Rating: 
Summary: A Fast Light Read
Review: Okay, so it isn't War & Peace. If you are looking for something fast and light to read, this is it. I read the entire book off and on for a couple of hours. I consider this type of book, a bathtub book. Fill the tub with bubbles, light some candles, have a glass of wine or a cup of tea, read the book and relax. I liked the original James Patterson books featuring Alex Cross. If you are looking for a more intense, indepth detective novel, you need to look there.
Rating: 
Summary: eh?
Review: Come on people! For the love of God, someone knock someone sense into you. A plethora of four and five stars reviews for this fatuous, vapid trash? You gotta be kidding. Now, don't go thinking you can label me a book snob; I'm as partial to a great John Grisham or Stephen King novel as the next person, or even an early Patterson thriller, but this is just nonsense. Why would anyone fork out their hard-eanred dollars to read this garbage? I don't like to call a book garbage, but this is what I am reduced to. 3rd Degree is astoundingly bad: everything about it is implausible, embarassingly bad. The characters are empty, and there may as well really not BE any. The book moves so fast and events unfold so quickly it's like watching a video on fast-forward, and the plot itself is a lod of nonsense. Terrorism? Come on. It's not developed, it's not dealt with the sensitivity it deserves. Everything here is gratuitous. Domestic abuse, too! Why would anyone waste their money on this? 3rd Degree is another greedy, badly written book, with absolutely nothing to reccomend it save for the fact that it is quick. And if you read a book just because you like it to be quick and easy (empty) then go and sit in the corner. Reading can be so much MORE than this.
Rating: 
Summary: Patterson Bounces Back
Review: Have you read the first two? OK so you're a buyer... why are you reading reviews? You won't be disappointed... in fact you'll remember why you got hooked in the first place. If you haven't read this series before, do youself a favour, start at the beginning. 1st to Die.. then 2nd Chance. You'll appreciate the character development more and the elements of old and new within this third book will resonate more. This is classic suspense, thriller fare... and I will forgive the author for using our favourite enemy "the terrorist" as the protagonist here as the story is nevertheless entertaining.
Rating: 
Summary: A MUST READ
Review: I've been hooked on this series since 1st To Die was published in hard cover. 3rd Degree was an excellent read, and strongly recommed it. Please take the time to read 1st To Die, and 2nd Chance if you have not yet. The characters deserve it. Also, start this book when you have the time to NOT put it down. It's a fast read!
Rating: 
Summary: Patterson discusses terrorism, but more as a farce
Review: The topic of the story is about how, after 30 years, a previously silent radical left terror group re-emerges to kill in San Francisco and take revenge on stopping members of the group in the 1970s. In the course of the story, Patterson goes into great detail expounding (through his characters of course) on the evils of capitalism, globalism, G8, WTO, and the Bank of America. (Of course, nothing about greedy and manipulative publishers is mentioned in the book.) The San Francisco Police Chief makes a point that she is a Democrat, and does not totally agree with the idea of Homeland Security, but sleeps with the DHS Agent who is sent to help investigate. In the course of the investigation, the FBI and DHS agents do virtually nothing in the story and just bit players while San Francisco Homicide Detective Lindsey Boxer fights terrorists single-handedly. The Feds files, resources, and tools are completely useless as Lindsey solves everything with Cindy on the local newspaper. Patterson (or Gross?) makes the point that all you really need to fight terrorism is a smart determined local homicide cop. All these Feds are just a waste of time, of course, unless you need someone to sleep with. Pointless, arrogant, and utterly improbable. Then the terrorists have all of this "concentrated ricin" which for the most part, they never use. And then, like an old Batman television show, the terrorists provide clues via Hotmail to the local newspaper reporter, like the Riddler. I was waiting to hear "Riddle me this?" Oh and yes, the terrorists very nicely tell the local police how soon they will attack, and drop lots of nice clues all over the place. So while Patterson/Gross, actually say this is "a war", what they really do in presenting a story on terrorism is make it into a farce. The point of the story is terrorism is really exaggerated as something the local police can handle, and after all, they always leave plenty of clues and indicators so you can catch them. I don't know what world or country Patterson/Gross are living in. I agree with review from "Rachel" below. Patterson's quality is dropping, and in this book, he has given "credibility" the 3rd Degree. The headlines of most major newspapers are significantly more suspenseful and interesting than this book.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing Rebound for this Series
Review: I did not care as much for the last book in this series, but this one is fabulous! This book relates to every American after 9/11 and the threats to our country since, not to mention being a fantastic expansion to the Lindsey Boxer series and great mystery/action/suspense read.
Rating:
Summary: Readers rejoice --- the Women's Murder Club has returned!
