Title: 6th Target
Author: James Patterson
Genre: Mystery
Published: May 8, 2007
First Sentence: A killer in waiting, Fred Brinkley slumps in the blue-upholstered banquette on the top deck of the ferry.
When a horrifying attack leaves one of the four members of the Women’s Murder Club struggling for her life, the others fight to keep a madman behind bars before anyone else is hurt. And Lindsay Boxer and her new partner in the San Francisco police department run flat-out to stop a series of kidnappings that has electrified the city: children are being plucked off the streets together with their nannies– but the kidnappers aren’t demanding ransom. Amid uncertainty and rising panic, Lindsay juggles the possibility of a new love with an unsolvable investigation, and the knowledge that one member of the club could be on the brink of death. And just when everything appears momentarily under control, the case takes a terrifying turn, putting an entire city in lethal danger. Lindsay must make a choice she never dreamed she’d face–with no certainty that either outcome has more than a prayer of success.
I started reading this book about 6 months ago and ended up getting bored with it, so I set it down and temporarily “gave up.” A couple days ago I decided to pick it up again. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I somehow remembered most of what I had read previously, and I was able to finish the book.
Obviously this wasn’t a favorite book of mine. It takes a lot for me to give up on a book, even temporarily. I know that I made a mistake by reading all 6 books in the series back to back, but I was really enjoying it and each book got better and better. Unfortunately that ended with this book, and it took a lot of self-motivation just to pick up the book every night. Leaving the book behind for a couple months gave me the break from the series that I needed to finish the book.
Patterson didn’t disappoint this time around when it comes to plot twists and character development. Unfortunately he disappointed on everything else. The general plot barely moved forward, and the book was completely focused on the crimes taking place. That wouldn’t have been so bad if the crimes were better developed. There were two crimes taking place, just like always, but unfortunately Patterson wasn’t able to create a smooth transition between the two this time around.
For me, I’m going to take a break from Lindsay, Claire, Yuki, and Cindy for a while. Hopefully the next book will bring a better plot and less-confusing crimes.
Filed under: Mystery, Reviews Tagged: | 6th Target
[...] I started this book with hesitation, knowing that reading six books in the same series so close together is a bad idea. But when it arrived to me in my BookSwim package, I decided to read it anyways, deciding it was worth the risk. Thankfully, I didn’t get so bored with it I had to quit, like other times. [...]