10th ANNIVERSARY

TITLE: 10^th ANNIVERSARY

AUTHOR: JAMES PATTERSON & MAXINE PAETRO

Pages: 395

Date: 16/04/2011

Grade: 4-

Details: no. 10 Women’s Murder Club

Library

Occasionally I find myself wondering why I’m still reading a certain series of books, and this is one such occasion.

Not that there is a whole lot wrong with this story. It is still typical Patterson fare; short chapters, quick action and not too many details. It is still a very easy and quick read.

On the other hand, there wasn’t anything to excite me in this book either.

The story revolves around three separate cases.

Detective Lindsay Boxer, who has just gotten married, is trying to solve a case of a missing baby boy. The baby’s mother, a 15 year old girl is found, seriously bleeding, shortly after giving birth and can’t really account for what happened to her or her baby. Lindsay is desperate to discover what is going on here. Is she dealing with a crime ring or maybe baby smuggling? Is the baby dead, slowly dying somewhere or already disappeared without a trace?

At the same time, Yuki Castellano is prosecuting a heart surgeon, accused of having killed her husband. This case is very important to Yuki and her career and she’s convinced the accused is guilty and the right verdict depends solely on how well she conducts the case.

When Lindsay starts digging into the, officially closed, case though, it appears things might not be so straight forward. Lindsay’s digging could not only upset Yuki’s case but could also mean the end of a beautiful friendship.

Cindy is at a lose end, not having a good and exciting crime story to report on. And since she feels that her job might be under threat unless she can deliver the goods, she is very relieved when she comes across women who are found unconscious, without a memory of the past few hours who have obviously been sexually abused. Cindy dives into the story head first, not for a minute thinking about the risks she might be taken.

Described like this, all these story threads sound like potentially thrilling and exciting plots. Unfortunately, that is not how it felt to me while I was reading the book. I never got a sense of urgency, never felt the thrill that should come with a book like this while reading. It all fell a bit flat for me.

No, it wasn’t a bad book, a bad story or bad writing. It just wasn’t all that good either.

Having said that, I just know that when the next book in this series hits the library shelves I will be taking it out again, in the hope that this time it will be back to the quality of the early books in the series