15th Affair by James Patterson

Synopsis

Detective Lindsay Boxer has everything she could possibly want. Her marriage and baby daughter are perfect, and life in Homicide in the San Francisco Police Department is going well. But all that could change in an instant.

Lindsay is called to a crime scene at the Four Seasons Hotel. There is a dead man in one of the rooms, shot at close range. The man checked in under a false name with no ID on him, so the first puzzle will be finding out who he is.

In the room next door are a dead young man and woman, also shot. They are surrounded by high-tech surveillance equipment. Could they have been spying on the man now dead in the room next to them?

And in the utilities cupboard down the hall is the dead body of a house maid. The murders are all clearly linked and professionally executed. But what is the motive behind it all? Lindsay will need to risk everything she has to find out.

So, of course I was super excited when this book showed up at my door, because…. Well…. Lindsay Boxer is the best.

So once I got to read the book and realized that it was also another great installment in the Women’s Murder Club series, I was a very happy reader.

Lindsay has had to deal with a lot of stuff in the past, but nothing quite like this. Being followed around by highly dangerous men makes every move she makes a risk. She has to constantly be aware of her surroundings and be ready to fight at any moment.

That, coupled with her distant husband, Lindsay has a hell of a time solving this case.

I feel like as this series goes on, we see less and less of the Women’s Murder Club actually being together and interacting. I miss when there were more interactions between them because the characters have such great book chemistry together.

I also liked that this book made Joe seem shady. I have never liked him. I am sure things will be back to normal for them in the next book, but I hope not.

Overall, it was still a thrilling ride, and I never really guessed the twists until they were revealed.

5/5 stars!

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14th Deadly Sin by James Patterson

Synopsis:

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...

This doesn’t happen often, but I am going to start this review off with a complaint:

There was NOT nearly enough scenes with the Women’s Murder Club fully assembled.

With all of the chaos in these books, the scenes where the girls are all together are like breaths of fresh air. They are fun and comical and give the book a much needed break from the intense crimes. This book was lacking that.

AND aside from Lindsay and Yuki, we hardly even read about the girls doing things in their normal working lives.

Phew.

Now that I have that off my chest….

I did enjoy this installment. We are now 14 books in, and I cannot get enough of Lindsay Boxer. These books are released one per year, but that is not enough for me. I always get excited when I see the new one up for preorder online, and I always preorder right away.

This one did not disappoint.

I know by reading reviews of some of Patterson’s other books that the stories are getting old and repetitive. They lack creativity and excitement. If you are new here, I don’t believe that to be the case. If you are not new here… Well, I am still not bored of his books.

14^th Deadly Sin introduced some new characters, and a truly unsettling story.

Cops are supposed to be the ones we trust. But, when folks wearing SFPD wind breakers are the ones committing crimes, who can really be trusted?

I couldn’t figure out who the true killers were until they were revealed. It is always satisfying when that happens, because guessing the twist before the reveal can make a book really boring to get through.

I enjoyed the story, I enjoyed the flow, and I just really enjoyed having a new WMC book to read.

4/5 stars. Give me more Women’s Murder Club get-together.

Side note: There was also not enough Martha. Lindsay and Martha scenes are always cute. Pets <3

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Unlucky 13 by James Patterson

Unlucky 13 follows each member of the women’s murder club as they deal with their own encounters with criminals.

LINDSAY BOXER – Lindsay is dealing with some of the most gruesome crime scenes that she has seen yet. Someone is placing capsules in food that react with stomach acid causing an explosion within the victim. They die instantly as their insides are blown out. She and her partner Conklin follow different leads that take them to a hamburger joint.

With the bad guy asking for more money each time a bomb goes off and setting off bombs with greater frequency, Lindsay and Conklin have to work quick to discover who is behind it before more innocent people have to die.

YUKI – Happy and in love, Yuki gets married to Brady. Everything is going great until they depart on their honeymoon. All too quickly it becomes a matter of life or death when their boat is taken over by madmen who kill an innocent passenger for every hour that goes by without them getting paid.

CINDY – Mackie Morales has resurfaced, and Cindy sees this as the story of a lifetime. She takes a tip that Lindsay gives her by mistake and she runs with it, tracking Mackie halfway across the country. By the time Cindy arrives and notifies local authorities, Mackie is already back on the move. Once she discovers that Cindy is on her tail, she decides that it is finally time to get her revenge on Lindsay for being the reason her love Mr. Fish died. Will Cindy be able to warn Lindsay before her life is at stake?

This one was a little different from the others in the series. I, and presumably most other fans, am used to the group working together to figure out a case. This time, they all had their own to worry about. The only exception was Claire. She was helping with the “Belly Bomb” case that Lindsay was assigned to because it was taking place in her area.

That being said, it was almost like it was 3 times the thrill. It was three different storylines that all intertwined and affected each party differently.  

It lacked the intensity that some of the other books have, but it did not take away from the entertainment of reading it.

I expected to read a little more about Lindsay’s life as a new mom, but I guess I will have to wait for #14. There was too much going on in this one for her to settle down and have time at home.

I can’t believe I have to wait another year for the next one!

4.5/5 stars

Memorable quotes: “Darlin’, here’s to the best sex, best friends, and the best times,  for the whole of your lives.”

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