Book Review: Unlucky 13 by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro

 

Unlucky 13

by

James Patterson & Maxine Paetro

 

Unlucky 13 is the second book that I have read as part of my Women's Murder Club series catch up after finishing 12th of Never the other week. The Women's Murder Club series is my favourite by James Patterson but having had a break from reading them for a while I have decided to read the 3 latest books back to back. They are called 12th of Never, Unlucky 13 & 14th Deadly Sin.

 

The Women's Murder Club is about a group of friends that live in San Francisco, America. They are Detective Lindsay Boxer from the SFPD homicide department, Dr Clare Washburn Chief Medical Officer for San Francisco, Yuki Castellano a District Attorney for San Francisco and Cindy Thomas a crime reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper and together they help catch some of the cities most violent criminals.

Two dead bodies are found on the Golden Gate Bridge, however this is no normal crime scene. Detective Lindsay Boxer and partner Detective Rich Conklin have never seen anything like this before. The scene is more what you might find in a war zone and not on one of the worlds most iconic land marks. Whilst trying to find who committed these crimes Lindsay gets a call about a former colleague who is on the run and on the FBI's most wanted list. Is this ex-colleague ready to return to San Francisco and cause more havoc? Meanwhile one member of the Women's Murder Club should be having the time of her life but when tragic strikes it could all end horribly wrong. 

Page 1... 2 dead bodies... and we're off.. No messing about again just straight into the action. Love it.. I was already hooked and not even turned a page yet. This I suppose if why James Patterson sells so many books. His ability to not let your mind wonder and decide whether you re going to like this book or not.

As previously stated on my 12th of Never review, I love the characters in this series of books. I feel as though I have grown with them over the years. The regular guys are always there and each evil character is written so unique and different from all the others.

My biggest wish for this book was for one of the stories from 12th of Never to continue. There was a huge twist at the end I did not see coming and it was never put to bed as to what happened to this character. I was not disappointed. A big part of this book is "What happened next" with this character and was brilliantly written. The story took on more twist and turns all the way to the end. This book like all the others never has just the one story running through it. In Unlucky 13 there are a group of serial killers leaving exploded bodies around parts of San Francisco, another serial killer on the run wanting revenge and leaving bodies as they go and then just to top it off a hijacking of a public area that puts a 1000 people at risk from a group of mercenaries.

Is there anything I did not like about this book? No.. not this time. I loved this book so much. I read it in under a week which is brilliant for me and I have to say, in my opinion this is the best Women's Murder Club novel for a long time. It had everything. I also think it had quite a dark side to it which always makes things more intriguing.

I scored this book a 5 out of 5. I liked it so much I could read again very soon. I also could see this book being turned into a film will all the action that was going on. If you are interested in reading these series of books then I recommend you start from the beginning and start reading 1st to Die. Keep an eye out for my review of 14th Deadly Sin.

I would love to know what other people think that read the Women's Murder Club books? do you agree with me or not?? what is your favourite James Patterson series/book? Let me know....

Speak soon.

CBailey31 



 

 

Book Review: 12th of Never by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

 

12th of Never

by

James Patterson & Maxine Paetro

 

James Patterson is one of the worlds leading thriller writers having sold over 300 million copies in nearly 40 years of being an author. Just like marmite, book readers either love his novels or loathe them. For me, I am a huge fan. It was James Patterson books that got me started with this love affair with reading. Yes, I know that he has a small army of authors that write his books for him, but he writes all the plot lines and has the final say. Patterson is probably most famous for his set of Alex Cross novels. Other popular series include the Detective Michael Bennett books and most recently the Private novels, but for me, my favourite is The Women's Murder Club series. I find them the most exciting to read plus they are set in San Francisco my favourite city in the world...

 

It has been a few years since I have read a Women's Murder Club book due to the other 100 unread novels that sit on our book shelf. I have decided it was time to catch up so I am going to read the 3 latest books back to back starting with 12th of Never followed by Unlucky 13 and then 14th Deadly Sin. Over the next 3 weeks I will review these one by one. Big thanks to my brother Tom for getting me these books for Christmas & my birthday.

 

The Women's Murder Club is about a group of friends that live in San Francisco, America. They are Detective Lindsay Boxer from the SFPD homicide department, Dr Clare Washburn Chief Medical Officer for San Francisco, Yuki Castellano a District Attorney for San Francisco and Cindy Thomas a crime reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper and together they help catch some of the cities most violent criminals.

