2nd Chance (Women's Murder Club) by James Patterson
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Book Reviews of 2nd Chance (Women's Murder Club)
Book Review: I LOVE JAMES PATTERSON!!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Every book in this single is great! A great addition to anyones growing library!Book Review: Wonderful!
Summary: 5 Stars
Very fast read. Keeps you hanging on. I couldn't put it down. Now, on to #3.Book Review: 2nd Chance
Summary: 5 Stars
It's a pageturner. Can't put the book down when you first have started on it.Book Review: Another Chance---Verdict, pretty good
Summary: 4 Stars
This is the second book in the "Women's Murder Club" series, set in San Francisco, featuring police detective Lindsay Boxer, newspaper reporter Cindy Thomas, Assistant DA. Jill Bernhardt, and medical examiner Claire Washburn
THE SETUP
A series of murders of Blacks begins with the murder of a little girl who is the niece of a police officer, then the widow of a police officer, then a police officer, and finally the Chief of Police.
Before long Lindsay figures out who the main suspect is, where he is living, and even spot him, but she make no attempt to arrest him, because--get this---"they have no just cause"???? He's violated parole, any cop coulda picked him up, no excuse needed. Gimma a break. So, more people die.
The major sidestory is the return of Lindsay's long lost father.
PREDICTABILITY?
Yes, many elements are highly predictable, but only those Patterson wants to be predictable--he throws wrenches (twists) into several such threads. It is much better story telling technique to give the reader the illusion that he/she is smarter than the cops, smarter even than the narrator (i.e., the author), than to just pull rabbits out of the hat as needed.
FORMULISTIC?
Yeh, it is. Does anyone criticize "West Side Story" for following the same formula as "Romeo and Juliet?" Many popular authors writing in the same genre as Patterson would be wisely counseled to pay more attention to the tried-and-true formulas. The last novel I read had 6 or 7 seemingly independent storylines running simultaneously. I counted over 130 named characters in another novel I read recently. Within the past year, I've read two "mystery thrillers" by female authors which had no plot whatsoever. Yet, in another alleged "thriller" (also set in SF), virtually nothing happened for the first 800 pages. Far too many "mystery-thriller" authors just make it up as they go along, writing themselves into corners, and then resorting to deus ex machina to roughly cobble everything together in the end. Patterson's novels are at least readable, even if many are disappointments
SNIDE COMMENTS
Apparently no-one in San Francisco eats ordinary American food, even at home, not even cops, instead they dine only on Javanese, Patagonian, or Tuscan (et al ad nauseam) cuisine, and drink only wine from boutique vineyards no-one has ever heard of. But that's not just Patterson, it seems that every author who sets a novel in San Francisco swallows the insular (penninsular?) conceit that SF is the center of the gourmet universe. Worse, they compete in inflicting that tired cliche on us readers. The attitude may even have been only a little inflated 20 years ago. Presently, "fad of the day" is more common than "catch of the day" in upscale SF restaurants.
The sophisticated tastes (in all things: including foreign films, "high-brow" literature, the opera, exotic cuisine, rare wines, fashion, etc.) of the major characters, most of whom are supposed to be of relatively modest means, does not ring true. Those aspects of the characters feel contrived. It feels like Patterson is really just is bragging about how sophisticated he is.
I find it just a tad icky to be witness to a male author dropping the names of women's clothing designers and catalogs in every other paragraph--albeit not as icky as Deaver who is into women's shoes.
Patterson mentions the specific music playing in the background for every other scene. When overdone (as it is here) it has the tacky feel of name-dropping--although fans of those artists are undoubtably delighted.
CAVEATS
"2nd Chance" is actually rather sedately paced for a thriller, at least in the middle. I wouldn't call the novel a mystery--there is little mystery about who the perp is--until he is killed. There are several obvious implausibilities. The characterization and "team collaboration" (the whole gimmick to this series) is weak--the novel is pretty much all Lindsay.
EVALUATION
It won't inspire you, nor educate you; it won't expand your vocabulary or horizons, but it will entertain you, and that's enough. It's a few hours read, not a major commitment. Best of all, it satisfies. This is one of the better Patterson novels.
Book Review: Not classic literature, just plain fun ... yet flawed
Summary: 4 Stars
Okay, first of all, I read and loved 1st to Die (The Women's Murder Club). It was written only by Patterson and had his trademark thriller twists and turns without much wasted prose.
Now, I must say at the outset that I did enjoy 2nd Chance (The Women's Murder Club), however, this one was co-authored and it was obvious that it was co-authored. I've been reading Patterson for many years, so I'm familiar with what to expect. Patterson's co-author Andrew Gross's voice appeared too often and was a bit jarring as phrases that Patterson would never use showed up in this book. It made me wonder just how much of this book was written by James Patterson.
Now that said, I did enjoy the book, but it dropped to 4 stars because it just wasn't as good as some of Patterson's previous works. I'll go on to read the other books in the series, even though the remainder of the Women's Murder Club books are co-authored by a variety of authors.
My favorite Patterson books? Cradle and All - a hair raising story about the birth of a messiah as well as the birth of an anti-christ. Another great, though improbable story by Patterson is When the Wind Blows - a story about the dark side of genetic engineering. These are both books that I would highly recommend.