This was my first foray into James Patterson’s works, and it might be my last. I gather that I may be alone in my lackluster reviews, though, as Mr. Patterson has made quite an industry out of detective novels- enough of an audience that this novel is the 14th installment in the “Womens Murder Club” (or WMC) series. As background, the WMC is made up of 4 professional women- a cop, a medical examiner, a lawyer and a journalist- who became friends through their involvement in different aspects of the murder ‘industry’ in San Francisco. This particular installment’s A plot involves a number of pay-day loan company heists committed by robbers dressed as San Francisco police officers, and the B plots are 1) a series of cold case seemingly random stabbing murders; and 2) a civil lawsuit regarding the wrongful death of a black teenager in police custody (don’t get too excited- there is no discussion of black lives matter or class/race politics).
I like that Patterson focuses on female leads (most of the detective novels I read seem to be about men) and how quick a read this was (it only took me about 3 hours for 300 pages and I’m not a speed reader), but those are about the only compliments I can give this one. My complaints, on the other hand, are many: the characters were bland and one-note; there were a number of events that were so unbelievable that I couldn’t get past them; there was very little that made this novel feel like it was connected to its setting (San Francisco); and for a novel that was entirely plot-driven, the plot(s) here was a big old ‘meh’. My biggest issue, however was how little nuance there was here- people and issues were largely good or bad, there was no real in between. The world isn’t that simple and the detective thriller is a great lens to explore it through- Patterson has missed this angle.