The 9th Judgment

one of the better books in the women's murder club series so far! felt like it was going from the start to the end, the kind of book you don't want to put down. i'm a big patterson fan, i love short chapters, makes me feel like i'm accomplishing more. however, when they're short, it's easy to say "just one more" and stay up half the night to find out how it ends. this story follows two criminals, the lipstick killer, who is murdering women and children in public places, and a cat burglar that cindy at the daily chronicle dubs "hello kitty," who quietly breaks into occupied homes of the rich and famous to steal their jewelry. when an "innocent" robbery becomes murder, there is more than meets the eye. never a dull moment, lindsey and rich work both cases, while claire tells the women/mothers of the area to carry a gun, after seeing babies and young children brutally murdered.

Dynamic Duo in Top Form! Best of WMC books yet! From the cover of The 9th Judgment (The Women's Murder Club): The Women's Murder Club hunts a killer with a motto: Women and children first! If that doesn't grab you, all you have to do is read the first chapter to become thoroughly hooked on this heavy-hitting action-thriller. Chapter one opens with the wife of popular movie star Marcus Dowling being murdered in what appears to be a cat burglary. The finger points to Hello Kitty, a burglar who has been robbing other wealthy people under similar circumstances. Chapter two starts with a ruthless killer following a young mother and her infant son to a parking garage and shooting them in cold blood. The finger points nowhere in this case because the only clue is a cryptic message scrawled across a windshield in blood red lipstick. Our main protagonist, Detective Lindsay Boxer of SFPD, is assigned to manage both the "Hello Kitty" and the "Lipstick Killer" cases. She wants to personally handle the child-killer case because she hates child-killers with a passion. She knows the media will make more of the Dowling case because of their prestige, so fears the department will put more manpower on the latter... And sure enough, Lieutenant Jacobi pulls her from the one she wants while giving her and her partner Rich Conklin the Dowling case. The Lipstick Killer strikes again, resulting in San Francisco residents becoming increasingly incensed and frightened...resulting in the complexities of both cases pulling Lindsay back in. Even though Lindsay's Women's Murder Club friends, Claire, Cindy and Yuki lend their own brand of charm and personality to The 9th Judgment (The Women's Murder Club) as in others, Lindsay is front and center in this one. She's in her element: strong, smart, independent, capable...beautiful (and need I mention sexy?). This is a fast-paced book that kept me turning pages faster than the killer's speeding bullets. The excitement was practically nonstop, so I couldn't quit reading... OMG, when the killer has Lindsay at his mercy on the streets of San Francisco, the things he makes her do are horrendous. I was holding my breath, waiting for her to take a bullet any second... It was breathtakingly realistic. Even though my emotions reached all-time highs that quickly plummeted to the depths of despair, the story flowed so smoothly that I recovered quickly. What a ride! Patterson and Paetro weave the lives of the burglar, the killer and the actor into the plot with dexterity, all the while managing the police departmental politics and Lindsay's friends with realism and compassion. The cat burglar is a surprise to the police and is a very empathetic character with an interesting life that adds more flavor to this increasingly "tasty" book. Just who is the cat burglar? What's s/he running from? Why does s/he rob? Why help the police? And who is the Lipstick Killer? How does the killer relate to the cat burglar? Who really killed th

I have read this complete series. Worth the wait for this installment. Will this continue?

James Patterson has done it again. 9th Judgement was a fast and exciting read with turns you don't see coming. What an imagination. The story was fast moving with all our familiar characters from the Women's Murder Club. I read this book twice to makce sure that I didn't miss anythng. Great mystery. My cousin in Chicago is going to love reading it.

Once you get a few books into a series you tend to read them all even if you think they may not be so great. I didn't expect much from this since it is number 9 but couldn't resist as I wanted to know what Lindsay and the crew were up to. I was happy I made the purchase. This book kept me entertained from the get go. I was so into the book that I was talking to the characters. Mostly to the Lipstick Killer giving him/her a piece of my mind but talking to them nonetheless. If you like the Women's Murder Club, pick it up and give it a read. You won't be disappointed.

I am a fan of the Women's Murder Club Series and this book does not disappoint. All of the characters we have come to know and love are back for an encore performance. The book is a good read. This writing duo manages to artfully intereweave investigation of a serial killer with that of a jewel thief. And as would be expected in a well crafted novel, these two threads finally come together. I hope we will continue to see future novels in this series