Three Time's A Charm? Third Time Does Some Harm.

3rd Degree was released in early March to stale reviews and slow sales with critics and fans alike wondering if James Patterson’s reign on the book industry was over. Why did I try it then? Anticipation. Since I finished 1st To Die and 2nd Chance, the first two books in the series, in February I have been eagerly awaiting the third. So when 3rd Degree was released March first I didn’t want to buy it (due to the steep costs of hardcovers) so I did the better thing and pre-ordered the book from the library.

Now, 1st To Die had a good storyline, but the characters were a bit on the stereotypical side. When I read 2nd Chance a lot of the faults from the first book were fixed and the book was great. In case you don’t have any idea, the books in the series are about four separate women (a lawyer, a cop, a reporter, and a medical examiner) who are best friends that start a club called the Women’s Murder Club. Now I’m a guy and it may sound like I’m sort of creepy if I’m reading female literature, but it’s not the case here. Although I feel sort of feminine when their talking in a girly-type of dialogue.

In 1st Degree the girls had to solve a wicked case about a killer slaying brides and grooms on their wedding night. With 2nd Chance the story was about the women trying to crack the case against an unknown shooter who shot a lot of people. With 3rd Degree the girls return facing a terror organization out to blow up corrupt CEOs and things turn to crap when one of the girls is targeted by the insane kilThe club member who’s targeted is a dead give away. First of all, James Patterson tells in the “liner notes” of the book that one of the main characters is going to die during the process of the book. A smart money making scheme or a way to ruin it for the read? You decide. And to make matters worse, the cover gives away the dramatic part of “Who’s Going To Die”. The liner notes flatly stated that someone was going to die, but the cover of the book shows who’s going to die. Isn’t that pretty ridiculous?

As for further character development, you get some rehashed paragraphs describing character traits and a little back story and that’s it. But the third book in Patterson’s other series, “The Alex Cross Books”, the characters were being added on so much that you felt like you were just focusing on a small part of the large picture. Lindsay Boxer is the homicide detective and she’ a pretty cool character (the story is being told through her eyes), but the other characters do nothing but disappoint. Claire, the M.E., is a straight-to-the-point type of gal. First of all, do you know any women that are straight to the point? Because I don’t. Her dialogue is rushed and mechanic. As for Cindy and Jill (the reporter and the lawyer), they suck. I was fond of them in 2nd Chance, but in the first book they sucked as well. They play an “important role” in the series yet the author gives more time explaining already choreographed characters. And with 3rd Degree being the shortest book in the series filler is not welcome.

James Patterson has always been a fast paced writer because of his ultra short chapters and his fluid narration, but 3rd Degree was extremely boring and stupid. One fourth of the time there was something new that happened that was unlike the other parts of the book, but the moments were still plagued by predictability and they were even bogged down by the main character’s slow and droning narrative. Now when I first picked up the book I was actually hooked on it. I couldn’t stop reading it until I came to about a quarter way through the book. That’s when I started to realize some patterns that I had read before in other additions in the series. For instance, some of the paragraphs seem as if they were ripped off of the 2nd Chance book. The book has nothing new to offer. The story is very reminiscent of the other stories in the series and the robotic chapters in the story do nothing but offer you a bad time.

It would be a mistake to read 3rd Degree unless you were a hardcore fan of the series. The characters don’t do anything new and everything is just repeated. If you want a reread (or review) the past two books, pick up 3rd Degree because it has all of that with a little bit of new story filler added in just to make fans happy. I’m a fan and I like the series, but I can’t stand 3rd Degree and I think that Patterson did a very bad job with it. He’s in disgrace and he’s banned from my bookshelf until I read something of his that I like soon.

(C) Jason Haskins, 2004

“JiggyJay”