The 6th Target (Womens Murder Club 6)

I am annoyed I wasted money on this book. I know James Patterson is no great literary genious but at least he usually has page-turning plots and interesting characters, especially the Alex Cross series. That is not the case here, the sixth book in the Women's Murder Club series.

His co-authored novels are always much weaker but this is the worst of the lot. There are two unconnected, random plots, making it feel as though they were thrown together to fill up space because the writer couldn't be bothered developing either storyline properly. The characters behave in inexplicable and unrealistic ways, and some of the time you think they must be completely stupid. The viewpoint jumps randomly and inconsistently for no apparent purpose. The biggest failure of all is the lack of any tension or realism in the storyline. With almost no credible plot and characters you don't care about, there is no incentive to keep turning the pages.

This reads like a poorly written, thinly plotted debut novel. If Patterson is going to continue co-authoring in the future, he should at least treat readers - who are going to spend money on his books - with enough respect not to put his name to this kind of rubbish.

I'll briefly summarize the story (1/2 people found this helpful)

as there are numerous excellent reviews posted. In this book Lindsay Boxer is mourning over her best friend, Claire Washburn that had been shot during a shooting on a ferry near the Golden Gate Bridge. If you are a fan of the women's murder club series then you will know that Claire is a coroner and a Club member. Further into the story there are kidnappers that have a desire for the children of the wealthy families. While this crime is polluting the neighborhood there is a goon that is petrifying the tenants in an apartment building in San Francisco. The Women's Club must come to grips with all these crimes and solve them. Sounds great on the surface, unfortunately, these different crime stories go off in different directions and the club never really comes together as a unified group to solve these crimes, which when I finally got to the end of this story I was left with a ton of confusing thoughts. No surprise ending here in this story. I just shook my head trying to understand what it was that I had just read. I'm still a fan of Mr. Patterson and I'll probably buy his new release "You've been Warned" believing that it will be a better read than The 6th Target. I hope!!! I would also recommend, if you missed reading TIN0 GEORGIOU'S masterpiece--THE FATES, go and read it. With fascinating and brilliantly created characters in `THE FATES' coupled with two intertwining plots makes for a completely enjoyable and page-turning read.

Not one of his best! (12/12 people found this helpful)

I agree with other reviewers. I used to long for the next James Patterson book to come out, but lately they have not been up to his usual standard. A case of trying to produce too many books too quickly, I fear; and this book is one that has suffered. He needs to focus more on the writing and stop racing to be the most prolific author (or co author) in the world. If he were one of my students, his report would read 'James needs to slow down a little and think more carefully about the content and style of his work rather than focussing purely on the quantity.' or words to that extent!

If you have enjoyed the series, you will probably want to read this as the next one - but take my advice. Wait until the book is on the open paperback market. At £3.99, it would make a pleasing, light read. At this sort of price, it is just not worth the hype!

truly awful, don't waste your time! (3/4 people found this helpful)

I've said it before, but JP working with other authors just doesn't work. I feel like there were 2 separate novels here, the ferry shooting and the kidnapping, both of which could have been padded out into novels in their own right, but because they were in together I was expecting some sort of twist connecting them together, but no... the guy who did the ferry shooting just found out who the detective in charge was and turned up on her doorstep to give himself up, er really??!! Lindsey et al quickly and easily worked out who did the kidnappings and why, the end. Where was the plot and the character development? Dumping your long-distance on-off boyfriend doesn't really count for much in terms of character development in my book. I wish JP would concentrate on what he does best, which is writing his Alex Cross novels, alone!!

"You have to do more than you ever thought you could do" (3/4 people found this helpful)

The authors clearly did not do more than they could do in this case. Or maybe they tried so hard to overachieve that they got lost on the way. In this installment of the Women's Murder Club we get a plot that has many parts, with feeble connections and way too many "coincidences" for my taste. You feel that Patterson and Paetro tried so hard to create a multi-layered story that they ended up forcing it and lost the cohesiveness in the process.

A killer goes rampage on a ferry and starts shooting people. Claire Washburn is one of the victims of the shooting. And as most of you know, this is not the first time that Paterson et al use the theme of a member of the club fighting for her life, to try to catch our eye. Now, we are waiting to see if Claire, the medical examiner, will survive the attack or if there will be another loss for the "team". Lindsay Boxer wants to work the case, even though she is not supposed to, now that she is a lieutenant.

In typical Patterson style, the book starts at a fast pace, but sadly not even this can help in this one. The story loses focus quickly and we are left in limbo, navigating a set of different cases and trying to understand how these things are connected. To make matters even worse, there is very little character development. And the little we get is pretty bad. The love scenes are so lousy and unreal that I could not help wonder how much effort was actually put into them.

This is the first book in this series that I did not enjoy, but it has not been my first disappointment with Patterson. Lately it seems that it is like playing Russian roulette. The odds of getting a good book are still better than the ones of getting a bad one, but when the latter happens it is really disappointing. The author has to find a way to stop this trend, or the fans will start to run away. Maybe it is time to slow down the pace of publication and focus a little more on quality control!

The 6th Target (Womens Murder Club 6)

James Patterson

Reader Reviews:

Don't waste your money (0/0 people found this helpful)

I'll briefly summarize the story (1/2 people found this helpful)

Not one of his best! (12/12 people found this helpful)

truly awful, don't waste your time! (3/4 people found this helpful)

"You have to do more than you ever thought you could do" (3/4 people found this helpful)

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