Wednesday 7 October 2015

Book ~ "14th Deadly Sin" (2015) James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

From Goodreads ~ Detective Lindsay Boxer and her three best friends are back and recovering from the events that pushed them all to the edge. 

 After her near-death experience, Yuki is seeing her life from a new perspective and is considering a change in her law career. San Francisco Chronicle reporter Cindy has healed from her gunshot wound and has published a book on the infamous serial killers she helped to bring down. Lindsay is just happy that the gang are all still in one piece. 

 But a new terror is sweeping the streets of San Francisco. A gang dressed as cops are ransacking the city, and leaving a string of dead bodies in their wake. Lindsay is on the case to track them down and needs to discover whether these killers could actually be police officers. Maybe even cops she already knows.

There are four members of the Women's Murder Club ... Lindsay, Cindy, Claire and Yuki.  In this book, Cindy gets very little airtime and Claire is non-existent.

There were lots of stories going on in this book.  Three people dressed as cops are robbing money mart stores and shooting the workers.  They are also suspected of robbing drug dealers and killing them too.  This story went throughout the book and when it was resolved, there was no reason given as to why they did it.

Yuki quits her job to become a lawyer for a non-profit organization providing guidance to those who can't afford it.  Her first client is the mother of a 15-year-old (but mentally a five-year-old) who was arrested for killing some drug dealers and then got murdered in jail.  Once the case is over, her storyline is done.

Cindy has written a book about one of the cases from a previous book and is touring.  She and Rich are back together.  That was it for Cindy.

One of Claire's brief appearances is that she's mad at Lindsay for leaving her birthday dinner because a woman has been stabbed.  Claire comments that Lindsay always has to dash off during Claire's birthday has Lindsay and her husband, Joe, investigating whether there is indeed a serial killer who only kills once a year.  I could have done without this storyline.

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

I liked the writing style and it went at a good pace. I liked the short choppy chapters.  I thought this book was okay ... it was a bit over the top, though, with so many crazy storylines.  I had a hard time keeping track of who every one was and what story line they were in.  Plus Lindsay and Joe, who is a former Director of Homeland Security, make some rookie moves when they let their guard down around some crazies, which I didn't find believable as they should have known better.

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, adult activity and violence.  It ends with a bit of a cliffhanger.

Yes, I'll read the next one when it comes out.

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