It’s taken me a weekend to finish this in fits and starts, I was caught between intrigue and wishing it would just hurry up and get to the point in equal measures. I don’t know whether if I’d read it in one sitting rather than in (sometimes as short as 15 minutes) bursts, but the twists in the last quarter of the book left me more confused than convinced. Particularly the very final twist which didn’t seem to actually make any logical sense.

The story was fairly absorbing but the characters were rather two dimensional. The series focusses on a group of women in powerful ‘crime solving’ positions, a police officer, an attorney, a crime reporter and mortuary doctor. Unfortunately they hadn’t yet formed in this first story, and even when they did it felt unnecessary and like their group only existed because the dust cover blurb said they should.

I don’t think I can judge James Patterson on this one book so I’ll try something else and come back to make my mind up, but I hope in future stories I actually feel something for the characters - the primary investigator in this story was suffering from a potentially life threatening condition and believed she was going to die, but I couldn’t bring myself to care.

3/5