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3RD DEGREE is the third of the Women's Murder Club novels. I'm going to diverge for just a second here and note that the Women's Murder Club name for this series gives the impression that Patterson is writing a series of cozies, if you will. Not so. The protagonists in these stories all get their hands quite dirty, thank you --- particularly Claire Washburn, who is with the Medical Examiner's office. Accordingly, if you have been staying away from this series because drawing room mysteries aren't your thing, feel free to dive into 3RD DEGREE headfirst. The water is fine and deep.
Patterson collaborates with Andrew Gross on this novel; Gross was aboard for 2ND CHANCE as well as last year's THE JESTER. They work quite well together, and the reader is the winner. The plain and simple truth is that there is no way one can put down 3RD DEGREE once it has been started; it is a book that begs to be finished, and the reader is only too happy to oblige.
There are a number of reasons for this. The protagonists are women, but again, these aren't girlie girl mysteries that we are dealing with here. Fans of Patterson's Alex Cross books will find all of the same elements in the Women's Murder Club novels. Patterson and Gross also keep things moving at an incredible pace. There may well be no better popular storyteller than Patterson right now. And while his style may not make Cormac McCarthy break a sweat, Patterson knows how to tell a story. If he talks likes he writes, everyone is going to listen.
So we come to 3RD DEGREE. The setting is once again San Francisco, which is the target of some 60s-style leftist terrorists. Their targets appear to be somewhat random, with the only apparent connection being that all of the victims are tools of the establishment. Detective Lindsay Boxer literally stumbles into the first incident --- the bombing of an Internet millionaire's townhouse. A cryptic message is left at the scene, with a mysterious group named "August Spies" claiming responsibility.
Three days later a prominent local businessman is grotesquely murdered, and another message is left. Boxer brings the rest of the Women's Murder Club --- Washburn, San Francisco Assistant D.A. Jill Bernhardt and San Francisco Chronicle reporter Cindy Thomas --- into the mix. The nature of these crimes is such that the Federal government also becomes quickly involved, with that involvement in part manifested by the presence of Joe Molinari, Deputy Director of the Department of Homeland Security. Boxer and Molinari soon find themselves involved as well.
Patterson and Gross handle this aspect of the story quite well, straddling the line between the male and female demographics of their audience and making the courtship, romance and afterprom credible from both viewpoints. They also do an exquisitely restrained job of describing the flora and fauna of San Francisco. They keep the city in the background, giving you just enough of a description of the surroundings that there is no doubt where you are, yet making sure that the scenery doesn't get in the way of the story line.
And quite a story line it is, as August Spies continue their reign of terror, aiming at one particularly surprising target. Longtime readers of Patterson know that when they pick up one of his books, they can expect the unexpected --- but what occurs here is over the top, even for him. It is precisely this target, however, that leads the Women's Murder Club to the motivation behind the dastardly acts of August Spies --- and to the identities of the madmen behind them.
Patterson, in spite of (or perhaps because of) his prodigious output, never disappoints, and there is no doubt that 3RD DEGREE will add new members to his already loyal legion of fans. If you have yet to encounter Patterson or the Women's Murder Club, this is the perfect introduction to both.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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