Product Description

Detective Lindsay Boxer and Assistant District Attorney Jill Bernhardt are enjoying a quiet afternoon in San Francisco when a townhouse across the street explodes in flames. A sinister note signed "August Spies" is found at the scene of the disaster, and the body of an infant who was asleep in the house at the time of the explosion cannot be found. Soon a wave of violent incidents, all with links to political terrorism and involving "August Spies," sweeps through the city. An upcoming economic summit of the world's most powerful nations will surely be a target. And it's up to the Women's Murder Club to get to the bottom of the violence before it's too late. Delivering the breakneck pace and never-saw-it-coming plot twists that have made James Patterson the most addictive writer at work today, 3rd DEGREE is another searing and unforgettable thriller from the nation's #1 bestselling suspense writer.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1204 in Books
• Published on: 2005-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 368 pages

From Publishers Weekly
From the start, Patterson's Women's Murder Club series (1st to Die; Second Chance) has felt like high-concept TV with a smart edge, featuring an appealing and reliable cast of four female crime busters (a cop, a prosecutor, a medical examiner, a reporter) who race along byzantine plot lines humming with blood and sex, romance and heartbreak. But Patterson is an author who will detonate readers' presumptions for the sake of story, and in the series' third installment, the prolific author, working with frequent collaborator Gross (The Jester, etc.), defies expectations in a shocking way. Readers will love him for it. San Francisco Homicide lieutenant Lindsay Boxer, who narrates most of the action, is jogging with assistant DA Jill Barnhardt when Lindsay notices two things: first, bruises on Jill's shoulder; then the explosion of a nearby townhouse, into which Lindsay rushes to save a child. With the juxtaposition of these two plotlines, Patterson jumpstarts this enjoyably convoluted tale. The townhouse, home to a greedy CEO and his family, was destroyed by members of a terrorist group calling itself "August Spies"; Lindsay's chase after the group, which commits further killings, brings her into close proximity to what promises to be a new series regular, Joe Molinari, deputy director of the Office of Homeland Security. Love blooms for Lindsay but, meanwhile, love has curdled at Jill's house, where Jill's husband is abusing her. Then comes the big surprise, and the story's remainder plays out at high emotion and warp speed. There's a calculated feel to all that happens, but clever manipulation of an audience serves Patterson as well as it served Hitchcock: his fans will only clamor for more.
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Review
'[James Patterson] defies expectations in a shocking way. Readers will love him for it...clever manipulation of an audience serves Patterson as well as it served Hitchcock: his fans will only clamor for more' Publishers Weekly, 23/2/04 -- Publishers Weekly 20040223 'A solid thriller' Australian Daily Telegraph, 1 Mar 04 -- Australian Daily Telegraph 20040301 'James Patterson has evolved and refined a medium of his own: the crime thriller that moves faster than a book, but not quite as fast as an hour of television!does it keep you reading? I found I couldn't stop, in an obsessive-compulsive way' Sydney Morning Herald, 1/5/04 -- Sydney Morning Herald 20040501 'Another page-turner from the masters of the very short chapter with a surprise twist. In a word: thrilling' Herald Sun, Melbourne, Australia 3/4/04 -- Herald Sun, Melbourne, Australia 20040403 'This book won't disappoint. It's no surprise that it's still at the top of the bestsellers list' Burnie Advocate, 12/4/04 -- Burnie Advocate 20040412

About the Author
James B. Patterson (born March 22, 1947) is an award-winning American author. Formerly an advertising executive for J. W. Thompson in the early 1990s, Patterson came up with the slogan "Toys R Us Kid". Shortly after his success with Along Came A Spider he retired from the firm and devoted his time to writing. The novels featuring his character, Alex Cross, a black forensic psychologist formerly of the Washington, D.C. Police Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation, now working as a private psychologist and government consultant, are the most popular books among Patterson readers. James Patterson has been criticized by Stephen King, who called Patterson's books "dopey thrillers".[citation needed] Patterson shrugged off the comments, stating that he wants to be the "thrillingest thriller writer of all time".[citation needed] James Patterson has also been put as one of Forbes magazine's top 100 celebrities.

Customer Reviews

Third in Women's Murder Club series is a shocker!
Back from "1st To Die" and "2nd Chance", the Women's Murder Club finds terror in unexpected places in this third outing. Starring San Francisco PD Homicide Lt. Lindsay Boxer, friends newspaper reporter Cindy, Medical Examiner Claire, and Asst. District Attorney Jill have somewhat larger roles than the light supporting cast they portrayed in the two earlier books. We're also glad to see the adolescent dialogue from the last pairing of Gross and Patterson was replaced by much more meaningful interactions between the foursome. (We might quibble that it's an unlikely group from the viewpoint of a three-way conflict of interest: cop, DA, and reporter). Keeping in touch with modern times, involvement by Homeland Security personnel and a plot that featured seemingly random acts of terror gave the novel an up-to-date tone. And two subplots, involving spousal abuse of Jill, and a love interest between Boxer and Molinari, the Homeland guy, added to the torrid pace of the main and complex mystery for which Patterson is well known.

When a home is bombed and then a death by deadly chemical is followed by another bombing at a mall, it's clear that some group is out for revenge. We get to meet a few of the bad guy players from some first person dialogue of their own, but their identities are not all revealed until the somewhat surprising ending. The usual short chapters (111 in like 340 pages), plus a lot of blank pages from five Parts, make the book little more than a two hour blitz. But the shock comes from a direct attack on one of the club members, nothing new to the other novels in the set.

This series may not be quite as hard core as Patterson's more movie-oriented thrillers, but the generally likable heroine and her friends, along with a suspenseful storyline, is quite good enough for an enjoyable read. You might want to save it for the beach!

SEARING THRILLER!
Apart from the break-neck pace, I love the way Patterson squeezes in contemporary facts and events in his thrillers.

This latest in the Women's Murder Club series is every bit as nailbiting as the first two, but with a slight twist: this time, the solution to a grisly string of bombings cannot come without the expense of having to lose someone very close to our amateur detectives.

Riveting plot twists. Bullet paced turn of events. This novel packs in just about everything you would expect from a wholesome crime thriller. If you've read the first 2 in the series, you'd probably be even better off as you could relate more easily to the fears and idiosyncrasies of our intriguing protagonists.

So feed the cat, turn on the air conditioning and slip into bed with this very, very satisfying nailbiter.

Please don't spoil it for others
I normally love reading the reviews - it helps me decide on a book when I'm going back and forth on my decision to buy it. Although I already knew I wanted to buy 3rd Degree, I checked out the reviews. A few posts ago, someone completely gave away a MAJOR twist in the book. I shouldn't even say "gave away" because that might mean they hinted at it and I figured it out -and that would be alright. But no, they flat out said what happened in the end. I seriously couldn't believe it.

Everyone is entitled to say what they want, but this section is called "Reviews" and not "The Ending of the Book". Please put "SPOILER" in your subject if you're going to insist on giving away the endings of books.