Author: James Patterson, Maxine Paetro
Published: May 2, 2022 by Little, Brown and Company
Format: Hardcover, 384 pages
Genre: Police Procedural
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Women's Murder Club #22
First Sentence: Cindy Thomas was working at the dining table she’d bought at a tag sale down the block.
Blurb: SFPD Sergeant Lindsay Boxer has guns on her mind.
There’s buzz of a last-ditch shipment of drugs and weapons crossing the Mexican border ahead of new restrictive gun laws. Before Lindsay can act, her top informant tips her to a case that hits disturbingly close to home.
Former cops. Professional hits. All with the same warning scrawled on their bodies:
You talk, you die.
Now it’s Lindsay’s turn to choose.
My Opinion: I usually complain about Patterson being formulaic and barely a step up from brain candy, but there is something about 22 Seconds that caught my attention early. More than the usual single file march, multiple things are going on from the start, which I assumed would eventually meld together.
But not this time.
Usually, the women’s murder club ties the four women together in one case. Maybe that did happen, but only by a mere fringe. Other than to bring Claire into the book, there was no point to the earlier autopsy she was part of. Cindy is constantly being told “off the record” which is usually the point of having her. Then there is the slight mention of Juki in the courtroom. To be honest, this is a Lindsay and Joe book. And unless I missed it, or it was mentioned in a previous book, why were people blaming Lindsay alone for the crackdown on high-power weapons?
If there was a preamble for either the Claire or blame Lindsay situations, I missed it.
Blurb: SFPD Sergeant Lindsay Boxer has guns on her mind.
There’s buzz of a last-ditch shipment of drugs and weapons crossing the Mexican border ahead of new restrictive gun laws. Before Lindsay can act, her top informant tips her to a case that hits disturbingly close to home.
Former cops. Professional hits. All with the same warning scrawled on their bodies:
You talk, you die.
Now it’s Lindsay’s turn to choose.
My Opinion: I usually complain about Patterson being formulaic and barely a step up from brain candy, but there is something about 22 Seconds that caught my attention early. More than the usual single file march, multiple things are going on from the start, which I assumed would eventually meld together.
But not this time.
Usually, the women’s murder club ties the four women together in one case. Maybe that did happen, but only by a mere fringe. Other than to bring Claire into the book, there was no point to the earlier autopsy she was part of. Cindy is constantly being told “off the record” which is usually the point of having her. Then there is the slight mention of Juki in the courtroom. To be honest, this is a Lindsay and Joe book. And unless I missed it, or it was mentioned in a previous book, why were people blaming Lindsay alone for the crackdown on high-power weapons?
If there was a preamble for either the Claire or blame Lindsay situations, I missed it.
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