3rd Degree
Posted by admin | Posted in Kindle Books | Posted on 12-07-2010-05-2008
5
Product Description
The #1 bestselling new mystery series of the past decade comes roaring back with 3rd Degree, a shockingly suspenseful thriller featuring the Women’s Murder Club. One of James Patterson’s best loved heroines is about to die. Detective Lindsay Boxer is jogging along a beautiful San Francisco street when a fiery explosion rips through the neighborhood. A town house owned by an Internet millionaire is immediately engulfed in flames, and when Lindsay plunges in…
Back from “1st To Die” and “2nd Chance”, the Women’s Murder Club finds terror in unexpected places in this third outing. Starring San Francisco PD Homicide Lt. Lindsay Boxer, friends newspaper reporter Cindy, Medical Examiner Claire, and Asst. District Attorney Jill have somewhat larger roles than the light supporting cast they portrayed in the two earlier books. We’re also glad to see the adolescent dialogue from the last pairing of Gross and Patterson was replaced by much more meaningful interactions between the foursome. (We might quibble that it’s an unlikely group from the viewpoint of a three-way conflict of interest: cop, DA, and reporter). Keeping in touch with modern times, involvement by Homeland Security personnel and a plot that featured seemingly random acts of terror gave the novel an up-to-date tone. And two subplots, involving spousal abuse of Jill, and a love interest between Boxer and Molinari, the Homeland guy, added to the torrid pace of the main and complex mystery for which Patterson is well known.
When a home is bombed and then a death by deadly chemical is followed by another bombing at a mall, it’s clear that some group is out for revenge. We get to meet a few of the bad guy players from some first person dialogue of their own, but their identities are not all revealed until the somewhat surprising ending. The usual short chapters (111 in like 340 pages), plus a lot of blank pages from five Parts, make the book little more than a two hour blitz. But the shock comes from a direct attack on one of the club members, nothing new to the other novels in the set.
This series may not be quite as hard core as Patterson’s more movie-oriented thrillers, but the generally likable heroine and her friends, along with a suspenseful storyline, is quite good enough for an enjoyable read. You might want to save it for the beach!
Rating: 4 / 5
Apart from the break-neck pace, I love the way Patterson squeezes in contemporary facts and events in his thrillers.
This latest in the Women’s Murder Club series is every bit as nailbiting as the first two, but with a slight twist: this time, the solution to a grisly string of bombings cannot come without the expense of having to lose someone very close to our amateur detectives.
Riveting plot twists. Bullet paced turn of events. This novel packs in just about everything you would expect from a wholesome crime thriller. If you’ve read the first 2 in the series, you’d probably be even better off as you could relate more easily to the fears and idiosyncrasies of our intriguing protagonists.
So feed the cat, turn on the air conditioning and slip into bed with this very, very satisfying nailbiter.
Rating: 4 / 5
This third book in the Women’s Murder Club series, is, I think, not as good as the first two. I found it hard to get personally involved in Lindsey’s fight to find terrorists. Not only that, it was almost unbelievable in parts (and so senselessly graphic). How can one woman in the Police force almost singlehandedly solve a huge case like this? I kept wondering where the rest of the police force was. That’s what I mean by stretching it. It also wasn’t easy to know before reading the book that one of the women in the club was going to be killed. During the first part of the book, I kept wondering who it would be and didn’t concentrate on the plot the way I should. Personally I think reviewers and book jacket writers expose too much of the actual story, and it’s almost a good idea not to read these before reading the book (especially with a thriller like this one). I don’t know – after how much I loved the first two in the series, I found this one sadly disappointing. I doubt whether I’ll bother with others in this series.
Rating: 3 / 5
I normally love reading the reviews – it helps me decide on a book when I’m going back and forth on my decision to buy it. Although I already knew I wanted to buy 3rd Degree, I checked out the reviews. A few posts ago, someone completely gave away a MAJOR twist in the book. I shouldn’t even say “gave away” because that might mean they hinted at it and I figured it out -and that would be alright. But no, they flat out said what happened in the end. I seriously couldn’t believe it.
Everyone is entitled to say what they want, but this section is called “Reviews” and not “The Ending of the Book”. Please put “SPOILER” in your subject if you’re going to insist on giving away the endings of books.
Rating: 2 / 5
This book reads nothing like the earlier two in the “Woman’s Murder Club” series. Calling it trite fluff is kind. I realize Mr. Patterson is a multi-millionaire, but allowing such dribble to be put out with his name on it is a quick way to lose his audience and his income. I pay for a novel by a particular, proven author and I expect it to be of the caliber of the past works of that author. Shame on you Mr. Patterson.
Rating: 1 / 5