In my defense, it was either this or talking about music and writing some more like I did on this week's vlog. It's not pretty but feel free to go ahead and watch it if you want to. So, a book review. Oh, but not just one book, four of them! It's a series and I gobble them up in a span of two to three days (James Patterson has a gift y'all), so why not talk about more than one? Makes sense to me, makes sense to you, and makes sense to the rest of the world. Or at least I hope it does by the end of you reading this post.
So the books are, in order, 1st to Die, 2nd Chance, 3rd Degree, and 4th of July. If you notice, they all have numbers in the title and all listed by the "number in title" part of the 2015 Reading Challege. He's up to book 13 in the series and I said that I was going to read all of them this year. I'm praying hard that he doesn't come out with a new book in the series this year. He could. James Patterson is known for being the Speedy Gonzales of the writing world. He has five active series and this year will see... Wikipedia says three books. I say someone hasn't updated the article considering last year he came out with seven books. For all I know he might be slowing down but I love the fact that he can do so much in writing all these different series. It is something that I aspire to be in my writing.
Back to the books themselves, they are an insanely fast read. I could read them faster, if I just sat and read, but I do have other things to do with my life. It's set in San Francisco, which is a place that I would like to visit but won't cry tears over if I don't, and there's one main character, Lindsey Boxer, and the three major characters - Cindy Thomas, Claire Washburn, and Jill Bernhardt (later Yuki Castellano) that orbit around Lindsey. This is shown in the first book, the introduction to the series, and then cemented into place in the second book. It's more commonplace by the third and fourth book, continuing on through the rest of the series. You get their personal issues, to feel more attached to the characters, rather than just the case that they're working on. For example, in the first book, Lindsey has a life threatening medical issue that is the entire secondary plot line of the book. In the second book, you get to see Cindy more in a relationship with someone who they thought was targeted by the killers they're looking for and so on. I think it's one of the hooks that work well with the series and I do hope that it continues on. I'll chime in later reviews if it doesn't.
So that's the nutshell of the books - there's a case and there's the personal lives of the club that revolve around the case. It's interesting because I know, in a later book, that something happens where Lindsey's personal life and professional life collide in a not good way and she misses a promotion. It'll be interesting to read due to, at this point, having her be nearly all about her job. She's got a boyfriend who is in the FBI, but other than that, it's really the job. I mean, she's got a dog, which was a nice touch instead of a cat, but her life is very one note at the beginning. It works because these are mystery/thriller and not straight up literature or chick lit. It's nice that there's a closeness and it blurs the line a small bit sometimes between mystery and chick lit but still stays mystery. It's not as bloody as, say, his Alex Cross series (Along Came a Spider is the first book of that series, also a movie) but it has enough to make it a mystery series.
So, I highly recommend them, especially if you're looking for a quick read. The chapters are small, the writing is tight and you want to know what happens next, and you'll enjoy yourself. None of them are creepy and yes, you might find them get formulaic, but they're worth it. My favorite type of brain candy as it's smart enough to keep me reading and yet candy enough to make me feel like I'm having a delicious literary treat.
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