Review: 3RD DEGREE is the third of the Women's Murder Club novels. I'm going to diverge for just a second here and note that the Women's Murder Club name for this series gives the impression that Patterson is writing a series of cozies, if you will. Not so. The protagonists in these stories all get their hands quite dirty, thank you --- particularly Claire Washburn, who is with the Medical Examiner's office. Accordingly, if you have been staying away from this series because drawing room mysteries aren't your thing, feel free to dive into 3RD DEGREE headfirst. The water is fine and deep. Patterson collaborates with Andrew Gross on this novel; Gross was aboard for 2ND CHANCE as well as last year's THE JESTER. They work quite well together, and the reader is the winner. The plain and simple truth is that there is no way one can put down 3RD DEGREE once it has been started; it is a book that begs to be finished, and the reader is only too happy to oblige. There are a number of reasons for this. The protagonists are women, but again, these aren't girlie girl mysteries that we are dealing with here. Fans of Patterson's Alex Cross books will find all of the same elements in the Women's Murder Club novels. Patterson and Gross also keep things moving at an incredible pace. There may well be no better popular storyteller than Patterson right now. And while his style may not make Cormac McCarthy break a sweat, Patterson knows how to tell a story. If he talks likes he writes, everyone is going to listen. So we come to 3RD DEGREE. The setting is once again San Francisco, which is the target of some 60s-style leftist terrorists. Their targets appear to be somewhat random, with the only apparent connection being that all of the victims are tools of the establishment. Detective Lindsay Boxer literally stumbles into the first incident --- the bombing of an Internet millionaire's townhouse. A cryptic message is left at the scene, with a mysterious group named "August Spies" claiming responsibility. Three days later a prominent local businessman is grotesquely murdered, and another message is left. Boxer brings the rest of the Women's Murder Club --- Washburn, San Francisco Assistant D.A. Jill Bernhardt and San Francisco Chronicle reporter Cindy Thomas --- into the mix. The nature of these crimes is such that the Federal government also becomes quickly involved, with that involvement in part manifested by the presence of Joe Molinari, Deputy Director of the Department of Homeland Security. Boxer and Molinari soon find themselves involved as well. Patterson and Gross handle this aspect of the story quite well, straddling the line between the male and female demographics of their audience and making the courtship, romance and afterprom credible from both viewpoints. They also do an exquisitely restrained job of describing the flora and fauna of San Francisco. They keep the city in the background, giving you just enough of a description of the surroundings that there is no doubt where you are, yet making sure that the scenery doesn't get in the way of the story line. And quite a story line it is, as August Spies continue their reign of terror, aiming at one particularly surprising target. Longtime readers of Patterson know that when they pick up one of his books, they can expect the unexpected --- but what occurs here is over the top, even for him. It is precisely this target, however, that leads the Women's Murder Club to the motivation behind the dastardly acts of August Spies --- and to the identities of the madmen behind them. Patterson, in spite of (or perhaps because of) his prodigious output, never disappoints, and there is no doubt that 3RD DEGREE will add new members to his already loyal legion of fans. If you have yet to encounter Patterson or the Women's Murder Club, this is the perfect introduction to both. --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
Rating:
Summary: Taking a little more time for writing each book is OK!
Review: Lately I have noticed that the quality of the books written by James Patterson has declined. Novels like "Violets are Blue" and "The Lake House" were blatantly disappointing. The prior two books in the Murder Club series were great, but now I find the quality dropping in this series also. In my opinion the author should devote more time to each book in order to avoid this, if not I am not sure how many other opportunities I am willing to give him. It even seems that Patterson realizes that his work is not up to par, since he drops a big surprise at one point trying to grab back the reader's attention through any available means. Lieutenant Lindsay Boxer witnesses the explosion of a townhouse on a Sunday morning when walking her dog. This leads to a series of terrorist attacks by a group claiming to be punishing those people whose greed has lead them to commit crimes against humanity, mostly through economic repercussions. The case brings together the four friends featured in "1st to Die" and "2nd Chance". Besides Lindsay, we have Claire, a medical examiner, Cindy, a resourceful reporter from the Chronicle, and Jill, an assistant district attorney who is recovering from the loss of her pregnancy and is showing signs of abuse by her husband. If you have been following this series, you probably have to read this book and try to disregard its shortcomings. On the contrary, if you have not read the previous two, I recommend that you pass up on the opportunity to read this novel, whose only interest is related to what happened in the previous works and in the development of the characters.
Rating:
Summary: what the heck...
Review: ... is going on here??? ...sorry, but I felt compelled to comment upon the ridiculous deluge of reviews which happen to mention The Ghost Country...this is NOT the forum to promote a book in such a way, and no amazon customer is, quite frankly, stupid enough not to realise when a person is logging reviews under multiple names. Shame on you, whoever you are! (Shame on you even more for boosting the average star-review for this dire book!) It looks as if they've all been removed now...which makes this review hugely irrelevant
Rating:
Summary: Fast pace action.
Review: When Lindsay and Jill feel that nothing of can wreck an enjoyably quiet afternoon in San Francisco, a townhouse in front of them explodes. Thus ends the peacefulness and starts the adventure as "August Spies" starts a rampage of violent acts throughout the city driven under the umbrella of political terrorism. Just to drive the interest up a notch, the upcoming economic summit will surely be the idea target for "August Spies". James Patterson is noted for fast-paced tales with twist and turns. However, some of the small points in the story just seemed to be thrown in with little reasoning because the writer appeared to run out of ideas to justify them. This doesn't affect the overall story, but it is a tad disturbing and something I hope the author leans away from in future projects. Still a recommended read.
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