general

Despite the fact that the last two Alex Cross novels (Patterson's other ongoing series) have been pretty bad, all of his other non-Cross work (The Beach House, The Jester, Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas) has been very good, with his Women's Murder Club novels especially. I felt that "1st to Die" was one of his all-time best novels, and the follow-up "2nd Chance" was excellent. I don't think "3rd Degree" is as good as the 2 previous novels, but it was still enjoyable and fun to read. Some shocking plot twists, fast pacing, and ludicrous dialgoue abound! I think Patterson should retire his now horrendous Alex Cross novels and focus his energy on these ones.

The third book in Patterson's Women's Murder Club series turned out to be rather disappointing for this longtime fan. This time around, the four women are in the middle of killings by a group that calls itself 'August Spies' and appears to be targetting the big corporations.

While Patterson manages to keep the reader hooked with his trademark short chapters and the shifts between first and third person narratives, the novel lacks the "I-never-saw-them-coming" twists that he is known for. It is disappointingly straightfoward and the larger canvas(with buzzwords like terrorism and homeland security) takes away the personal touch Patterson always manages to achieve. Granted there is one unexpected development that really shakes things up and reenergizes the proceedings. But it seems manipulative and thrown in only because Patterson realized that the main story wasn't going to allow him to introduce as many twists as he would have liked to.

On the whole, 3rd degree turns out to be a 2nd rate novel from an author whose books are always 1st on my to-read list!

IM NOT A FAST READER BUT THIS BOOK I READ IN 24 HOURS,I COULDNT PUT IT DOWN.I FEEL WHEN HE WRITES WITH ANDREW GROSS I ENJOY THEM MORE. I HAVE TO SAY I WAS VERY DISSAPOINTED WHEN ONE OF THE MAIN CHARACTURES WAS WRITTEN OFF,BUT IT STILL ENDED UP BEING A GREAT BOOK AS WERE THE FIRST TWO.IM LOOKING FORWARD TO READING THE FOURTH BOOK. KEEP GOING WITH THIS SERIES EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT THESE BOOKS.