Thursday, December 5, 2019

The 19th Christmas

Title: The 19th Christmas
Author: James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
Published: October 7th 2019 by Little, Brown and Company
Format: Hardcover, 339 pages
Genre: Police Procedural
Series: *Women's Murder Club #19

Once again, the writing team of James Patterson and Maxine Paetro wait until the middle of the book to give the reader that little bit of needed information to enable them to pull together the disjointed parts. Then lets the book run too long with a little side note that will either be a teaser for the next book, or a need to hit the obligatory page count.

19th Christmas is a giant guess as to who Mr. Loman is and what his grand plan entails. Is this a wordplay from “Death of a Salesman” or is there more to it, because as the book says, there are “lots of moving parts”. So begins the long drawn out mindless adventure into Christmas Women’s Murder Club style. As the ladies each track down their men, suspects, and stories, their narratives slowly unfold with a cold and blustery San Francisco as a backdrop.

It was disheartening that the author felt a need to clarify the previous book, the 18th Abduction, before this current book began. If the reader was paying attention, it was clear from the start that the book took place before the birth of Julie and therefore she would not have been mentioned.

Not sure where the next book, 20th Victim will go, but with Joe’s first-born daughter, am I the only one that either forgot about her or didn’t know she existed, making an appearance, one does wonder if she will be a central figure.

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