ISBN: 9780316018760
Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
Rating: B
In this 8th installment of The Women’s Murder Club, we are charged with finding the murderer of a homeless street saint “Bagman Jesus” and trying to figure out what and who is killing High Society types for there appears to be no cause for their deaths.
In the case of Bagman Jesus, the cops are told not to bother working his case because they MUST focus on the high society murders because a lot of the victims have friends in high places. Cindy Thomas, crime reporter for the Chronicle, refuses to let this case die because she was one of the people who found him. His death was marked with extreme brutality, shot 6 times in the face and beaten beyond recognition and from the gathering of the homeless around his body Cindy is convinced that he was important even if society says he is not.
On the flip side, the socialites that have been murdered, show no outward signs of the crime. Claire Washburn the county Medical Examiner, can see no inward signs of a crime either. All the tests come back negative and that leads Claire to tell the cops that they need to do their jobs in order to figure this one out because forensics is tapped out.
It’s an interesting plot to have 2 crimes, one of which is obviously a murder and that the cops don’t take notice of, and one of which doesn’t appear to be a crime but they are told to focus on this crime as opposed to the homeless man who was brutalized. Cindy was more integral in this story much like she was in 1st to Die, and I liked seeing and hearing from her more. The “club” effect seems to have died along the way now they are more involved in each others lives as opposed to solving crimes together. I miss the times of talking about the cases over margaritas, and getting everyone’s perspective.
While the characters are growing and becoming distinct I miss the core of this group and as a reader that saddens me. Instead of working together I feel like the characters are working independent of each other on the same case, but they aren’t a unit anymore. I want my WMC back.
I felt that the cases were peripheral and that they didn’t impact the characters in a “real” way. It felt that the police procedural was just added as a way to move the story along and not meant to impact the story.
