This is the first book in “The Women’s Mystery Club” series by James Patterson and co-authors.   The first book though was written by him alone.  For the record, these books are usually sexually graphic and excessively violent with what they call “Fem-Jeop” or females in jeopardy. 

1st to Die 
by James Patterson
2001 
Read by Suzanne Toren 8h 56m
Rating:  B- / thriller

This one starts the series so we meet the major characters who are members of the club. There’s the protagonist Lindsay Boxer who is a San Francisco Police Department homicide detective. And her friends Claire Washburn, a Black medical examiner, Cindy Thomas, a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle and Jill Bernhardt, an assistant D.A.  Together they work on various difficult murders which have occurred in the city. The series is up to #22 now.  I’ve only read 3 and I’ll likely read more, but they’ll be carefully spaced.

This first case concerns a couple who were terrorized and slaughtered on their wedding night. Two more cases of the very same type happen and the chase is on.  It’s a thriller above all else.  

I don’t like the extreme ugly violence or the series killers or the sex and romance which enter into the story.  The narrator gets overly-dramatic.  But the story is so compelling that I kept going and gave it a B-.