Just Finished Reading The 9th Judgment by James Patterson

Or should I say "Just Finished Reading The 9th Judgment by James Patterson AND Maxine Paetro"?  for this Lindsay Boxer crime mystery series has long been a collaborative project between the two...and I wonder just how much of a role that Patterson, whose name on the credits will naturally generate more sales and popularity, plays in actually writing these short novels, churned out every couple of years or so.  Lindsay is a San Francisco police homicide investigator, whose job title and rank tends to go up and down like a yo-yo as the series progresses.  With one change in composition over the nine books I've read so far, she has collected three of her friends, together informally called the "Women's Murder Club", to meet often, support each other, and work within their respective professions toward the solving of whatever murder or disappearance is ongoing.  So Claire Washburn, a medical examiner, Yuki Castellano, an assistant prosecutor, and Cindy Thomas, a newspaper reporter, each have their own personal lives and narratives which get attention...but the series is predominantly Lindsay's show...

In The 9th Judgment, we have an outbreak of murders of young women out in public with their babies...another demented serial killer to add to the burgeoning total that this series has produced.  And as a second narrative, there is a young woman teacher who has a second life: as a cat burglar who steals valuable jewelry from wealthy people's estates...even while they are at home!  This subplot was much more intriguing to me as the dangers with each succeeding burglary mount and she finds herself unwittingly drawn into a murder mystery for which she may be the prime suspect...

If as a reader you're going for memorable stories that you want to go back to over and over again, this Women's Murder Club series of Patterson and Paetro probably won't work.  On the other hand, it is easy-flowing reading and the books have been comfortably short, not requiring much of an investment of time and effort. Besides, a lot of folks, myself included, like to check up on the series characters Lindsay, Claire, Cindy, and Yuki to see how they're doing...