Ah James Patterson, will I never learn?
After a rocky start with his early books in the Women’s Murder Club series, I’ve come to really enjoy the books, so was looking forward to the tenth installment, 10th Anniversary, with much anticipation. Unfortunately, the book did not live up to my expectations. It was, quite frankly, a mess! All over the place, with not one decent storyline to follow from beginning to end. Sigh.
Once again the four ladies who make up the Women’s Murder Club are back. We have Lindsey Boxer, a detective with the SFPD’s homicide division, returning to work fresh from her honeymoon where she is handed the case of a young girl found bleeding near Lake Merced, who’s just given birth and claims she doesn’t remember a thing beyond getting into a car with two men. Where is the baby?!?!? Lindsey is hot on the trail. – Wait a second, she’s homicide right? There’s no murder, there’s no killer to catch, so why is she running around looking for a kidnapped/sold baby? Oh, yeah, because she’s just gotten married and her baby clock is tick tocking away, and this is the only way Patterson can tie in Lindsey’s screeching biological clock with the job she does. Um, okay….
Then we have intrepid reporter Cindy Thomas who stumbles across a story about women being drugged, raped, and waking up with no memory of the incident. But other than this story serving to give us about 25 pages of splash and dash near the end of the book when Cindy is abducted by said rapist, this plotline pretty much fizzles out. It’s especially disbelievable since although Cindy’s paper prints the story, there’s no police investigation whatsoever. Yeah, right!
Next is lovable medical examiner Claire Washburn who plays an incredibly brief role, popping up only when Lindsey needs someone to dish baby with. An incredible disappointment that Claire has so little ink time.
Finally, the only interesting plotline in the entire book, is struggling Assistant District Attorney Yuki Castellano’s murder trial of Dr. Candace Martin, accused of killing her husband. Now this is some good ink, with suitable plot twists to keep a reader interested. Frankly I would have preferred the focus of the book be on this trial and have the four women working together to uncover the truth, not going off in ten different, incoherent directions.
Overall, the book was disappointing and I can only hope book eleven has a better thought out, cohesive plot that engages all four beloved characters.
Till next time, happy reading.
L J
| TBR = 8 | WPL = 21 |
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