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Women's Fiction
2nd Chance/Unabridged

2nd Chance/Unabridged

List Price: $32.98
Your Price: $21.77
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: 2nd Read
Review: The Women's Murder Club is back in action as a fatal shooting takes place at a church. Our four heroines, Lindsay, Cindy, Claire and Jill, are back and better than ever as they try to find a killer that leaves behind misleading clues. I actually liked this book better than the first one if that's possible.

This sequel, unlike many, doesn't forget who its characters are. In fact, this book goes even deeper into their complicated lives. Lindsey gets a surprise from her past, Jill and her husband try to have a baby, Cindy finds herself falling for the pastor of the church and Claire is still Claire; always there for her friends and family whenever they need her. I was very surprised by this book. Rarely are sequels better than the original (especially books), but this story comes across shining.

The mystery moves like a roller coaster ride weaving in and out of possibilities and dead ends that will leave you guessing who's behind all the slayings and why they're doing it. The story is more emotionally compelling this time around pushing you deeper into the lives of the four women and letting you get a look into their pasts and their uncertain futures. Lindsay's storyline with her father is especially moving and easily relatable to.

I'm really looking forward to the third chapter of The Women's Murder Club and I would highly recommend this book to anyone who liked or loved the original. It's scary, often touching and will leave you in awe of the author who wrote another incredible story.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: TYPICAL PATTERSON
Review: I fly through JPs books in a day or two. He's great at getting you to the next chapter, but the formulas are so transparent and predictable you have a tough time remembering what you read. This second Women's Murder Club book is no exception. I love reading JP because the stories race, but afterward I can't remember much of what happened. Okay at best.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: There is a sniper loose....
Review: Beginning with the shooting ... of 11 year old Tasha Catchings in Bay View, California, this book captures your imagination. It is up to Lieutenant Lindsay Boxer to investigate, and hopefully find the murderer. Three days later the body of an elderly black woman is found, and then more victims, as though the perpetrator wants to be caught. Each time Lindsay becomes one step closer to the perpetrator, she then falls two steps back. Eventually, it becomes personal, as the sniper hits Lindsay and, luckily, misses. With Chief Mercer screaming for a suspect, the pressure on Lindsay mounts. Lindsay is on a mission that will make or break her career, or maybe even her life. A fascinating, adventure filled book.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: There is a sniper loose....
Review: Beginning with the shooting death of 11 year old Tasha Catchings in Bay View, California, this book captures your imagination. It is up to Lieutenant Lindsay Boxer to investigate, and hopefully find the murderer. Three days later the body of an elderly black woman is found, and then more victims, as though the perpetrator wants to be caught. Each time Lindsay becomes one step closer to the perpetrator, she then falls two steps back. Eventually, it becomes personal, as the sniper hits Lindsay and, luckily, misses. With Chief Mercer screaming for a suspect, the pressure on Lindsay mounts. Lindsay is on a mission that will make or break her career, or maybe even her life. A fascinating, adventure filled book.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Formulaic Police Procedural...but readable
Review: James Patterson has come up with a saleable new series starring a group of female protagonists. He's a good formulaic writer and this book is up to the usual standards of his best selling books. Lindsay Boxer, newly promoted from her rank in the first book of the series, is called to the scene of a church shooting where a child has been killed. It is the beginning of multiple murders that are difficult to string together as the subjects of a serial killer. It is only with the help of the Woman's Murder Club that Lindsay is allerted to the fact that several apparently unrelated deaths have the same perpetrator.

Character development is focused more on the members of the Club rather than on the antagonist - - that's standard for this genre. Plot development is contingent on the interactions of the members of the club with a few character insites for club members thrown in.

All in all, a police procedural that is light and entertaining. And that's what you read James Patterson for.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Second Series - Another Great Series
Review: I never thought James Patterson could write in a woman's voice, but he done so with Second Chance and succeeded. Second Chance is the second book in his series, Women's Murder Club. There is a big difference between this series and the Alex Cross series. But with Patterson's mastery of writing it another great series in its right.

Lindsay Boxer is back, albeit somewhat bitter and disillusioned, but with the onset of what looks to be a new serial murder spree, she is ready, along with the rest of her cohorts, to find out who is murdering African Americans with contacts to her own police department.

The chapters are short but pithy, each leaving you with a desire to read the next, and the next, and so on.

It is a great book for Mr. Patterson, and I am looking forward to the next one in this series.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Suspenseful!
Review: Typically not a fan of Patterson writing as a woman, but I liked "1st to Die" so I wanted to read this right away. It was definitely a page turner. I liked the characters in the Women's Murder Club more in this book, they had more depth this time. All in all, worth a read!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Fun and Inane
Review: Can't help myself -- I like Lindsay Boxer and the fast-moving plot. The conversations between the 4 women are either sickeningly cloying, too masculine or just plain ridiculous. I agree with the reviwer who said the characters were obviously written from a man's point of view. I just skip the contrived woman stuff and enjoy the mystery.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Women's Murder Club Battles a Serial Killer
Review: In 1st To Die, James Patterson introduced us to the Women's Murder Club - Lindsay, a San Francisco detective; Claire, a medical examiner; Jill, an assistant district attorney; and Cindy, a Chronicle reporter. Their combined skills caused the capture of a serial killer. In 2nd Chance, we meet the same women, but Patterson happily develops their characters considerably, and it adds much to the story. Again, we have a serial killer, but it takes time before we see a connection between the murders. We also have a more dangerous killer. When Lindsay and her friends get too close, the still-unknown killer turns like a rattlesnake and pursues them. This cranks up the intensity rapidly to a knockout climax. As usual, Patterson uses very short chapters - no more than scenes with a kicker at the end of each - to keep the action moving fast. If you like thrillers, it should keep you turning the pages.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: TO TELL THE TRUTH
Review: I have enjoyed many of James Patterson's previous works, most notably, Kiss the Girls and Along Came a Spider. James is quoted as saying, "The Thomas Berryman Affair (which I have not read) represents his best writing thus far .... but the prose (apparently the colorful writing in that manuscript) got in the way of the story."

I beg to differ. With 1st to Die and 2nd Chance, James whom I do respect, has gone too far, stripping the words of their more colorful friends. After reading eighty pages of 2nd Chance, I put it down. My senses of smell, touch, taste and hearing had been so overlooked as to become "sensory underloaded."

My recommendation is that James get back to his roots. Today, I can hear the hissing sound as his later novels leak their needed atmosphere into the ozone, taking on the thin and uninvolving presence of comic books.

What amazes me, is that the professional reviewers continue to give good marks, when clearly the hard working gentleman needs a wake up call.

Respectfully,
WHD


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