Ponder Post: 3rd Degree

3rd Degree by James Patterson (and Andrew Gross) is another addition to the Women's Murder Club series. My posts reviewing his Patterson's first and second books in this series were July 13, 2015 and August 29, 2015 respectively. So far the sequence is entertaining, light reading and it does sustain an element of suspense. I like that the characters have a familiarity to them so it is like watching a favorite TV show that is on every week. This third book in the chain of James Patterson Women's Murder Club novels is copyrighted 2004, so apparently it has been around for a while. I am notoriously bad about not getting around to reading books shortly after their release. Number 15 in the series will be released in May 2016 so I have some catching up to do.

In this third book, the basic plot line is that a group of "socially conscious" radicals use violence to attempt to dispel the fiscal greed in the world. The term used in the book was to banish "economic apartheid" where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. With a threatened deadline of another killing every three days, and with Homeland Security also involved, the pressure is on Lieutenant Lindsay Boxer of the San Francisco Police Department to find the perpetrator(s). Prominent business men are poisoned, a house explodes, a child is kidnapped, and public places are subject to terrorist type bombings. The Rincon Center is San Francisco is one such public site. I have never been there but the description of a dramatic 150-foot-tall "rain column" cascading water from the skylighted ceiling in the center of a lobby inspires me to go visit it. This murder series is set in San Francisco so I am introduced to locales near me that I have never experienced but might like to in the near future.

The chapters in 3rd Degree are very short so it quite easy to pick it up and read a bit randomly throughout the day. There are 111 chapters in 343 pages – the 111 is not a typo! There is a sprinkling of romantic interest thrown in there too, amidst all the fracases. Is this stellar literature? No. Is it an easy, enjoyable read? Definitely, yes.