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Lindsay Boxer and the Women’s Murder Club are back in this eighth installment in the series by James Patterson with Maxine Paetro. Will the murder club and friendships be torn apart by love as a murderer stalks the rich and famous?
On the way to work one morning, Detective Lindsay Boxer and her partner, Rich Conklin, encounter an explosion on a bus on the busy streets of San Francisco, but they immediately chalk it up as drug-related. Later, a homeless man is found executed—but since a high society couple is found dead in their beds with no visible cause of death, Lindsay is ordered to investigate it first, leaving reporter Cindy Thomas to dig around and figure out who killed the man known as Bagman Jesus.
The hunt for two killers challenges the Women’s Murder Club beyond their expertise, and when Cindy becomes involved with Lindsay’s partner, sparks fly and jealousy rules, causing a rift in long-time friendships.
Meanwhile, Assistant District Attorney Yuki Castellano fights to break a losing streak by convicting a woman who brutally beat her parents and killed her father for money. In addition, a love interest enters Yuki’s life and makes things wonderful, even as that scares her to death.
At first, The 8th Confession appears to be a typical, unsurprising thriller. But then, true to anything written by James Patterson, he smacks you upside the head with a shocking and clever revelation—both with the plot and the characters—and that’s what makes this thriller rise above others in its class.
As with previous titles in the series, Mr. Patterson and Ms Paetro have at least two subplots going on that don’t really relate to the main plot, so if you’re new to the series, it might be a little disconcerting. Also, I wouldn’t recommend reading the series out of sequence or starting in the middle, because you’ll only end up confused and wondering about character and plot developments that have been explained in earlier installments of the series.
The 8th Confession isn’t my favorite book in the Women’s Murder Club series, because the plot is a bit more subdued, and it leans more toward the characters’ personal lives rather than the action. But I still wouldn’t have missed reading it for the world, because it’s almost as fast-paced, thrilling, and shocking as previous books in the series.
