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Summary
Summary
Travis McKinley's life has drifted sideways. His job, his marriage, even his children all feel disconnected and distant. Has he really accomplished nothing of consequence in his life? One Christmas Day, Travis plays a round of golf and finds himself for the first time in the zone--playing like a pro. In astonishingly short order, Travis is catapulted into the PGA Senior Open at Pebble Beach, where he advances to the final round. And while his wife, his children, and a live television audience watch, a miracle takes place that changes Travis, and his family, forever.
Author Notes
James Patterson was born in Newburgh, New York, on March 22, 1947. He graduated from Manhattan College in 1969 and received a M. A. from Vanderbilt University in 1970. His first novel, The Thomas Berryman Number, was written while he was working in a mental institution and was rejected by 26 publishers before being published and winning the Edgar Award for Best First Mystery.
He is best known as the creator of Alex Cross, the police psychologist hero of such novels as Along Came a Spider and Kiss the Girls. Cross has been portrayed on the silver screen by Morgan Freeman. He has had eleven on his books made into movies and ranks as number 3 on the Hollywood Reporter's '25 Most Powerful Authors' 2016 list. He also writes the Women's Murder Club series, the Michael Bennett series, the Maximum Ride series, Daniel X series, the Witch and Wizard series, BookShots series, Private series, NYPD Red series, and the Middle School series for children. He has won numerous awards including the BCA Mystery Guild's Thriller of the Year, the International Thriller of the Year award, and the Reader's Digest Reader's Choice Award.
James Patterson introduced the Bookshots Series in 2016 which is advertised as All Thriller No Filler. The first book in the series, Cross Kill, made the New York Times Bestseller list in June 2016. The third and fourth books, The Trial, and Little Black Dress, made the New York Times Bestseller list in July 2016. The next books in the series include, $10,000,000 Marriage Proposal, French Kiss, Hidden: A Mitchum Story (co-authored with James O. Born). and The House Husband (co-authored Duane Swierczynski).
Patterson's novel, co-authored with Maxine Paetro, Woman of God, became a New York Times bestseller in 2016.
Patterson co-authored with John Connoly and Tim Malloy the true crime expose Filthy Rich about billionaire convicted sex offender Jeffrey Eppstein.
In January 2017, he co-authored with Ashwin Sanghi the bestseller Private Delhi. And in August 2017, he co-authored with Richard Dilallo, The Store.
The Black Book is a stand-alone thriller, co-authored by James Patterson and David Ellis.
In April 2018, he co-authored Texas Ranger with Andrew Bourelle.
In May 2018, he co-authored Private Princess with Rees Jones.
In August 2018 he co-authored Fifty Fifty with Candice Fox.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
While it isn't quite the literary equivalent of a hole-in-one, this fast-moving golf fantasy about an amateur golfer who decides to try out for the PGA Senior Tour has enough sweetness and humor to overcome its obvious plot clichés. Middle-aged and happily married, Travis McKinley does the unthinkable: he misses Christmas dinner after getting caught up in a divinely inspired streak of great putting during an outing on the country club course in Winnetka, Ill. As Travis's obsession with his newfound talent takes over his life, his obstetrician wife, Sarah, expresses increasing dismay over his inability to grow up, a domestic crisis that reaches a boiling point when Travis loses his job and journeys to Tallahassee, Fla., to try to qualify for the Senior Tour. Competing against overwhelming odds, Travis earns a place on the tour, only to have his dream spoiled when he learns that Sarah intends to file for divorce. As he continues to compete against the likes of Jack Nicklaus and Lee Trevino, the victory that will fulfill Travis's dream and reunite him with his family is as improbable as it is inevitable. Plot issues aside, Patterson (whose newest thriller is Jack and Jill) and de Jonge succeed admirably in creating a winning character who is enough of a child to believe his dreams and is also mature enough to offer some gently humorous reflections on our national obsession with an engaging sport. Christmas shoppers take note: vigorous, straightforward prose and solid characterization put this second golf fable of the season in a far different league from the mystical, romantic The Legend of Tommy Morris (Forecasts, Sept. 2) (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
In the wake of John Feinstein's best-selling A Good Walk Spoiled (1994), golf books, many of them bad, have flooded the marketplace. Mystery author Patterson (Jack and Jill, et al.) and coauthor de Jonge add a new twist by melding a golf story onto a sentimental Christmas fable. The resulting plot is sort of Rocky Does the Senior Tour with just a hint of It's a Wonderful Life, golf version: when Travis McKinley misses Christmas dinner because he can't stop making birdies, the underachieving copywriter's life seems on the verge of unraveling; when he's fired a week later and decides to try to qualify for the Senior Tour, his wife starts thinking divorce. Imagine what would have happened if George Bailey had left home to build bridges. He would have missed the wife and kids, right? And so does Travis, even as he begins to beat his heroes Trevino, Nicklaus, and Floyd. If you've guessed that the miracle on the seventeenth green has as much to do with family as golf, you've also guessed that our Travis doesn't miss Christmas dinner the second time around. Will this silly, blatantly commercial attempt to sell sentiment and golf wind up under thousands of Christmas trees this year? Probably. Will the publicity produce library demand? Probably. Buy as few as possible and hope that gimmick-hungry writers give up on golf. (Reviewed Sept. 1, 1996)0316693316Bill Ott
Kirkus Review
Miracle On The 17th Green ($16.95; Nov. 4, 1996; 160 pp.; 0- 316-69331-6): Preceded by the release of the Kevin Costner film Tin Cup, and by the literary flourishes of John Updike's Golf Dreams, thriller-writer Patterson (Jack and Jill, p. 998, etc.) and journalist de Jonge's Christmas fantasy about a poor-in-spirit advertising copywriter becoming a finalist at the PGA Senior Open looks like a sales shoo-in. Travis McKinley, 50, after 23 years of writing jingles for McDonald's, is fired in an office-wide layoff. Alone on the 17th hole of his Winnetka golf club on Christmas morning, he discovers that he has suddenly acquired a gift for making Zen-like putts. But even as he decides to turn professional and try for the Open, his gynecologist wife calls it quits, though his three children take an interest in his quest. It's not all miracles for the next year on tour, but when they're needed, the gods smile. Quite entertaining but too vulgar for kids.
Library Journal Review
Think of this short novel by best-selling thriller writer Patterson (Hide and Seek, LJ 12/95) and journalist de Jonge as a cross between It's a Wonderful Life and a masculine version of Sleeping Beauty. On Christmas Day, Travis McKinley is playing golf when suddenly he acquires perfect vision for the putt. In a zone, he plays brilliant golf and misses Christmas dinner with his family, where things are already rocky. The wife he adores wants to leave him, and he doesn't know why, although it may be because working 30 years in an advertising job he hates has strangled his growth and enthusiasm. When he's fired, he is liberated to see whether he really can play professional golf. Travis qualifies for the Professional Golfers Association Senior Tour, and it changes him and his family forever. Buy this for all the middle-aged male golfers who still have the spark of a dream left in them, as well as for those who've given up.Marylaine Block, St. Ambrose Univ. Lib., Davenport, Iowa (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
