Customer Reviews

The 8th Confession (Women's Murder Club)

5 star:		(61)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(32)
2 star:		(23)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

This is James Patterson's eighth installment of his "WOMEN'S MURDER CLUB" series and it literally starts off with a "bang" as a floating meth lab disguised as a school bus explodes resulting in numerous deaths. Before the reader has any time to recover from the explosion... "Woman's Murder Club" (WMC) member Cindy Thomas, an investigative reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle is scrutinizing the brutal murder of a homeless man known simply as "Bagman Jesus". To the rest of the world "Bagman" is just another homeless loser and his death does not affect the rest of the world... including Cindy's friend and WMC member Detective Lindsay Boxer... who is immediately taken off the "Bagman" case so she can spend all her time on a rash of high profile "rich-and-famous" millionaire murders. As Cindy digs deeper into who "Bagman" really was... she finds out that "Bagman" was literally a "Saint-Of-The-Streets". "He'd broken up a liquor-store holdup, sometimes worked in a soup kitchen, said that he always had a few dollars for someone who needed it." He had even helped deliver a woman's baby. If all the aforementioned criminal activity isn't enough to get the readers engine running... a rock star dies mysteriously.

Simultaneously WMC member Yuki Castellano an assistant district attorney is prosecuting a big murder case involving a former beauty queen who beat her Father to death with a tire iron... and attempted to accomplish the same thing with her Mother... but failed... but not for lack of trying. Yuki has been on a losing streak... so this case has an added level of importance.

As the story progresses clues seem to point to the current millionaire murders being related to a series of high society deaths in 1982... and the deeper Cindy digs in the "Bagman" case... the more it seems that the "Saint-Of-The-Streets" may actually be a sinner. Now... based on the crime stories being presented... experienced Patterson fans... who have been terribly disappointed in the last few years... may start to think... hey... maybe Patterson has found his long forgotten talent... but then... we get to the romance!

The romantic interludes between all of the characters could only be appreciated by someone in junior high school or lower. It is hard to take these interludes seriously... such as when Cindy and Lindsay's partner Rich "hook-up"... the author writes: "IT WAS A PERFECT KISS, NO CLASHING OF NOSES OR TEETH." And this next quote from the same sex scene will make you laugh out loud: "RICH SLIPPING HIS HANDS INTO THE FLIMSY FABRIC OF HER PANTIES, MAKING THEM DISAPPEAR." (?What disappeared? His hands... the panties... or both? Was Rich a magician as well as a cop?) And when Yuki starts falling in love with a doctor... "YUKI HAD CAUTIONED HERSELF NOT TO GET TOO GAGA ON THEIR FIRST REAL DATE, NOT TO LET HER MOONY EYES SHOW."

There is one situation that comes up out of THE ABSOLUTE BLUE... out of left field... regarding Yuki and the doctor... that is so ludicrous and not needed... but I just can't tell you here. Not that it's a spoiler in the normal sense of the word... but it's so indescribably ridiculous... I can't take this absurdity away from you if you decide to pay for this book. If you want to see what this preposterous development is before laying down your money it's on page two-hundred-eighty-four.

In summary: the crime portion of this book is an improvement on Patterson's recent releases... but the romance would only be enjoyable in a comedy.

When I first discovered James Patterson about 10 years ago, I loved his stuff. He was by far the top novelist in the Mystery-Suspense genre. His early Alex Cross books were always best sellers and this was completely deserved. His books always had great pace, suspense, mystery and intriguing villains.

He still produces best sellers but he is living purely on reputation. He now employs associate authors thus enabling him to churn out novels 4 times a year. The truly great authors generally produce one book a year.

This book, The 8th Confession, is another assembly-line product. While it holds your interest, there is nothing that makes it stand out. The word that comes to mind after finishing it is TRITE. There is no real suspense. Instead it depends on familiar characters and thin plot lines.

Will the real James Patterson please come back.

SUMMARY: The Women's Murder Club returns for their eighth case in which a series of unrelated crimes both past and present converge.

WHY YOU'LL LIKE IT: Anyone who is familiar with Patterson and his numerous coauthors understands that these books are formulaic, and it's no longer a question of how contrived the plot will be but rather how enjoyable it will be to read. This latest offering is a step above the last two or three entries in the series, but nowhere near as compelling as the first few. That said, this is a quick and untaxing read with characters whom readers have come to know and enjoy. The manner in which the murders are perpetrated is relatively interesting, and the new pairing of Cindy and Rich is cute if pat.

WHY YOU WON'T: Patterson's quirk of short chapters is annoying and tiresome, as his penchant for ending each one with what he assumes to be a cliffhanger. It's plodding and actually slows the narrative rather than accelerating it. The villain is revealed early on as plot device, but their motives are never fully explored, and thus it's difficult to care about them or their victims as we wait for Lindsay to put all the clues together. The new romances for Cindy and Yuki are odd and rushed, with no real thought behind them; Yuki's in particular was brittle and appeared to reinforce her loneliness rather than abate it. Yuki is extremely likable but has never been as fleshed out as predecessor Jill. In fact, characterization suffers as the series progresses.

BOTTOM LINE: If you're in the series for the long haul, this installment is better fare than some of the previous novels, but nowhere near as interesting as the first few. A quick read with some good moments.

