Just Finished Reading James Patterson's 1st to Die

I've known for many years that James Patterson, whose books I've recently begun to read in earnest, has been coming out every couple of years with a new "number" in his Women's Murder Club series.  I actually read one of these a few years ago...but it apparently wasn't the "one" I just read...must have been a "higher" number.  Naturally this time around I decided to start at the beginning of the series and read book number one, appropriately titled 1st to Die...

In 1st to Die San Francisco homicide investigator Lindsay Boxer is confronted with a string of serial killings targeting newlyweds...the crimes are brutal and seemingly random, other than the victims' recent weddings.  In this endeavor she is teamed up with Chris Raleigh, a partner about whom she initially feels distrust and contempt for his relative inexperience and inter-office political role but who demonstrates his integrity and courage over the course of the story.  While working with Chris, Lindsay assembles an informal group of women friends around her: Claire, who works in the coroner's office, Cindy, a newspaper reporter, and Jill, a prosecuting attorney...hence the name Women's Murder Club.  But it isn't just this puzzling multiple-murder case that she shares with them: Lindsay has been recently diagnosed with a rare, but often fatal blood disease...and the prognosis for her survival isn't very good...

Eventually Lindsay and her associates uncover the mystery of the newlywed murders as she crosses paths with a famous fiction writer whose personal life is deplorable with his abuse of women.  Just what is this awful person's role in the murders, if any?  Well, I suppose you're gonna hafta read it to find out...unless, of course, you plan to watch the TV movie version, made in 2003 two years after the novel was released...

I liked 1st to Die...actually, it's been my favorite James Patterson novel so far of the five I've recently read.  Next in this series is 2nd Chance: definitely worth looking into...