Product Description

In a late-night showdown, Detective Lindsay Boxer has to make an instantaneous decision: in self-defence she fires her weapon – and sets off a chain of events that leaves a police force disgraced, a city divided and a family destroyed. Now everything she’s worked for her entire life hinges on the decision of twelve jurors.

To escape the media circus, Lindsay retreats to the picturesque town of Half Moon Bay. Soon after, a string of grisly murders punches through the community. There are no witnesses; there is no pattern. But a key detail reminds Lindsay of an unsolved murder she worked on years ago. As summer comes into full swing, Lindsay and her friends in the Women’s Murder Club battle for her life on two fronts: in court and against a ruthless killer.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #41564 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-24
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

About the Author
James Patterson is one of the best-known and biggest-selling writers of all time. He is the author of some of the most popular series of the past decade: the Women’s Murder Club, the Alex Cross novels and Maximum Ride, and he has written many other number one bestsellers including romance novels and stand-alone thrillers. He has won an Edgar Award, the mystery world's highest honour. He lives in Florida with his wife and son.

Customer Reviews

#4 in a series that needs new life breathed into it
For those that enjoyed the first three installments of the Women's Murder Club series, this will bring as much entertainment as the rest. Maybe that is a good thing, and maybe it's bad. Sometimes, as authors, we tend to rehash the same storylines because the readers want it. This book, while venturing out in some new directions, also stands pretty much by the storyline that some may have already found running a bit thin in the first three books.

Lindsay Boxer has already had more troubles in her life than most ever will. So, as to not let up on her, this installment finds her on trial. One day, all in a day's work for a police officer, a car chase takes a wrong turn. Forced to survive a firefight with the bad guys, Lindsay terminates the problems of the two killers they were chasing, but not after they wound her and her partner. Collateral damage in the shootout finds a 15-year-old girl dead and her 13-year-old brother paralyzed. Forget about making the world a safer place with two less convicts in it. Cries of revenge root a police brutality lawsuit.

Lindsay needs to get away from the media eating up the story and her every move. So, she finds a safe haven in her sister's home. Just to assure that she doesn't stay bored between court dates, she is also attempting to solve a recent killing that has all the same trademarks of one of her first unsolved case. It is a case of someone killing off well to do married couples in the better part of town. Could the killer be playing with her or is it a copycat killer looking for attention?

While Lindsay's running partners and pillars of friendship, Claire and Cindy, don't have as large of a supporting role in this book as in previous installments, they still appear to add a bit of that same camaraderie the first three books had. Lindsay's boyfriend, Joe, also seems to not have found his place in the series. He is there, then he isn't. He needs to commit or back away from Lindsay. I think adding a sidebar for some deep and committal romance would do Lindsay some good.

Overall, a good read, but the series needs to either be given some new ideas and twist or brought to a conclusion. Fans of the series will be happy, but newcomers may not be as amused.

Frederick A. Babb

Couldn't put it down
Couldn't resist giving it a go and I am so pleased I did. James Patterson never fails to amaze me and once again he got me in his grip to the point where my partner became a book-widow! This book leaves you in suspense right to the end. The only fault that I would have it didn't go on long enough.

Would recommend this to any one who likes the Womens murder Club.

aw, c'mon - it's a good read!!
Having enjoyed books 1 & 2 in the Women's Murder Club series - though I somehow missed reading the third - I was really pleased to get this 4th in the series, and honestly I wasn't disappointed.

I think the really harsh reviews are unfair - it's not "great literature" but it doesn't have any pretensions to be so!

What it IS is an attention-retaining story which has a few loopholes and a little bit more of the "well, what a coincidence THAT was" elements than I prefer to find in my reading material ... but it's so nicely paced, and the characters still sympathetic enough, that it isn't 'til you finish the book - having thoroughly enjoyed the journey - that you find one or two wee "hang on, what was the point of xyz, that went nowhere" niggles come into your mind.

So if like me, Dickens, Hemingway and Tolstoy et al appeal to you as much as root canal work without anaesthetic, blow your pennies on this - you won't exactly have to be the last Big Spender either - and settle down for a pretty satisfying escape from Real Life for a wee while.