top-10 authors list.
Once again, breathlessly short chapters launch the reader through a roller coaster of terror and despair. The main character, Nina/Jeanine, has a horrible experience with her boyfriend while on Spring Break in Key West during college. She steals a car and runs--and runs right over and kills a person. A mysteriously friendly police officer lets her off the hook--and takes her home and marries her. Happily ever after, right? But no. The husband is corrupt and maniacal--and in cahoots with a purported serial killer. So Nina/Jeanine steals a car and runs--runs right into the serial killer. The constant sense of menace is pervasive in this book. Her escape is miraculous.

Fast forward 15 years. Nina/Jeanine is a successful attorney with lots of secrets. Guess who shows up? Oh yeah, it's the husband, who is now even more corrupt and maniacal. Nina goes on the run again--runs right into the arms of another man, who turns out to be the savior she's needed all along. Many harrowing experiences later, the story resolves. Bad guys are not just murdered, but pretty much butchered. Glass, mirrors, sharp objects. There's no lack of gore.

Anyway, I didn't relate to Nina right from the start--her behavior was amazingly unrealistic and panic-driven. And she did not change during the book. Her personality (everyone's personality) was static. Bad was bad. Good was good. Victim was victim. I can't believe woman-as-helpless-victim still plays in Peoria.

Now You See Her is shallow and sensationalized and turned me off Key West forever, which is quite a feat. I think maybe Patterson is stretching himself and his franchise a bit too thin.

Best bits: The last minute stay of execution--Nina was instrumental in freeing a wrongly convicted man. Of course, it took all the way until part of the killing cocktail had already been injected into the IV, a long and grueling scene. But still, justice prevailed.

Physical description: Normal book shape; decent typography; 117 chapters (I need the number of chapters to be divisible by two or five); main story 383 pages long, with 10-page preview of another book; list of Patterson's works that is two full pages.