Book fo the Month: 23rd Midnight

So the latest book club pick is another thriller by the prolific James Patterson. In this case, Cindy, our intrepid journalist has hit the big seller list with a biography of serial killer, Evan Burke whom readers will remember from previous novels. Cindy has worked closely with the psychopath in hopes that getting an insight into his mind will let readers know how people like him work, and how to protect themselves in case.

But true crime fans aren’t the only ones who are eager to get their hands on Cindy’s book. A Burke fanboy who dubs himself, Blackout has taken upon himself to replicate Burke’s crimes ontop of creating his own kill count and he has his sights on Cindy and the rest of the Women’s Murder Club.

I’ve read a lot of the series a while ago, and by read I remember the first three but reading more than ten in a row makes my memory very blurry. But that doesn’t matter here as Patterson and his co-writer Maxine Paetro have gotten this series down to a science with stand-alone cases that new readers can jump into while older readers will probably appreciate the steady character growth over the series.

I would be one of the former so while I know Lindsey Boxer, our main character got diagnosed with cancer in the first book and has gone through a long journey of recovery, falling in love, getting married and pregnant, the others feel more one-dimensional to me. More like plot devices to move the story along. The writing style echoed that with simple, declarative statements and formulaic thriller tropes of Lindsey feeling burnt out and emotionally scarred by her work but not ready to quit it (Because if she did, there’d be no series obviously).

Nonetheless, the story delivers plenty of frustrating near-clues from a killer who is thorough and confident in hiding his tracks. You can’t guess where and when he’s going to strike next, building up Lindsey’s dread whenever he sends her a video of his kills as a taunt that he’s getting away with everything.

Anyway, other thoughts included whether a newbie on the force, Sonia Alveraz would join the force as it seems she would make a good fit when she joined the unofficial meetings. But unlikely as it seems each woman has a role (a coroner, a journalist, a lawyer, and detective) and last time, they had two layers, they killed one off so it will probably stick with just four women in the club.

The one thread that does not fit in is Yuki’s (the lawyer of the Women’s Murder Club) story where she is defending a domestic abuse victim against her husband. The authors try to tie it into the case near the end but honestly, if they cut the tie-in, the plot would have been fine. If they cut Yuki’s chapters entirely, it would have no effect. It just felt very disjointed from the rest of the story.

Same goes for the freaking title. It was set during the day and night, and when it was night, midnight was not a specific important time. So it made no sense. Apparently, my co-reader said that a previous book in the series, 21st Birthday had the same issue where no one was 21 or turning 21, there was no birthday in general. With Patterson’s brand name, I’m sure he has the ability to make decisions about the title. Therefore, he and Paetro should at least try to make the title tie in with the book like 23rd Blackout or something like that. At least it would make sense.

So it was a good book, compulsively readable since each chapter was 1 to 3 pages long so you want to get to the next one and it keeps you guessing.