The 5th Horseman (The Women's Murder Club) by James Patterson, Maxine Paetro
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Book Reviews of The 5th Horseman (The Women's Murder Club)
Book Review: They blew it
Summary: 2 Stars
The subplots might as well be trashed except for the Car Girls. The rest of it was garbage and didn't know where it was going. It fact, there was no real indication of where it was going even at the end. The subplot of Garza and O'Mara was interesting, but it was as though this was sort of hung on there to make sure there were sufficient pages to justify someone buying the book. The twist and turns that are endemic to mystery books were simply added on. Why did the father of a little boy who was murdered by the "Night Walker" attack Dr. Garza? Simply to justify a few more pages. By this point, I didn't care. I had already deduced that Dr. Garza had nothing to do with the hospital murders.
So, what happens? Oops, we forgot to tell the readers who the "Night Walker" was. Sounded suspiciously like the Night Stalker of reality. So, they drag into the ending someone who had been mentioned peripherally and hold them up as the end all to the case. Dumb. And what the hell was Boxer doing in Atlanta? Was the police department in Atlanta so out of it that they couldn't solve the case by some back and forth via email or telephone?
In short, the book was a crooked and twisted look at nothing except for the Car Girls. Patterson, you can do better. I know it, because I have read better from you. Either get yourself a new partner or start writing them yourself. A C- or a D on this one.
Book Review: How did this book get on the New York Times Best Seller List?
Summary: 2 Stars
JP's first three books, Kiss the Girls, Along Came a Spider and Jack and Jill, were good books and impressed me with Patterson as an author. Since then I have read eleven more of his books and most were either one or two stars with a few three stars. I happened to read this book only because it was in a box of books that my daughter gave me to read.
This book has three storylines, serial murders and rapes of female escorts -- overdosing patients with the wrong medications - a hospital being sued for malpractice, none of which were directly related and all ended with less than satisfying conclusions.
There were many things left unexplained and unanswered, such as why the villains killed and what was the lead that led Lindsay to the villain uncovered in the epilogue. Since this was such a clumsy resolution to the main plot, I didn't even go back to see what part the villain had previously played in the story. At one point in the story the parents of a twelve-year-old boy are not allowed to stay in the hospital over night and the boy only had a broken arm. How realistic was this?
Book Review: Patterson's ghostwriter needs to step it up
Summary: 2 Stars
I found this volume of the Women's Murder Club. The story contained two completely unrelated mysteries, the first of which was solved with little circumstance or explanation about 3/4 of the way through. The second mystery was solved in the last chapter with very little explanation. I was quite disappointed with the whole thing.Book Review: Poor Research
Summary: 2 Stars
Unfortunatley the content related to the hospital murders was not researched. It was distracting. Linda
Book Review: Don't Waste Your Money.
Summary: 1 Stars
"The 5th Horseman." This is one of the worst novels, if not the worst novel I have ever read.
In my opinion it's very poorly written. To me, the characters are just cardboard cut outs, not much depth or complexity to them at all. I like the premise of a hospital serial killer, but the novel never really established anything believably enough for me to buy into it to feel the suspense. If I don't believe it then it's hard to get sucked in to care about the characters or what happens to them (though the last few chapters were a little suspenseful).
It's a fast read, with short chapters which makes it fly by which I suppose is okay, much really not much depth at all.
The novel starts out with Lt. Lindsay Boxer with SFPD investigating cases of young, beautiful women that are left dead in cars. They investigative team starts referring to them as "Caddy Girl,' or "Jag Girl." Then the plot shifts to a whole scenario of suspicious hospital murders and the trial of Dr.Dennis Garza, the chief doctor of SF Municipal Hospital's ER. As the novel continues you're left wondering what these 2 plots have to do with each other. I kept waiting for some kind of tie in and never found it. I finished the book (amazingly enough) wondering why the 2 plots were thrown together into the same novel that had nothing to do with each other! It just didn't make any sense. I was sort of foolishly assuming that when I read a novel there must be some thought given to it, or some reason why things happen they way the do, I mean after all it got published, right? Wrong.
Also, at times, the author switches indiscriminately from first person narrative to third person in the following chapter for no apparent reason at all. So in one chapter we're reading, Lindsay narrating what she's doing or thinking or feeling such as "I" got in my car" or whatever it was, then in the next chapter we're reading a third person narration such as "LIndsay walked toward the door of the morgue," Wait a minute wasn't it just Lindsay that was just narrating? Not that that can't change but it should make some kind of sense. it was weird. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason for the narrative change. I've read other novels where the author uses this type of switch effectively and it makes sense and there is a reason for it and it works.
I love a good thriller, suspense mystery, but this is not one of them. Sadly this is my first James Patterson novel. He must have written better novels in the past to establish such a name for himself. This novel seems to have been thrown together to meet a deadline without any real thought or effort put into it. I agree with the previous reviewers- he probably didn't write this novel at all, his co-author probably wrote it and it sells because Patterson's name is on it.
I only read this novel because it was recommended to me and I only paid 25 cents for it. I would never pay more than a quarter for this book. The only redeeming value is that I'm learning to write novels and some say it's important to read bad novels to learn what doesn't work for you. This book served that purpose.