3rd Degree

This was by far my favorite in this series thus far. Oh the mystery, the suspense, the tears!!!!!

I can't really write this one without spoilers like I usually try to do so screw it!

OMG. JILL!!!!! WTF. Why did they have to kill her off!!!!!! That royally pissed me off, I LOVED her character!

And FINALLY time for Lindsay to get another love interest and this one ohhhh boy!!!! hold on ladies and well, probably just ladies on this one. He's a charmer.

The case was so well thought out so descriptive I really felt it was real and had really happened. Thank God it hasn't and hopefully never will but damn, this book was great!!!!! James Patterson is quickly becoming one of my favorites! I love all these girls in the Murder Club. They're all so show more different, so driven, and yet the same.... show less

3rd Degree
Women’s Murder Club, Book 3

I Picked Up This Book Because: Continue the series.

Media Type: Audiobook
Source: PP Library
Dates Read: 12/11/2020
Stars: 4

The Characters:

Lindsay Boxer: Police detective
Clair Washburn: Medical Examiner
Jill Bernhardt: Assistant District Attorney
Cindy Thomas: Crime desk reporter


The Story:

I am MAD at this book! I can’t say why cause it’s a spoiler but if you’ve read it you know. It probably pissed you off too. This one was tough. Tough on Lindsay. Tough on the rest of the Women’s Murder Club, Tough on the reader. So many die at the hands of a radical group and as confident as I am in this group even I doubted it would be solved. Lindsay also meets a new love interest and even though he is a show more federal officer I don’t fully trust him. #NoNewFriends

I finished this book in one calendar day so obviously I’m addicted to this series. Even in my anger I can’t wait for book four. show less

Third in the series, and quite honestly I'm not going to make it through all of them. These were the first James Patterson books I had ever read, and I'm not impressed. I've read many other cop series and these do not stack up to the others. The characters are relatively one-dimensional. The health issue that Lindsay had in the first book has magically disappeared and never been spoken of again. For being a book that is supposed to be focused on four main characters, there is rarely any interaction between the four women. Quite frankly, the mysteries aren't all that interesting either. Yeah, there are twists and turns, and things you don't see coming, but the procedural part is lacking, and the whole thing just needs to be better show more written.

Now for the spoiler:



How the hell do you kill off one of the supposed "main" characters? Who the hell does that???? At first I was just like, why does everything bad keep happening to Jill? What did she ever do? Miscarriage, abusive husband, disappears...and eventually killed. Just why? That right there is as good a reason as any to quit the series right now. But I own the next 3 books and book 9 so I'll finish out what I have, but I'm skipping all the others in the series.

All in all, it's an okay mystery. If you're already a fan of James Patterson, by all means, read this book and this series. If you haven't, I would recommend Karin Slaughter, Marie Force, Tana French, or Christina Dodd instead. show less

3RD DEGREE is the third of the Women's Murder Club novels. I'm going to diverge for just a second here and note that the Women's Murder Club name for this series gives the impression that Patterson is writing a series of cozies, if you will. Not so. The protagonists in these stories all get their hands quite dirty, thank you --- particularly Claire Washburn, who is with the Medical Examiner's office. Accordingly, if you have been staying away from this series because drawing room mysteries aren't your thing, feel free to dive into 3RD DEGREE headfirst. The water is fine and deep.

Patterson collaborates with Andrew Gross on this novel; Gross was aboard for 2ND CHANCE as well as last year's THE JESTER. They work quite well together, and show more the reader is the winner. The plain and simple truth is that there is no way one can put down 3RD DEGREE once it has been started; it is a book that begs to be finished, and the reader is only too happy to oblige.

There are a number of reasons for this. The protagonists are women, but again, these aren't girlie girl mysteries that we are dealing with here. Fans of Patterson's Alex Cross books will find all of the same elements in the Women's Murder Club novels. Patterson and Gross also keep things moving at an incredible pace. There may well be no better popular storyteller than Patterson right now. And while his style may not make Cormac McCarthy break a sweat, Patterson knows how to tell a story. If he talks likes he writes, everyone is going to listen.

So we come to 3RD DEGREE. The setting is once again San Francisco, which is the target of some 60s-style leftist terrorists. Their targets appear to be somewhat random, with the only apparent connection being that all of the victims are tools of the establishment. Detective Lindsay Boxer literally stumbles into the first incident --- the bombing of an Internet millionaire's townhouse. A cryptic message is left at the scene, with a mysterious group named "August Spies" claiming responsibility.

Three days later a prominent local businessman is grotesquely murdered, and another message is left. Boxer brings the rest of the Women's Murder Club --- Washburn, San Francisco Assistant D.A. Jill Bernhardt and San Francisco Chronicle reporter Cindy Thomas --- into the mix. The nature of these crimes is such that the Federal government also becomes quickly involved, with that involvement in part manifested by the presence of Joe Molinari, Deputy Director of the Department of Homeland Security. Boxer and Molinari soon find themselves involved as well.

Patterson and Gross handle this aspect of the story quite well, straddling the line between the male and female demographics of their audience and making the courtship, romance and afterprom credible from both viewpoints. They also do an exquisitely restrained job of describing the flora and fauna of San Francisco. They keep the city in the background, giving you just enough of a description of the surroundings that there is no doubt where you are, yet making sure that the scenery doesn't get in the way of the story line.

And quite a story line it is, as August Spies continue their reign of terror, aiming at one particularly surprising target. Longtime readers of Patterson know that when they pick up one of his books, they can expect the unexpected --- but what occurs here is over the top, even for him. It is precisely this target, however, that leads the Women's Murder Club to the motivation behind the dastardly acts of August Spies --- and to the identities of the madmen behind them.

Patterson, in spite of (or perhaps because of) his prodigious output, never disappoints, and there is no doubt that 3RD DEGREE will add new members to his already loyal legion of fans. If you have yet to encounter Patterson or the Women's Murder Club, this is the perfect introduction to both. show less

As always the women's murder club books deliver. This was intense fast paced and a complicated plot. I was sad that one of the main characters did not survive this one. I am eager to read the next installment. I did like the main characters new relationship I hope to see more of his character in future books.

Digital audiobook narrated by Carolyn McCormick

From the book jacket: 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 inside to search for survivors, she finds three people dead. An infant who lived in the house cannot be found – and a mysterious message at the scene leaves Lindsay and the San Francisco Police Department completely baffled.

My reactions:
This is book three in the Women’s Murder Club series with Patterson’s name getting top billing on the cover, but I suspect mostly written by Andrew Gross. The formula must not have been working well show more because there’s a significant change among the club members.

I’ll say this for the team of writers – they keep things moving quickly. There’s a killing every few chapters, and the women have a personal reason to make sure the perpetrator(s) is/are stopped. Vietnam era politics enter into the equation to further confound and confuse.

Carolyn McCormick does a reasonably good job voicing the audio. However, the producers felt compelled to add cheesy “suspense” music and sound effects. I guess they didn’t have faith in the writers’ ability to build suspense with words alone. show less

Great yarn, nonstop action, intuitive sleuthing, and I really enjoyed it – but what is up with these short chapters. Mr. Patterson, are you afraid we will fall asleep if the chapter are longer than two pages? Is this fiction for the MTV generation? And while I am at it what is up with the use of faxes as the most modern technology, this was published in 2004 but it appears the Internet had been invented yet.

I herby begin my use of the tag, “beach read”, which I define as any book requiring no mental energy to follow the plot. All ranting aside, this book is highly recommended for all lovers of thrillers and suspense fiction. If you prefer your murders confined to the parlor then keep looking this one will be a tad too grisly.