The 8th Confession
Posted by HDTV in eBooks Jun 9th, 2009 | no responses
“Patterson never, and I mean never, disappoints.” (USA Today Larry King )
“James Patterson is king of the bestseller hill.” (Publishers Weekly )
“Patterson has mastered the art of writing page-turning bestsellers.” (Chicago Sun-Times )
“The Man Who Can’t Miss.” (Time Lev Grossman )
“When it comes to construction a harrowing plot, author James Patterson can turn a screw all right.” (New York Daily News )
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User Ratings and Reviews
3 Stars It Was Just Okay
It was along time coming,but I expected a little more!!!The Yuki story
line was crazy and way out in left field!!Sometimes I think when you crank
out books like that even the author loses sight of the characters!!
Sometimes the wait is better then the reality!!!!
Reads Alot
3 Stars Worst in this series
If this was the first book in this series that I read, I wouldn’t read any others. I wait anxiously for the next installment in this series each year. I realized a third of the way through that this was not as good as the others. I kept turning pages hoping it would get better, but it really didn’t. The WMC only got together a couple times. There was no brainstorming on ways to figure out the crime, which I thought was the premise of the series. Yuki’s romance with the Doc was pathetic. Lindsey’s love life didn’t seem realistic. I was left wondering if someone just edited the heck out of this one. Hopefully the next will be better.
4 Stars Better Than I’d Hoped
SUMMARY: The Women’s Murder Club returns for their eighth case in which a series of unrelated crimes both past and present converge.
WHY YOU’LL LIKE IT: Anyone who is familiar with Patterson and his numerous coauthors understands that these books are formulaic, and it’s no longer a question of how contrived the plot will be but rather how enjoyable it will be to read. This latest offering is a step above the last two or three entries in the series, but nowhere near as compelling as the first few. That said, this is a quick and untaxing read with characters whom readers have come to know and enjoy. The manner in which the murders are perpetrated is relatively interesting, and the new pairing of Cindy and Rich is cute if pat.
WHY YOU WON’T: Patterson’s quirk of short chapters is annoying and tiresome, as his penchant for ending each one with what he assumes to be a cliffhanger. It’s plodding and actually slows the narrative rather than accelerating it. The villain is revealed early on as plot device, but their motives are never fully explored, and thus it’s difficult to care about them or their victims as we wait for Lindsay to put all the clues together. The new romances for Cindy and Yuki are odd and rushed, with no real thought behind them; Yuki’s in particular was brittle and appeared to reinforce her loneliness rather than abate it. Yuki is extremely likable but has never been as fleshed out as predecessor Jill. In fact, characterization suffers as the series progresses.
BOTTOM LINE: If you’re in the series for the long haul, this installment is better fare than some of the previous novels, but nowhere near as interesting as the first few. A quick read with some good moments.
3 Stars So Much Better Than “Cross Country”
This is a good journeyman suspense novel, not great, but not bad, either. What is amazing is how much better it is than “Cross Country’, the latest Alex Cross novel Patterson released late last year. As one of the few novels I’ve ever abandonded halfway through, it was just awful.
“8th Confession”, on the other hand, is not bad. It was good enough to keep me interested throughout. Although some of the plot twists, especially the one concerning Yuki’s new love interest, were somewhat hard to swallow, I did like the murder method and the way Paeto worked the title of the book into the novel. Some character development was included, except for Claire, and the resolution of a plot element at the very end was long overdue and apperciated, even through it was telegraphed early on.
Overall, I enjoyed the book. I just wish Paeto got more than a couple of lines of bio at the end, since she’s obviously the one doing all the heavy lifing in this series. The three novels she wrote before latching onto Patterson’s undeservedly popular coattails seem to be out of print and, from the Amazon description, not my cup of tea anyway.
I wish she would try a novel with some original characters in the same genre. I promise I’d at least give it a try!
3 Stars A light, entertaining read
The 8th Confession is the latest installment in James Patterson’s Women’s Murder Club series. This book finds the police officer, Lindsey Boxer, and her partner, Rich Conklin, trying to solve the murders of some of San Francisco’s high society, but they can’t determine the method or motive for the murders. An old friend of Lindsey’s who works cold cases provides some information that proves to be helpful.
In the meantime, Cindy, the news reporter, discovers a homeless man, Bagman Jesus, brutally murdered on the street and pursues the story doggedly when the police seem to be ignoring it. At first she thinks he’s saintly but later discovers that her first impression was wrong.
Yuki, the prosecutor is involved in a murder case she must win in order to keep her reputation intact. It starts to look like the jury will be hung.
Claire, the medical examiner doesn’t appear much in this book, but she does provide an important piece of the puzzle.
The 8th Confession was written by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro and it fits the pattern of other James Patterson books – short chapters and a quick build-up of suspense. There’s a lot of action and little character development. This is the eighth book in the series, and while it’s not necessary to read the books in order, I think the story develops better if you do. There was one little aside in Yuki’s personal life that I didn’t really care for, but all in all, this is a light, entertaining read.
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