Product Description

As the only woman homicide inspector in San Francisco, Lindsay Boxer has to be tough. But nothing she has seen prepares her for the horror of the honeymoon murders, when a brutal maniac begins viciously slaughtering newlywed couples on their wedding nights. Lindsay is sickened by the deaths, but her determination to bring the murderer to justice is threatened by her own personal tragedy. So she turns to Claire, a leading coroner, Cindy, a journalist and Jill, a top attorney, for help with both her crises, and the Women’s Murder Club is born.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34088 in Books
• Published on: 2002-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 488 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
James Patterson inaugurates a new crime series with the impressively complex First to Die: the Women's Murder Club, a group of San Francisco professionals--a homicide cop, an assistant district attorney, a pathologist and a reporter--share their information and thinking on cases. Someone is killing honeymoon couples on their first night together and nothing that we know about the killer is, we realise, entirely reliable: the connections between the victims are tenuous and the killer's method varies significantly. Intelligent, sensitive, tough cop Lindsay Boxer has problems of her own--a potentially fatal blood condition and a suspicion that she is falling for the intelligent divorced spin-doctor forced on her as partner by a publicity-conscious city government. The conversations she has with her friends are partly a matter of looking again at the results of legwork--sometimes explaining something to people who do not share your automatic assumptions makes you look at it again--and partly a matter of sharing expertise; rapidly they realise that they are up against someone for whom murder is a sexual game. Patterson has always had an eye for the psychology of killers--here he adds empathy for those to whom caring about victims is a way of life. --Roz Kaveney

About the Author
James Patterson's previous international number one bestsellers include CAT AND MOUSE, WHEN THE WIND BLOWS, POP GOES THE WEASEL, CRADLE AND ALL and ROSES ARE RED, 1ST TO DIE, VIOLETS ARE BLUE and SUZANNE'S DIARY FOR NICHOLAS. He lives in New York. KISS THE GIRLS was made into a number one hit movie, and the film version of ALONG CAME A SPIDER is currently out in video.

Customer Reviews

Better than Cross
I read a few Alex Cross novels and thought they were "OK" nothing special not particularly gripping but solid enough reads.

When Patterson then started this new series starting with 1st to die i thought perhaps he might be clutching at straws.

However i was wrong 1st to die is an absolute stunning read from cover to cover i read it within a day i was that hooked on it.

The reason being i was hooked is because it is so fast paced so many twists all the way through the book just keep you hooked on the book.

Recommend it to everyone a truely stunning read.

Another gripping story .....
As a regular reader of James Patterson, I eagerly awaited the first instalment of his new set of characters "The Women's Murder Club" in 1st to Die.
From the moment I began reading I was gripped, and I knew that I had to read to the very end that same day to find out who did it!
Although this book is probably not my favourite of his novels, I enjoyed the new characters and the plot kept me going.
The quick chapter writing style of James Patterson is again present, which makes it an easy read, good for train journeys into work.

A great book . Both lighter and darker than ever before.
James Patterson has made his name writing about the detective Alex Cross. Well guess what,he keeps the theme, but changes the gendre of the star character and drifts into unfamiliar territory.

1st to Die, takes us all away from the grinde of everyday detective work we all learned about in his earlier books, and we are now presented with a new female detective, based in L.A. Who is good at her job investigating murders, is respected by her peers, but has various life issues to deal with that he has never really covered before. We have all enjoyed Alex, as the book sales tell the publisher, and we know that murder is Patterson's favorite subject.But, this time he's different.

The plot is carefully laid out, taking the reader through all the emotions while reading a pacey book, which can't be said about some of his earlier work. I read this book from start to finish, being unwilling to put it down and join in on a resent holiday, but the unpopularity was worth it.

The book is not overly long, with several twists along the way involving all the main characters. In a story which is based on murder, but has been spiced up through sexual acts, which made me cringe as you realised that there had to be some foundation in real life.

Needless to say, there are plenty of ups and downs as the story progressess, around the murder case, the characters lives and the villan in the story. There are several twists and as the book seems to be ending far to early, it really takes off for the final four chapters.

If you have read Patterson before this will compare with his better works. If not, this is a great way to introduce yourself to one of the more realistic murder fiction writers.