7th HEAVEN
James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
Little, Brown and Company
Thriller
ISBN: 9780316017701

• Read an Excerpt

I happily will confess that I am addicted to the Women’s Murder Club series by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro. Intriguing characters and a fascinating setting give the authors the opportunity to paint on a broad canvas, one that certainly is not wasted in 7th HEAVEN.

The series focuses on San Francisco Homicide Detective Lindsay Boxer, with the other members of the Club --- Assistant D.A. Yuki Castellano, medical examiner Claire Washburn and newspaper reporter Cindy Thomas --- rotating from book to book in a co-starring role. The focus in 7th HEAVEN is on Castellano, who is prosecuting a high-profile murder trial that is lacking a body, among other things. Michael Campion, the teenaged son of a former governor, has gone missing. He is a celebrity of a bittersweet nature due to his good looks and an unfortunately inoperable heart defect.

Some three months after his disappearance, the police department receives an anonymous tip that on the night in question he was seen entering the home of a San Francisco prostitute named Junie Moon. At first Moon denies knowing anything about Campion, but then confesses that he died during a sexual encounter with her, after which she and her erstwhile boyfriend disposed of the body. But then Moon recants her confession. Notwithstanding that Moon’s apartment bears no trace of Campion’s remains and that his body cannot be found, Castellano proceeds with the prosecution.

Meanwhile, Boxer and partner Rich Conklin are busy investigating a series of fires around the city. Occurring in some of San Francisco’s most expensive homes, at first they seem to be unrelated. However, the presence of victims, cryptic Latin phrases and apparent contemporaneous burglaries tie the incidents together. Boxer and Conklin race against time, even as a bit of ironic symmetry threatens to dovetail Boxer’s case into Conklin’s trial, and an unexpected clue leads to a conclusion for one of the cases.

7th HEAVEN, as with the other Women’s Murder Club books, moves at breakneck speed, though not at the expense of the plot, which, as always, is riveting. There are additional touches --- the presence of a collection of Charles Bukowski’s poetry at one of the fires, a cameo appearance by one of San Francisco’s most offbeat bookstores --- that make this series a must read.

    --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

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