3rd Degree is the third book in the Women’s Murder Club by James Patterson. This installment follows Lt. Lindsey Boxer and her girlfriends through a domestic terrorist plot targeting the G8 summit.

I love this series and these characters and I look forward to starting in on 4th of July soon!

Lt. Lindsay Boxer has faced the Bride and Groom Killer as well as Chimera so far on the job but when terrorists strike San Francisco it is a whole different ball game! The terrorists are demanding action for crimes against humanity by the political and economic head honchos of the global community. People start dropping like flies, about every 3 days – and one of these deaths hits close to home for the Women’s Murder Club! Lindsay and the girls take the case and chase after the man in the wind known as August Spies. Will they stop whoever is doing this before the whole city come tumbling down?

I feel that this book takes a little bit more of an in-depth look at the lives of the ladies in the Women’s Murder Club. You find out more of the back story for Claire and Jill especially. I also am pleased that small events and story lines from the first two books haven’t been forgotten like sometimes happens in series. The characters still continue to grow and develop. Even though this series is told from the view of Lindsay Boxer it is nice to get to learn more about the other ladies and find out what makes them who they are and how they can do their jobs.

I also really like the narrator, Carolyn McCormick – so far this is the third narrator for this audio book series, but it looks like she is the narrator for all of the ones that are out so far after this one. She has a voice that won’t put you to sleep and keeps you interested – great for when you are driving because I have found some that could easily induce a coma.

I would rank this book in 2nd place overall for the first three books in the series (my ranking: 1st to Die, 3rd Degree, and then 2nd Chance). I really enjoyed how the mystery was resolved. I think it also shows how easily people can be manipulated for a cause.

I am already halfway through 4th of July and enjoying it even more than I did this one. This series is definitely growing on me!

4.5 out of 5 stars

Detective Lindsay Boxer is jogging along a beautiful San Francisco street when a fiery explosion occurs - she runs into the house to save an infant. Then a prominent businessman dies, followed by the murder of one of the women's murder club members. How are these cases connected?

I'm finally getting caught up... I've still got a few more to read. I really enjoy this series, and it's even better because it takes place here in the Bay Area so everything is familiar. :)

I got to the part where Jill-the-scapegoat's body was just found and I rolled my eyes and gave up. Not even the actual mystery part of the story makes me care enough to keep going.
This is some seriously lazy writing and I am done with this series.

The plot - terrorists trying to save the world from itself - is interesting enough for a formulaic suspense/mystery novel. It's the killing of the characters, and I don't mean in the literal sense of Jill, that is just unbearable.
Claire, my favorite, didn't even sound like Claire. She's become all squishy and whiny. Where did that strong, supportive, compassionate woman go? I guess all the scaring she received in the last book broke her and she diminished exponentially.
I almost stopped the book when Lindsay marched into Steve's office to demand he stop abusing Jill or else. Really? A homicide detective threatens a batterer? Has she never ever heard of people killing their spouses for just exactly because they'd been confronted? And Lindsay is a woman; as far as I've seen, having been a female all my life, and all, women more often rally around and protect their battered friends, not full-on threaten the husbands. I'm pretty sure that on some level, Lindsay would have been worried that the abusive husband would become more dangerous once confronted and would have known not to put her friend in that position. Apparently, I don't know Lindsay, friends, women, logical human beings...at all.
But it's ok. Scapegoat Jill who must have become a major obstacle to the author, died anyway and we don't have to worry about her well-being any longer. I mean, not only did she have to lose a baby in the last book, but then we find she's also a battered wife in this book. It's too much and there's not a lot left to do to her but kill her.
And my interest? Also killed.
Moving on.

I really didn't enjoy this as much as the first two...seemed a lot like a couple of Law & Order episodes that I remember.

Again, basically the same story, but a gripping, fast read. The writing, though, is starting to annoy me. I think I need to take a break from this series, though I will read the next two. I wonder why Andrew Gross got a promotion, from “with” to “and”.

I later read that Patterson just writes an outline and the co-authors fill it in. I wonder if this is true?