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Jan 09, 2017DBRL_KrisA rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
This is the first book in Patterson's popular "Women's Murder Club" mystery series. A homicide detective, a medical examiner, a reporter, and an assistant district attorney, all women, all far better at their jobs than their male bosses, join forces to solve a series of "bride and groom" murders. The book is well-written, the dialog is smooth, and there are no big holes in the mystery aspect. The identity of the killer is hidden right up to the end; there are a couple good red herrings leading you to other suspects, but the identity of the true killer and the motive, etc., are plausible. There were a couple small holes in the detective work, but nothing that affected figuring out the mystery itself. I do have one fairly major quibble with the book, the one thing that keeps me from giving a five-star rating: the whole premise of the Women's Murder Club is that these four very capable women are being held back by their (often misogynist) male superiors. The "moral of the story" here is that these women don't need a man's help to get by. But the main character, Lyndsey, is saddled with this totally unnecessary romance, where she gets all weak in the knees and fluttery when her new male partner shows up. What kind of sad message are we giving women here? "You can do anything you want, be anything you want, you don't have to have a man to excel in life - except you do, because of your girl parts." There is actually a point in the book where the heroine (a police detective) is in the middle of a "liaison" with her man, and there's an earthquake (it's San Francisco), and she seriously considers not responding to the emergency call because she can't control her female horniness? For real? I'd really like to read a female character that isn't either a quivering mess around men or a ball-breaking man-hater. After all that, believe it or not, I did really enjoy the book. Short chapters, with lots of often funny dialog, and as I said, the mystery part was well written as well.