Detective Lindsay Boxer is pregnant but there is no rest for her as a professor walks into the homicide department to report a murder that has not yet happened. A convicted serial killer wakes up from a coma and says that he is ready to bring peace to the families of his victims. With all this going on Lindsay's mind is else where as she is faced with the biggest loss of her life.

The book starts off like most of Jams Patterson's books, straight into the action. No scene setting or building up to anything just "BOOM and we're off" This is what I most like about these books. Another thing I love about the Women's Murder Club books are that there is never just one plot to the story. This like previous ones is no different. There are 6 plots going on at one time what with 2 murders, a courtroom battle, a disgraced sports star, heart-breaking news and of course a love story. 

Along with the four main characters there is the usual supporting cast and then the evil "baddies". I love how Patterson writes his characters -  they are all believable and you get a good picture in your mind about them all. Although you could potentially read this book as a one off as there is always a brief history about the characters I would recommend that if you want to read these books then to start from the beginning. This way you learn about how the characters have grown over the years and learn how the relationships have been built and the full history of how they have become what they are now.

The plots lines were all very good and original but most of all you can see these stories happening in real life, which for me makes a good thriller. If you have read a James Patterson book before you know that the chapters are very short which means even when you are so tired and your eyes are closing you know it will only take another minute to read another chapter. Before you know it you have read another 30 pages. This book had lots of twists and turns as usual with one huge one at the end, which I did not see coming at all. I hope this story follows on in the next book. I am not the fastest of readers but you could tell it had me hooked as I read it in just over a week.

Is there anything I did not like about this book? Only just a small thing but I thought that the plots where based around 3 of the 4 main characters and Cindy Thomas was not really used that much. In previous books all 4 have had a fair share.

I scored this book a 4.5 out of 5. I loved this book and it was great to catch up with the gang. I can't wait to read the next book Unlucky 13. If you love thrillers I would recommend you read these books. They also make great holiday reads as you can dip in and out whenever you want. I must give a big shout out to Maxine Paetro who always puts James Patterson's vision into words very well.

I would love to know what everyone's else thinks about James Patterson books. Do you love them or loathe them? Which is your favourite series by James Patterson? Let me know.

Speak soon

CBailey31

  

Book Review: Disclaimer by Renee Knight

 

Disclaimer

by

Renee Knight

 

Disclaimer is Renee Knight's debut novel and is a psychological thriller with spine chilling twists and dark secrets.

 

Catherine moves into her new apartment with her husband and comes across a novel she has never seen before. After deciding to start reading this book she wishes she had not. why? Because she realises that the main character is her and she is sickened to know that someone out there knows a dark, dark secret about her that she thought she would take with her to her grave.

 

I first heard about this book on Twitter. Just like The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins there was such a buzz about this book. People who had read pre-published copies were saying it is a must read and you will be disappointed if you don't. Claudia Winkleman BBC Radio 2 art show presenter had also thanked someone on Twitter for making her read it. This just made me more excited for it to be published.

 

The book started completely differently to how I imagined it would, but not in a bad way. I don't know why. I just read the inside cover and thought the story would be built up but it was just like..... BANG straight into it. I really liked how the book was written as it flicked between Catherine the main character and the person who knew her secret. This I guess is the best way to get people thinking and wondering what has happened. Most of the chapters finished with just a little extra teaser and was begging you to read on. I remember one night reading it and I was tired but so desperate to find out what had happened. It felt like when all the Christmas presents are under the tree a week before Christmas and you are trying to find out what you have got.

 

The characters were written very well. I liked how you understood all of them, mainly because there were just normal people like you and me which makes it more real life. There were 4/5 main characters and then a few supporting cast members which keeps it less complicated.

 

Was there anything I did not like about the book? Yes but not much, it was mainly just a few chapters I thought went a bit flat and did not have the spark that the majority had. The rest was really good.

 

Did I guess what had happened at the end? No.. failed again, but I thought the story was original and not like anything I had read before.

 

I scored this book a 4.5 out of 5. I only dropped half a point for the flat chapters but that could just be me (Sorry Renee). I definitely recommend you read this book especially if, like me you love thrillers. I can't wait to see what she writes next

 

I would love to know what people think that have read this book. Do you agree with me or not? Let me know.

 

Speak soon

 

CBailey31