Next Read

[Pic Courtesy James Patterson's Website]

James Patterson has two different series going in parallel. The first one stars Alex Cross, till recently a policeman with the Washington DC police department. The second, more recent one is set on the West Coast(San Francisco) and has crimes investigated by an unofficial Women's Murder Club, that is composed of 4 women - a policewoman, a lawyer, a medical examiner and a reporter.

4th of July is the 4th book in the Women's Murder Club series(the books have so far had numbers indicating their position in the series, in their titles. The previous three books were 1st to Die, 2nd Chance and 3rd Degree). Like all Patterson's reads, these too have been unexceptional but fast reads with short chapters and a few twists. But the prolific author gave the series a good shake in 3rd Degree when he, completely unexpectedly, killed off one of the four women of the Club.

Thanks to our local library, I got my hands on 4th of July today evening. Like the earlier three books in this series, this one too appears to puts one of the 3 remaining women in the center of a personal conflict while the Club tries to solve a series of seemingly unrelated murders. Can't wait to start reading!