Saturday 20 June 2015

Book ~ "3rd Degree" (2004) James Patterson and Andrew Gross

From Goodreads ~ Plunging into a burning town house, Detective Lindsay Boxer discovers three dead bodies ... and a mysterious message at the scene. 

When more corpses turn up, Lindsay asks her friends Claire Washburn of the medical examiner's office, Assistant D.A. Jill Bernhardt, and San Francisco Chronicle reporter Cindy Thomas, to help her find a murderer who vows to kill every three days. Even more terrifying, he has targeted one of the four friends. Which one will it be?

There are four members of the Women's Murder Club ... Lindsay, Cindy, Claire and Jill.

Lindsay is a police lieutenant in San Francisco.  She is jogging with her dog when a house blows up as she's passing by.  Three dead bodies are found inside, one is the owner of a company from which he had recently sold his stock, thus plunging the price down.  As more murders happen and more notes are found, the group taking responsibility want fairer conditioners for people around the world.  Joe, a deputy director from Homeland Security, is brought in to help the San Francisco police department solve these murders.

This is the third in the Women's Murder Club series (and the fourth one I've read).  Though it is part of a series, it does work as a stand alone.

I enjoyed the writing style and it went at a good pace. I liked the short choppy chapters. The point of view shifted ... it was first person perspective when the focus was on Lindsay and third person perspective when the focus was on everyone else ... but it was easy to figure out.  As a head's up, there is swearing and violence.  Out of the blue, domestic violence appears but it's nipped in the bud rather quickly (too quickly I thought).

I found this book a bit too political and as a Canadian, I didn't get some of the American references to things that have happened in the past.  I'd never heard of the Weathermen and there was no explanation of who they were and I don't really know what Homeland Security is.

I thought this was just okay and will continue to get caught up in the series.

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