The Woman's Murder Club series has had it's ups and downs. Different people will differ in opinions on which are the bad though. For me, 4th Of July was the worst but I've really enjoyed the past three books. I had been really looking forward to this one but it didn't live up to expectations. The plot about the 'saint' homeless man was dull and the rich and famous people being killed wasn't much better.
This book also finally sees Lindsay Boxer choosing between the men in her, boyfriend Joe and partner Richie Conklin. I'm not going to give away what happened though. It was something that needed to be resolved but I don't think the way it was done was really the best way. Or even a particularly good way. Not many of the personal relationships in this book follow the past few books very well at all.
The storyline with Yuki and her new man is good, with a surprising twist near the end which leaves lots of open threads for the next book. Claire is hardly seen at all. There are a few short scenes with her working with Lindsay, but when with the girls, she's just there, she doesn't say much and there isn't much shown between Lindsay and Claire which, with everything going on in Lindsay's personal life, doesn't make much sense. Claire has always been the person Lindsay goes too, but apparently not now. I've never really liked Cindy, she's annoyed me and is worse than ever in this book, and there is a lot of her too. Richie Conklin is another matter. His character seems to have switched from the nice guy he is, to someone totally different and willing to screw his partner over, again something that doesn't come close to fitting with previous books.
I fully admit to being obsessive about books and their characters and yes I realise that people change and everything. But the changes aren't done well here. There is no quality to this book. There are phrases used by the characters that they've never used in 7 books, and they don't come out well now. This the whole book feels, for lack of a better word, wrong. It seems more like a book that was written because it had to be rather than because they had a good idea for it. It feels kind of like it's too young for what it is. Even half the descriptions of the main characters are written with language not used before, and again, it doesn't fit.
I think what happened here was a result of quantity = quality. Mr. Patterson churns out books at a great rate and even with other writers involved, this must cost on quality, and that is exactly what happened here. Hopefully the next one will be better, but I won't be looking for it with any expectations.
