Perfect bodies with no marks. Why are they dead? (Womens Murder Club 8: 8th Confession - James Patterson)

Member Name: kiwiii85

Product:	Womens Murder Club 8: 8th Confession - James Patterson
Date:	13/06/09 (70 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Gripping read, easy chapters, new method of killing

Disadvantages: Goes a bit off the plot on occasions and flaws in investigative work

I've been a big fan of James Patterson for a few years but I've always stayed with his Alex Cross series. However, my partner went out, saw the name James Patterson and I thought i'd give it a go. I wasn't at all sure if i'd follow the storyline as it is part of the Womens Murder Club series and I think this is the 8th book. I have to say I had no problems picking the book up and following along. I might have missed some of the background but Patterson and Paetro let you know everything you needed to.

~~ The Plot ~~

People think that money can buy them safety and security and it makes them untouchable. Wrong! A serial killer is on the loose but just how are they being killed? Lindsay Boxer is the detective assigned the high profile cases and she must work alongside best friends Cindy and Claire. Claire is the medical examiner that must crack the cause of death - the perfect bodies and negative tox screens are a complete mystery.

Cindy is a journalist that just doesn't leave her stories alone. A homeless man is brutally murdered and he appears to be the local hero. So why will noone help her to crack the case? Who is the man that everyone called Bagman Jesus? Cindy must look and find out some dark secrets with the help of Lindsay and her partner Conklin.

Yuki is an attorney that can't seem to grab a decent case. She meets the man of her dreams and falls head over heels - but he's hiding a deep secret.

~~ My Opinion ~~

James Patterson has a particular writing style and I noticed in both the Cross Series and this book. He writes short chapters in order to keep the reader gribbed and this book was no different. One more chapter turned into ten more chapters and before I knew it I had finished the book in less than 12 hours.

Just a little bit about the characters -

Lindsay is the detective in charge of the high profile cases but is fighting her feelings for two men. This seems to cloud her judgement a little bit and I think if she'd have paid more attention to her case she would have solved it a bit sooner.

Conklin is Lindsay's partner on the case and he comes across as caring about romance more than his job. One minute he's crazy about someone, the next in bed with someone else. You can see how it goes.

Cindy is determined to make her way as a journalist and to find the killer of the poor homeless man. With people saying her life is in danger, it shows her courage that she'll carry on until she finds the truth.

The storyline itself started with one I had seen before and I thought the book was going to be a complete dud. After all, there are only so many books about serial killers you can read without being bored. Wrong again! Each serial killer book has its own differences and this was definitely the case. The victims were killed in a far from brutal way, in fact you had no idea how they were being killed until halfway through the novel. The killers' nickname was revealed early on as was her motive for killing and you did have some sympathy with her.

The police investigation let the story down a little bit though as I had guessed what was happening and I'm sure I would have placed the clues together a lot earlier than they did (and i'm no detective!). They let go of the fact one of the people they had questioned not only had keys and access codes to the properties, but went to school with the victims and had been bullied by them. She now worked for them and had Lindsay and Conklin investigated a little more thoroughly they would have solved the case a lot sooner.

This part of the story was mostly covered by Lindsay and Conklin and their feelings for each other - even though Lindsay was supposedly with another man. The investigation always came first but the authors seemed to go a bit too far into their relationship for my liking.

Lindsay and Conklin also worked with Cindy on the case of Bagman Jesus even though their boss had told them to leave the case alone. After all, he was a homeless man that noone had claimed and noone would talk about. Had it not been for Cindy's persistence they wouldn't have worked the case at all but would have put it at the bottom of their growing pile.

Cindy's investigation seemed to be a lot more thorough than Lindsay and Conklin and it made me doubt the main characters again. It's true that Cindy had more time to work and research and being a journalist was a lot less intimidating than a cop, but I still felt Lindsay and Conklin's characters were missing something. The authors again managed to use this storyline in order to form a relationship and at times it looked like it was going to turn into a romance novel rather than one about serial killers.

Claire, the medical examiner, worked both of these cases and it was her that had to crack the cause of death in both. One was very obvious - Bagman had been shot and brutally beaten - whilst the other was a total mystery - no marks, negative tox screen and not a clue to be found. Claires character was the only one that seemed to be really consistent throughout and they didn't try to put her into a romance that felt totally out of place to the rest of the plot.

As for the Yuki storyline, I still have no idea why she was even in the book. Her storylines ran on a completely different path to anyone else and I felt she was only used in order to introduce a doctor into the equation. She may feature more prominently in other books in the series but she certainly didn't fit in well with this one. Again, she was used as a way to introduce romance but when the book described he wasn't what he seemed I thought it would be some interesting story about a killer or something similar - totally wrong.

~~ Overall ~~

Overall the book was gripping and I did thoroughly enjoy it despite the many flaws. If the authors had focused on the investigations a bit more rather than the characters romances then it could have been a lot better. It is a series book and I haven't read any of the rest so I am judging from just this book so I'm maybe missing a bit of information as to why they would have followed this route. Saying that, series books need to explore their characters so that probably has something to do with it. I would recommend this to someone but not if you're a serious crime reader as the romance may put you off a little.

~~ Extra Little Bits ~~

The hardback version has 352 pages and was bought for £7.99. Probably selling much cheaper on Amazon.

Summary: Give it a try if you like crime novels combined with lots of characterisation.