Unlucky 13, Women's Murder Club Mystery

I have long been a fan of Patterson's Murder Club book series. I know they are co-authored with Maxine Paetro and this probably speaks to the style of the books. These books tend to have enough steam to hold my interest, but less outright sex than other books by James Patterson.

Unlucky 13 grabbed my attention at the very start and I never regained my control over my reading urge from cover to cover. I consumed this book in merely a day's time, twenty-four hours at most.

The Women's Murder Club books include the same four friends in all the books and there is an ever-so-brief introduction at the beginning for those who are not already well acquainted and anxiously awaiting more new novels. The heroine, Lindsay Boxer, is part of the San Francisco Police Department and the Medical Examiner named Claire is her best friend. As the series goes on, they bring in a journalist named Cindy into the club, trusting her with secrets in order to solve crimes, and making her swear to keep things "off the record." The last member is Yuki, the petite yet tough attorney, who joined the club after the death of one of the original members, Jill Bernhardt.

In Unlucky 13, Lindsay and her partner get called to a murder at the very beginning of the book and the deceased have somehow ingested a bomb that blew up in their stomach. They call them "belly bombs."

As Lindsay and her partner and the club try to solve this mystery, another threat, an old enemy from a previous book, resurfaces as a threat to Lindsay and her loved ones. Before it is all said and done, Lindsay and her partner, Rich Conklin, walk into a deadly situation with the makers of the belly bombs. When Lindsay starts to relax because the murderers were behind bars, she is confronted with her old enemy, Macki Morales, who is out to hurt Lindsay. Lindsay's first thought is to protect her six month old baby. There are more twists and turns in this story that I haven't even begun to mention. This is captivating and suspenseful and kept my attention from start to finish.

I have never failed to be captivated by the Women's Murder Club books and this one was no exception. Whether in spite of or because of the graphic details in the book, my attention was held and kept for the entire read. I am looking forward to my trip to the library to check out 14th Deadly Sin.