Title: 1st to Die
Author: James Patterson
Format: audiobook
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Narrator: Suzanne Toren
Summary:
Four crime-solving friends face off against a killer in San Francisco in the Women’s Murder Club novel that launched James Patterson’s thrilling series.
Each one holds a piece of the puzzle: Lindsay Boxer is a homicide inspector in the San Francisco Police Department, Claire Washburn is a medical examiner, Jill Bernhardt is an assistant D.A., and Cindy Thomas just started working the crime desk of the San Francisco Chronicle.
But the usual procedures aren’t bringing them any closer to stopping the killings. So these women form a Women’s Murder Club to collaborate outside the box and pursue the case by sidestepping their bosses and giving each other a hand. The four women develop intense bonds as they pursue a killer whose crimes have stunned an entire city. Working together, they track down the most terrifying and unexpected killer they have ever encountered–before a shocking conclusion in which everything they knew turns out to be devastatingly wrong.
Review:
This book, was honestly very forgettable. I had started reading it I think last year, and put it down without finishing. Having been re-energized for this kind of story, I decided to give it a try again.
The story was not exactly holding my attention. The only thing that kept me listening, was I wanted to know the whodunnit part of the plot. The main character is diagnosed with a serious disease and is trying to fight the disease while battling to find the murderer. Slowly she brings her friends in to the loop of her disease and the crime.
There is also an attempted romance angle in the book. I could never get myself to care about if they got together though. So when certain things happen at the end of the book, I honestly wasn’t disappointed or sad about the events.
Suzanne Toren narrates the book. I honestly don’t think my dislike of the story had anything to do with her narration abilities. I think if the story had been more gripping, or more action, I think I could recommend her. As it is, she read the events almost like an old fashioned detective movie. Where the movie is going and the detective narrates you through it.
I will not be picking up the next book or any book of this series. I gave the first book two shots, and it failed both times. There are other books I’m looking forward to getting to rather than giving this series a third shot.
