"Pulse-Pounding Suspense"

Third in the Women's Murder Club series, (1ST TO DIE and 2ND CHANCE), Patterson's latest finds Detective Lindsay Boxer of the San Francisco P.D. witnessing a horrific bombing of a residence after her morning jog. The residence belonged to Morton Lightower, a CEO of X/L Systems, who made money from selling stock in his company the same day that his investors lost money. Lindsay's subsequent investigation of the crime becomes more significant when her journalist friend Cindy Thomas of the CHRONICLE begins receiving threatening e-mails from the purported terrorists signed "August Spies". As more prominent, well-to-do businessmen are killed, Lindsay seeks to find a connection between the crimes, as her search leads her to Berkley and its revolutionary days of the 1960's.

Suspense is never in short supply, and Patterson has added an element of romance when the Deputy Director of Homeland Security, hunky Joe Molinari, arrives in town to work with Lindsay and put together the pieces of this fascinating criminal puzzle. With global leaders heading to San Francisco for a G-8 conference, the feds and S.F. P.D. work closely together to apprehend the culprits behind the anti-establishment terroristic threats in a pulse pounding race against time. Author Patterson's short, on point chapters hold the reader's attention until the last page is turned.

Reviewed by Sheri Melnick
Posted March 27, 2004

Summary

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.