Customer Reviews

The 6th Target (Women's Murder Club)

5 star:		(57)
4 star:		(36)
3 star:		(42)
2 star:		(28)
1 star:		(31)

 

 

I have my doubts. . . Did James Patterson really write this or did Maxine Paetro? James Patterson writes page turning thrillers that keep you hanging onto the edge of your chair. This book is more of a sad romance with little action and mixed plot lines. James Patterson is capable of much better. The Women's Murder Club doesn't even solve anything in this would-be whodunnit. If your looking for a good read, don't look here.

I'd have to agree that this installment of the Women's Murder Club was very disappointing. I love JP, but I'm not really a WMC fan. I really do not like Boxer at all. The ME is terrific though - she should get her own series. But this sixth installment is terribly bland, boring, and scattered.It started out with a bang (literally!), but died 10 pages later. And was never resurrected. Especially there was no "club". The other girls were more or less a sideline and had no real part. It was really boring.

I have read most of James Patterson's books, and all of the Women's Murder Club series and I can honestly say that this book was disappointing for me. While Patterson stayed true to his characters, he did too much with the plot. Most of the main events in the book had nothing to do with each other making the storyline very choppy and almost annoying at times. Not a horrible book, though not worthy of a thumbs up either.

I love James Patterson and I enjoy the womens murder club series. This book was way to choppy. There were too many stories going on making it hard to really get into the story. If they tied together at some point it would've been better. I'll still read his work, but this was definately not one of his best.

Not worth your time. I have read every book he has written and it seems they are more and more predictable. I keep hoping he will write something more exciting, or mind boggling, but no such luck. Read it you have nothing else to read.

I have purchased and read all of this series and I must say this one is a real disappointment. The book comes across as something he wrote ten minutes before the publishing date. The plot line was very thin at best, no drama, character development, real mystery. I expected more for $24. I won't buy another in this series. I've been sad with the last few books in the Alex Cross series, the thrill is gone!

This book gets 1 star because I don't know how to review witout giving at least one. What happened to Patterson? He was never a deep writer, never will, I hope, rank as a writer of American classiscs, but this is far below his usual medocrity. Maybe it's the second author; maybe she is really the ghost writer of this novel.

Besides the plot being almost non-existent, the characters are mere cardboard cutouts unable to stand alone. There are apparently a number of books in the "Women's Murder Club" series. Possibly if one has read all of these the characters are more real. Such reading probably dulls the mind so that this book has no effect.

The "novel" has 136 chapters. Perfect for the attention deficit reader. The crimes covered by the heroine, a woman with two dimensions perfect for Hollywood or the tube, are neither connected to the "plot" nor the movement of the text.

Do I regret buying this used book for fifty cents to assuage my boredom while sitting in a hospital waiting room? No. What I regret is reading the whole thing (without the benefit of an Alka-seltzer). My only defense is I'm stubborn. If you can get this for less than a dollar and really need something to numb your mind go ahead and get this.

I have read each and every word that James Patterson has ever published or colloborated on.

While the book reads fast and engagingly, I was left with the basic question - WHAT WAS THE POINT OF ALL THIS????

It's Woman's Murder Club, and there are three different sets of murders, but these women never collaborate on their solutions. What a club.

The different murders have nothing to do with one another - the only time they intersect is by coincidence or in conversation.

I was left with a clear sense that Patterson/Paetro had three small stories, none of which they felt they could grow into a gripping tale.

This book reads as if it were writtem by a committee of people who have never met. There are three crime story lines going on at once and one about the lack of romance. To tell you the truth, I didn't care what would happen in anyone on the "plots", and all I am doing now is wondering why I wasted my time reading this book at all. Thank God I did not pay for it.
There are so many good books out there. Don't waste your time on this one.

James Patterson has a basic plot outline, and he uses it over and over, changing only the names of people and a few extraneous details. It gives one a curious sense each time that I've already read this.

In this novel there are three plots, not parallel plots exactly, and not plots that ever come together in any meaningful way. There is the madman killer on the ferry. There is the kidnapping of the musical prodigy girl. And there are the murders and the dog killing at a high-rise apartment house.

So where does Patterson go wrong? To begin with, the narration is a total mess. Part of the time it is first person by Boxer, the police lieutenant/sergeant. Sometimes it is third person omniscient. And sometimes I'm not sure where it is at all: it just jumps around from one person to another in dizzying fashion.

The second problem is that Patterson, given a choice between a fresh observation and a cliche, goes for the latter--every time. And there are the countless comparisons ("it was like...) that make one groan inwardly and even squirm a little. Cliches and comparisons make for fast writing, but they do not make for good writing.

Thirdly, there is the drinking and pointless romance. It would seem that none of the characters can take a moment off without boozing it up or hopping in bed with someone or thinking about hopping in bed with someone. When this happens, the story stops completly and I find myself skipping and scanning.

Lastly, there are the extraneous details. Patterson cannot show a character without describing every last item of clothing that person is wearing. If he ever needs to make a book a little longer someday, we'll even know what sort of undies the character is wearing and when they changed last. There is also a complete description of every foodstuff and libation ingested or left on the plate of every character. As Gertrude Stein supposedly told Hemingway after reading one of his pieces: "Prune, Ernest, prune."

So what is it, then, that sells Patterson's books? Short--very short--chapters make the reading easier somehow. Then there is the action, lots of blood, super-villains who can evade capture for pages and pages. In real life criminals are pretty dumb. Only in fiction are the perps that good.

As an aside, Patterson does one thing I don't believe I've ever seen in fiction before. He throws in a couple of actual non-fiction people, a lawyer here, a doctor there. Obviously he got permission from the people to do this. I can only wonder why he did it.

In summary, this is just the same old stuff from Patterson, a bit better than some of his other books, and not quite as good as his best--which is not all that good either.