James Patterson. 1st to Die (2001) 424 pp.
In San Francisco’s Grand Hyatt Mandarin Suite, David Brandt feels he must be the luckiest person on the earth as he celebrates his honeymoon with his new wife Melanie. However, Phillip Campbell ends that happiness by killing the couple in their honeymoon suite. This is the first crime of a vicious serial killer. San Francisco homicide detective Lindsay Boxer struggles with a dangerous blood condition while striving to solve the difficult case before the killer strikes again. She forges an alliance with three other women (a reporter, a medical examiner, and an assistant DA—they call themselves the Women’s Murder Club) in order to uncover the identity of the culprit without the continual interference of her male superiors and those of her new partners, also mostly men.

H.K.