Years ago when I first began reading James Patterson books he wrote his own works and they were top notch. Now titles are mass produced under a myriad of different shadow authors under the Patterson Banter and the quality has gone down the sewer. This work is yet another example. The plot is weak, the dialogue between the characters is lame and worse, the book is filled with diction errors. You would expect a competent editor to at least catch those. The ending is a cookie cutter lame solution you've seen in a dozen movies. I would not expect a respected author to be so blatant about copying plots, themes and endings. This is the third Patterson book in a row I've purchased and been disappointed with and it will be the last. There are much better authors out there who truly do care about the product they produce and I will buy their books. If I could have given this review zero stars, I would have because that is what this book deserves. But the system forces me to give it at least one star, but just know it deserves a no star rating.

I have read just about every James Patterson book written to date. I have become a huge fan of the Women's Murder Club...HOWEVER, I think that the entire Yuki romance in this book with Doc was lame. Seriously when will she get a break? Her mother dies, she is stalked by a psycho and now the Doc just doesn't measure up. I have to agree with others who have stated that it seems Mr. Patterson is worried more about deadline than storyline. Do not buy this book, go to your library and check it out for free.

It is time to dissolve the Women's Murder Club.

What had begun as a wonderful idea of four unique women working together to solve crimes had deteriorated into little more than a superficial attempt to sell more books.

Before I continue, I must make it clear to those who profess to love James Patterson's writing, that I doubt that he wrote this book. I suspect he provided an outline to Maxine Paetro, then reviewed what she drafted. That understood, stop saying that James Patterson wrote the book; he did not...Ms. Paetro did.

Now, to the story. The 8th. Confession is a superficial novel dealing with four storylines: A murder of members of Upper-Class San Francisco Society; the murder of a "supposed" good man, Bagman Jesus, helping the rejects of society; the inability of Yuki to win a case; and the love lives of three members of the Club.

The superficiality of all the storylines--and their sometimes ridiculous unraveling--makes for an embarrassing read. The death of the social elite is weakly based upon a story or revenge; unfortunately, the justification for the killings is so shallow, I doubt that Ms. Paetro would have pased a creative writing class had she submitted it to the instructor.

The investigation into the death of the so-called "good" man helping the poor and destitute is another shallow attempt at some kind of social relevance. The reporter, Cindy, a member of the Women's Murder Club, goes off on a self-righteous crusade to do justce to the memory of Bagman Jesus, since the police do not appear to be interested in the man since he seems to be one of the city's lost homeless. As his life story is revealed, the police are forced to become more involved. Why the reporter goes off on her own stretches credulity to the point of being trite.

The inability of Yuki to win a case is tiresome; the authors should let her win one, else why have an incompetent Assistant D.A. handle cases?

The fourth storyline involves the love lives of three of the members of the Women's Murder Club; it borders on the absurd, with two of the women having an affair with the same cop. The third member is involved with a doctor who may not be all she thinks he is. Of the four threads, this is the most unbelievable. What Ms. Paetro and Mr. Patterson were thinking of is unclear.

In the early adventures of the Women's Murder Club, the reader cared what happened to the members; in the 8th, Confession, that doesn't exist. The women no longer work together, there is little of their background in the novel for the reader to care about them, and each is involved in her own life. Also, the four women no longer get together on a girls' night out to work on solving a murder...the initial reason for the creation of the Club.

It is time to dissolve the club...and it is also time for Mr. Patterson to once more care about his writing by doing the work himself, and not focus on merely having the highest number of books in print, with his name on the covers. He should drop his six co-authors and get back to the kind of work he once did in the early Alex Cross novels.

All was going well with this book until Patterson decided to take a sudden left turn that really had nothing to do with the storyline or progression of this book. Sometimes I just don't understand what this author is thinking.

A couple of murders in San Francisco has Lindsey Boxer on the run. What does the curious deaths of a glamorous couple and a homeless man have in common. None of the usual clues seem to add up, that is until a quite by chance discovery leads the investigators to a rather unique murder weapon. But to fully understand why these people were targeted leads to quite a few twists and turns.

The storyline is leading the reader down a very interesting and fast paced path, when out of the blue Patterson throw you a sharp left turn about Suki's new love interest. This part had nothing to do with the storyline and I'm still quite confused as to why it was suddenly thrown in there. What was the point that Patterson was trying to make? I'm still confused over that.

This is one of those series that draws you in and from time to time and even though something will hit you wrong, you keep plowing through. Each character has their own story, each book reveals a little more. I like how Patterson is starting to reveal a little bit more about each character, each person is starting to show a little bit more of themselves and that is what keeps me reading the Women's Murder Club.

Once James Patterson took on partners, I worried the quality of his books, especially in this series would go downhill. Well, this one is it for me. I'm done. This book was so banal, bland, half-baked, and boring I wouldn't have finished it if the whole thing took more then a few hours to read. The chapters are two-three pages each, the level of writing is horribly simplistic. The relationship between the women that used to be enjoyable in the first few of this series, is now nothing further then a few meetings at a restaurant. No connection, no depth, no substance. I've had it. James Patterson bangs these books out so fast it is obviously he's no longer giving much thought to the plots or the point.

I love Patterson's thrillers. Always have. Since I discovered them about two years ago anyway. The 8th Confession definitely doesn't disappoint.

As always, I have to make a recommendation. Those who like the fast-paced plot of Patterson, but wish the romance was a little better developed should check out "Mightier than the Sword" by Megan Webster. GREAT book. Has elements of a thriller at times, really deep characters, and character relationships.

The "Murder Club" is a book I always look forward to. I love Lindsey and her pals, especially Claire. She's the matriach of the crew and her input is right on when it comes to solving the mystery. It was good that Conklin finally got a girlfriend in Cindy. He's wanted Lindsey for so long but it just wasn't meant to be. She belongs with Joe, another character that I love.

All in all, Patterson does it again in keeping me wrapped up in the story. A quick read and well done.