Read by Carolyn McCormick

From the start, Patterson's Women's Murder Club series (1st to Die; Second Chance) has felt
like high-concept TV with a smart edge, featuring an appealing and reliable cast of four female
crime busters (a cop, a prosecutor, a medical examiner, a reporter) who race along byzantine plot
lines humming with blood and sex, romance and heartbreak. But Patterson is an author who will
detonate readers' presumptions for the sake of story, and in the series' third installment, the
prolific author, working with frequent collaborator Gross (The Jester, etc.), defies expectations
in a shocking way. Readers will love him for it. San Francisco Homicide lieutenant Lindsay Boxer,
who narrates most of the action, is jogging with assistant DA Jill Barnhardt when Lindsay notices
two things: first, bruises on Jill's shoulder; then the explosion of a nearby townhouse, into
which Lindsay rushes to save a child. With the juxtaposition of these two plotlines, Patterson
jumpstarts this enjoyably convoluted tale. The townhouse, home to a greedy CEO and his family,
was destroyed by members of a terrorist group calling itself "August Spies"; Lindsay's chase after
the group, which commits further killings, brings her into close proximity to what promises to be
a new series regular, Joe Molinari, deputy director of the Office of Homeland Security.
Love blooms for Lindsay but, meanwhile, love has curdled at Jill's house, where Jill's husband is
abusing her. Then comes the big surprise, and the story's remainder plays out at high emotion and
warp speed. There's a calculated feel to all that happens, but clever manipulation of an audience
serves Patterson as well as it served Hitchcock: his fans will only clamor for more.

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