1st To Die (Women's Murder Club #1)

I was looking for something light to read before going to sleep, especially after Pillars of the Earth that I read in January.
This seemed light enough and since I usually don't get too invested into crime novels, I thought I might get a decent night's sleep for once.

First to die is a typical novel about a female inspector looking into some heinous crime and trying to figure out her life. Of course she is paired with a handsome new partner where their relationship ultimately ends up in bed.
Their first lead is off course wrong. Why do I know this? Because when they've already got the name of the killer only halfway in the book, it's not so far fetched to think that more is coming. And this book doesn't let you down. In the last quarter of the book the plot twists are thrown wildly around it becomes ludicrous.

The novel also feels too black and white for me. I like the gritty truth of good people doing bad things and vice versa. In First To Die when you're a bad guy, you even got the scowl and all good people walk around happy and halo'd.
The target of this criminal is couples who just got married and just before he commits his act, you get a look into these picture perfect lives. So enviously perfect I'd kill them myself if I was locked away into a room with them. There's just no perfect love, there are always doubts and insecurities, especially if you're female. On the other hand, you've got the suspect, who is in every sense of the word a very bad man. Abusive, aggressive, dominant, and probably a whole lot of negative adjectives. This black and white division between good and bad makes this into a story soon to be forgotten instead of something that might come alive while you read it.

As for style, maybe cut down on the number of chapters. It felt like every time the author drew breath he started a new chapter. There are such things as paragraph breaks.

Review of Jack & Jill

Author: James Patterson
First published in 1994
Thickness: 466 pages
Personal rating: 3 stars

In short

Someone has killed one of the most powerful men in the U.S. Senate - and the whole world is watching. Someone has murdered a small black girl on the mean streets of Washington - and no one seems to care. But only D.C. homicide cop Alex Cross suspects that the evil striking down both the high and the lowly wears the same shocking face. (www.goodreads.com)


My two cents


Jack & Jill, two killers reap fear in the hearts of the rich and powerful. They claim to be cleansing the country of bad influences and announce their crimes through various channels, with the ultimate target: the President of the United States. 


On the other side of the scales, you've got a child killer. A brutal child killer, whose actions speak beyond imagination. Two young children already beaten to dead and more to follow if he can't be stopped. 


Those are the two cases Alex Cross, prime detective, psychologist and lead character in this novel, has to solve. 
In both evil is showing its most awful face, and they both climb to an unbelievable climax. 


Personally I found the novel hard to get into. It was a little slow to captivate me, but the last fifty pages had me on the edge of my seat. I'm not a detective novel fan per se, because a lot of it has been done a million times before and the end is pretty much the same, the  crimes will be solved, good will rule over bad. 
What strikes me different about Jack and Jill is the multitude of narrations. We don't only see in the head of Alex Cross, but also those around him and even the criminals get their say, so we get a little of both. Not only the search and ultimate answer the detective is searching for, but even a glimpse at the justification of the crimes, even if it is twisted in logic.