9th Judgement (Womens Murder Club 9) [Paperback]

I have read all the Womens Murder Club books and this one is as good as, if not better than, the previous ones. There are two storylines running in parallel, but it soon becomes clear how they tie in together. One is about a cat burglar who is being blamed for a murder she did not commit. The other is about a "crazed madman" who is targetting and murdering women with children. Each of the stories had me on the edge of my seat wondering how they would be solved. I like the way the authors develop the chraacters more fully, and we learn more about them. As the books are published you begin to feel more and more a part of the group. As I say in my title I could not put this book down and read it in one sitting not even stopping to make a cup of tea. This proves that James Patterson has not lost his edge, although credit also needs to go to Maxine Paetro who co-wrote the book with Patterson. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Buy it now and read it. You will not regret it.

I've read all of the Women's Murder Club novels - some were excellent (books 1-5 and book 7), some were awful (books 6 and 8) and I'm so glad I went with my gut on this one and bought it as I thoroughly enjoyed it, in fact I'd go as far as saying that this was my favourite of the whole series.

Like most of the others in the series, there's two main cases going on - the first is a psychopath known as "The Lipstick Killer" who is terrorising San Francisco by murdering mothers and their babies on the street and at random. The next is a cat burglar called "Hello Kitty" who is being framed for murder when a well known movie star shoots his wife following a robbery at their home. Lindsey and the gang have their hands full in this one, so there isn't a slow moment. Some of the scenes were so exciting I was flying through the pages as I just couldn't stop reading - a quick hour's read turned into a whole evening's binge and I had the book finished in 4 hours! Some bits of the story were a little predictable, maybe because I read a lot of James Patterson novels so I am very familiar with his formulas now, but that didn't stop it from being one of the best I've read from him for a while.

One thing I noticed in this book was that the main attention has been turned to Lindsay again, which is great as some of the other characters - Cindy and Yuki in particular - make the stories in the previous novels quite dull and I find these characters to be too arrogant and generally annoying, so didn't enjoy the ones when they were in the spotlight so much.

Although it is the ninth in the series, this could still be picked up by someone new to the Women's Murder Club novels and easily get into the characters and the gripping story. Fans of the series, like myself, should find this very satisfying and will have their faith in the series restored after the below average attempts over the past few years (excluding 7th Heaven (Womens Murder Club 7)). I definitely recommend reading this book!

9th Judgement is the 9th book in the Women's Murder Club series. I still think book one of this series is my favourite, but despite (sometimes big) flaws, the rest of the series is good to, right up until book 8. 8th Confession was a joke. All the characters got turned on their heads, the writing was very high school, and the plots weak with little interest. I wasn't going to bother with this one until it was out in paper back, but my sister wanted it sooner, so having loved most of the series, I decided to give it one last shot.

In many ways, this is a huge improvement from 8th. It's got strong intertwining plots and the much more grown-up feel the rest of the series had before 8th again. The usual style for these books is two different cases, over lapping and sometimes connected, with Lindsay Boxer and her homicide team plus her girls, trying to solve them. There are two clear cases here, both of which get decent page time and explanation. Unlike JP's latest Michael Bennett book where it felt like barely padded plot, this one actually made sense. There was a reasonable depth to the story and it didn't jump around too much with great leaps of faith. If the book was these crimes alone, I probably would thought a lot more of it.

But for me, again, the characters were the big let down. Don't get me wrong, they're nothing like the high school idiots they were in 8th, they're much more themselves again. But Lindsay comes across much weaker and vulnerable in this book, like her job is suddenly too much for her instead of being her driving force like always. There are several times where she feels 'faint' and one point even where her partner has to catch her around the waist to stop her fainting outright. I'm sorry, but what happened to the tough, feel-but-don't-show Lindsay Boxer from the first 7 books? She used to get outraged and angry at scenes, now she's fainting. And no, she's not pregnant or anything, that much is clear.

And while this may mean very little to plenty of readers, I just can not handle the Richie/Cindy relationship from 8th Confession. It is just completely wrong to me. A cheap idea to suddenly through the partner (and second love interest) with the best friend. Having never showed any sign of anything to each other before 8th Confession, indeed before then Richie was head over heals for the Sarge, they're totally in love and 'perfect' for each other. Someone hand me a bucket, I'm going to be sick. I'm not a big fan of Joe either, but I can handle him if I must. Yuki had a new love interest in this book as well, with no mention at all of the mess they left her love life in at the end of 8th Confession. Claire gets very little page time too. And when she does appear, she's always angry and furious about the case involving little kids and their moms. Fair enough, but there is more to her than anger, and that's all we got of her this time.

The plots may have been good, and their conclusions satisfying, but the end of this book left a real sour taste in my mouth. There is an epilogue to this book, which to my mind, has no point at all. It is something completely separate to the rest of the book but involves this massive 'drama' for about a page and a half, for no reason at all. Pointless plot that goes no where and does nothing. Done for the shock factor maybe? Well, if it was, it doesn't succeed. If doesn't do much of anything actually, save annoy me further and make me very sure that I'm done with this series.

One thing I found a little strange, but not exactly in a bad way, is how the criminals got far more page time than previous books. All the WMC books involve getting the odd chapter from the killers point of view, but with this book, I think they get at least 1/3 of the book from their prospective. Maybe more. And actually, those parts of the books ran quickly and smoothly for me, for the most part, I found them far more interesting and better written than the parts from Lindsay. I shall continue to love the early books in this series, but no more. This one may be a huge improvement over 8th, but I'm still done with it. Had enough of watching the characters I loved being twisted in to other people cause hey, why not. If you're looking for a easy crime read, this will probably do just fine. If you can/do ignore character development and only really care about the crime plots and are a fan of most of JP's work, you'll probably enjoy this just fine as well.