Wow, I couldn't even finish this. The dialogue was just atrocious, and the 2 page chapters were extremely irritating. Why is this author so popular?

great book! lots of action and keeping you guessing. one of the best ones so far!

If I rolled my eyes anymore at this series, they'd roll right out of my eye sockets.

The whole story seemed too rushed.

This book is actually the third installment in the Women's Murder Club series. I began the series awhile ago and am coming back to it. I thought I'd already read this book the first time I began the series, so I started with the fourth book this time. That was a big mistake! A big twist happens in the third book, so when I read the fourth book, not realizing that I hadn't read the third book yet, the twist was ruined for me. But I soldiered on and backtracked to the third book.

This book introduces a new case for Lindsay Boxer and her friends, Jill Bernhardt, Cindy Thomas, and Dr. Claire Washburn to solve. This one involves a series of bombings occurring all over the San Francisco Bay Area. The team must discover the motive behind these attacks before the whole city is under siege and more people are murdered. In addition, the team have to deal with personal hardships as well. I do not want to delve too deeply into those personal hardships, because I do not want anyone to have to go through what I went through when part of the plot was spoiled for me.

I do agree with some of the reviews I read about this book. The book is not so great as the first two books, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it and I am looking forward to reading many more in the series. I also wanted to mention that this series was made into a TV series called "Women's Murder Club", starring Angie Harmon as Lindsay Boxer, Aubrey Dollar as Cindy Thomas, Paula Newsome as Dr. Claire Washburne, Laura Harris as Jill Bernhardt, and Rob Estes as Lieutenant Tom Hogan. I don't recall Tom Hogan appearing in the books, but in the TV series he is Lindsay Boxer's ex-husband. The TV series was only on for one season, and I do believe I watched it, because otherwise, I wouldn't be picturing Angie Harmon as Lindsay Boxer. What is really weird is that it is almost like I am picturing Angie Harmon as Jane Rizzoli portraying Lindsay Boxer. Jane Rizzoli is another character played by Angie Harmon in the TV series "Rizzoli and Isles," a much more successful series. I guess Rizzoli and Boxer are very similar characters, so in a way Angie Harmon has been typecast from the beginning. If I recall, I thought both TV series were very good and I would recommend both the book and TV series.

Digital audiobook narrated by Carolyn McCormick

From the book jacket: Detective Lindsay Boxer is jogging along a beautiful San Francisco street when a fiery explosion rips through the neighborhood. A town house owned by an internet millionaire is immediately engulfed in flames, and when Lindsay plunges inside to search for survivors, she finds three people dead. An infant who lived in the house cannot be found – and a mysterious message at the scene leaves Lindsay and the San Francisco Police Department completely baffled.

My reactions:
This is book three in the Women’s Murder Club series with Patterson’s name getting top billing on the cover, but I suspect mostly written by Andrew Gross. The formula must not have been working well because there’s a significant change among the club members.

I’ll say this for the team of writers – they keep things moving quickly. There’s a killing every few chapters, and the women have a personal reason to make sure the perpetrator(s) is/are stopped. Vietnam era politics enter into the equation to further confound and confuse.

Carolyn McCormick does a reasonably good job voicing the audio. However, the producers felt compelled to add cheesy “suspense” music and sound effects. I guess they didn’t have faith in the writers’ ability to build suspense with words alone.