Summary: When John Sutter's aristocratic wife killed her mafia don lover, John left America and set out in his sailboat on a three-year journey around the world, eventually settling in London. Now, ten years later, he has come home to the Gold Coast, that stretch of land on the North Shore of Long Island that once held the greatest concentration of wealth and power in America, to attend the imminent funeral of an old family servant. ~nelsondemille.netReview: In 2008, I re-read The Gold Coast in prep for The Gate House being released. Obviously, I didn't get around to it around release date, so I chose it for my TBR Challenge this year. Nelson DeMille has always been a favorite author since my aunt introduced me to him by lending me The Charm School when I was 18.
I really enjoyed The Gold Coast even on my re-read so on some level I was excited for the sequel. Unfortunately, the sequel in my head was better than this. This novel is a chunkster at 673. When I spend the first 150 pages of the book reading how the main character is over his ex-wife's betrayal but yeah he's not.
When did John Sutter turn into such a whiner? I'm serious. And within the first 100 pages I totally knew where the plot was going to go and yelled out "Really, wasn't this pretty much the plot of the first book?" Also, didn't John learn his lessons the first time around? Apparently not. Maybe this time around Susan won't betray him and sleep with the mafia boss.
The only thing redeeming about the book is that Mr. DeMille still keeps John's wit and sarcasm; both are things that I adored about him before.
Sometimes the sequel doesn't live up to the original and this is the case with this novel. I wish that the plot would have taken another direction entirely. I would have liked to have seen John and Susan tackle a different enemy.
I have another sequel of Mr. DeMille's to read (The Lion) and now I'm a little nervous. I can't remember if it's on my 2012 TBR List or not, but I will read it next year.
Final Take: 3/5
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