I finished reading
1st To Die about two weeks ago and am currently reading the follow up,
2nd Chance. The third book in the series,
3rd Degree, just came out. Now, that I've got that off my chest, let me tell you how much of a thrill it was to read this incredible book. I finished
1st To Die in one day and started reading
The Jester as soon as I finished it. As you might tell, I've been a James Patterson fan for a while now and I have almost read all of his books. With
1st To Die, he really experimented with a new concept. In past books, he had had the main characters be women like in
Cradle And All and
When The Wind Blows, but in this book all the main characters are female. Because they belong to the Women's Murder Club, a group started by the four main characters in the book. This is a good and a bad thing. Patterson's way of introducing the characters was really good, but they were very shallow and stereotypical at times. But I'll get to that later.
1st To Die is a murder mystery that goes to new heights to thrill you—and I like that. So, sit back in your easy chair, and let me write a review for you that will make you read this novel.
When a newly wed bride and groom are savagely murdered, it's Lindsay Boxer's job to solve the case with the help of her new partner Chris Raleigh, but when more murders happen and the police force looks stupid, Chris and Lindsay take it in their own hands to personally get the person whose killing these innocent kids. With the help of Lindsay's friends, Claire (a medical examiner), Jill (an attorney), and Cindy (a reporter), they start a club where they get together and talk about the case. Will they find the serial killer before he/she strikes again?
Now, some different versions of this story line have probably been done before, but the way that Patterson wrote the book really was more unique than most of the ones floating around book shelves. There are twists in this book, but don't expect them to be as shocking or as groundbreaking as in past books. Also, the ending sort of robbed you. I mean, it was just anti-climatic and you could sort of see it coming about thirty pages before it came.
But besides those small differences, the events that lead up to the last part are certainly very fun to read. I was hooked on this book because of all of the unforgettable characters and interesting plot. Now, I love murder mysteries and when you have one involving a murderer who's just killing random (? Or not ?) couples, then it's extremely interesting to me. Patterson is famous for his hooks. You'll say to yourself that you'll read one more chapter and then he'll write something that will hook you back into the book and make you read three or four more chapters. What a bastard. I mean that in a good way.
Lindsay Boxer is the main character and you read from her point of view. Being recently diagnosed with a disease, she's very scared and on the edge. When the Bride and Groom case comes up, all she can do is work on it and she rarely rests. She decides to start the Women's Murder Club with her friend, Claire Washburn (the medical examiner), to share things about the case with her friend. Along the way, she meets Cindy Thomas, the reporter, and invites her in knowing that she was a good person and not another mindless media idiot. Way later into the book Jill Bernhardt, a D.A., joins the group when they find the person who did it (? or did they do it ? ).
All the characters are really good like Chris Raleigh, for instance, who's Boxer's love interest. He's a believable character and his dialogue is ingenious. But the female characters' dialogues are just ill stricken. Their lines stink. They are very stereotypical and they talk like no females that I've ever met. They just aren't believable. And the racial stereotyping of Claire's character is also a pain to read through. It's as if every black woman refers to her friends as "girl" or "girlfriend". It's ridiculous and it annoyed me. Also, Jill was very underdeveloped since she came in at the last quarter of the book, but she gets more time to be developed in the second book. But if you look on the bright side, Lindsay is a very nice character as is Cindy Thomas.
Like in
When The Wind Blows, the setting was a little underdeveloped as well. I've been to San Francisco (where the book takes place in) many, many times and I know what it looks like as if it was the door to the bathroom, but if people who had never been there read
1st To Die then they wouldn't know what it looked like. Patterson didn't explain it well. Sure, it's rainy and the Golden Gate looks good…what else? He didn't explain it enough and that sort of sucked. What about villain characters? I love to hate villains and in all of the books that Patterson has written he has created characters that you genuinely dislike. Well, the one in
1st To Die wasn't nearly as much of a bastard as was in Patterson's past books, but he still has some bastard power in him that makes him easy to hate.
So, in other words, besides some of it's down sets,
1st To Die is still a very, very good read. The characters are mostly very nice to read about and the story is so intriguing that it will keep you attached to the pages of the book for hours at a time. I've read a lot of James Patterson books and even if this one's not the best, it's still a very good one that certainly deserves your hard earned time. I'd say that if you have already read a Patterson book then you should give this a try, but then again, if you are a fan of crime dramas (or mysteries as I call them), then you should definitely give
1st To Die a chance and check out the sequel books.
? Jason Haskins, 2004
"JiggyJay"
Warner Books Edition Year 2001 471 Pages (with
2nd Chance excerpt included)
Other Patterson Reads Cradle And All The Beach House When The Wind Blows The Lake House Along Came A Spider Kiss The Girls Jack & Jill 
