9th Judgement

Meh.  I saw it in the library and thought, hey, new Women's Murder Club, I might as well see if it's any good (this is now, I realise, the second most recent to come out).  In about half an hour I'd read the first hundred or so pages, thanks to James Patterson's short chapters, which make the book look far fatter than it actually is, and to be honest I wasn't gripped, and decided to take it back to the next library we went to.  So it didn't even make it home with me (okay, here I pause for an explanation: I went out to visit a handful of libraries in East Lancs with my mum, as we're trying to visit all the libraries in Lancashire, and some of them are closed at lunch time, so while we were waiting for the next library to open we started reading the books we'd already got out, hence the book not making it home from the library).

Is it just me, or are James Patterson's books getting worse and worse?  Or did I just have a fit of enthusiasm for a new author and am only now realising...  But I'm sure the earlier ones are actually pretty good, pretty thrilling.  It's just the more recent ones (okay, scratch that, from Women's Murder Club I wouldn't rate any from about book 5 onwards, though I've read all of them up til half the 9th) that have descended into not that greatness.  I suppose my taste in books may have changed.  But one of the more recent Alex Cross books (not Cross Country cringes) was really good.  Double Cross maybe?  And I nearly didn't read it.

At any rate, if you're not totally fed up of this series by now, it might be worth having a look.  It did, after all, hold my attention for half an hour and I'm more likley to give up a book within a few pages than within a hundred (though given the chapter length, I probably read as much as if it had been a few pages...)

On a related note, the most recent Maximum Ride appears to be terrible.  I'm afraid I didn't get past the first chapter ie, the first three pages, before I wanted to slap Max!  And she was one of my absolute favourite characters at one point, and in terms of inspiring my own writing probably a close second to Holly Short from Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl (you should know that!!!).  I would also include in the list of inspiring characters Sean Dillon from the series by Jack Higgins, and Jack Howard from the series by Alan Gibbins.  Oh, and also Jack West Jr from the Seven Ancient Wonders etc series by Matthew Reilly.  Interestingly, apart from Artemis Fowl which is as good/better than ever with each new book, and Jack West which is probably as good, the other series have all had dodgy books.  I didn't finish the most recent Sean Dillon either, got fed up half way through because I swear I'd read either that plot, or practically that plot, before.

Digression over.  I probably wouldn't bother with 9th Judgement.  Well, I kinda didn't, and I doubt I'll bother trying the 10th whatever unless it ends up on a library shelf in front of my nose.  Which is a shame, because I really enjoyed the earlier ones in the series, but such is life.