“Unlucky 13” by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro – The Club in Danger

 

Short Summary

James Patterson and Maxine Paetro have managed to develop a partnership few authors would even consider, having written over twenty books together, and still counting. Their Women's Murder Club Thriller series has earned them plenty of accolades, and in the thirteenth entry, titled Unlucky 13, they send their protagonists on a chase after a psychotic killer with nothing to lose intent on stalking them.

James Patterson and Maxine Paetro Turn Up the Heat

While most of us have enough self-awareness to admit we wouldn't be of much use when it comes to solving murders, it doesn't stop us from vicariously living out this particular fantasy through the exploits of fictional characters. James Patterson and Maxine Paetro have really invented the perfect series to quench our thirst for being part of a rag-tag murder solving crew with the Women's Murder Club Thriller series, and in Unlucky 13 they raise the stakes even further.

First off, I would like to address the fact that this is the sort of series where every single novel works a standalone. While there are overarching plot lines related to our recurring protagonists and their relationships with each other, enjoying the story as a whole doesn't require you to have read the previous novel... though I would recommend you also check it out for what it has to offer.

If you're already familiar with how the series goes, then you'll know there are multiple story lines taking place simultaneously, the first of them surrounding Lindsay Boxer. She finds herself plunged into her most gruesome case yet, one involving a psychopath cleverly using explosives and blackmailing her with innocent lives.

Meanwhile, Yuki, attorney-at-law, isn't leading an existence any more idyllic. Though she thinks she couldn't be happier on her honeymoon with Brady, things take a turn for the macabre when their boat is hijacked by madmen demanding a sizable ransom. Even worse, they're prepared to kill one passenger for every hour it takes them to get paid.

Finally, Cindy the reporter hears from Lindsay that Mackie Morales has resurfaced, a dangerous sociopath in her own right hell-bent on getting her revenge on the Women's Murder Club (particularly Lindsay) for the death of her beloved. Cindy tracks the young woman halfway across the country, but upon realizing she has already begun to make her move, must race back and help to save Lindsay's life before the ultimate disaster strikes.

Split Apart in Unlucky 13

If, like myself, you've read at least some of the previous entries in the series, then you've likely become accustomed to seeing the Women's Murder Club all working together to solve a case, and for the most part, without facing too much danger. In Unlucky 13 James Patterson and Maxine Paetro have evidently decided to explore uncharted territory, making for a rather different and interesting experience.

With the exception of Claire who spends the book helping Lindsay with her main case involving bombs in peoples' bellies, every character has her own separate plot line to unravel, and I must say it made for a rather welcome change of pace. Though it goes without saying the more plots a book has the less depth they can hold individually, I think the authors handled it appropriately.

Naturally, Lindsay's plot always feels like the main one, and as such it is given a bit more attention than the other ones, especially Yuki's story, which honestly felt like nothing more than a little reprieve from the main course. Indeed, three different storylines can hardly all be equally-enthralling, but what they do well is complement each other, preventing any particular scene or idea from stretching on for too long.

With this being said, the three different plots do eventually crisscross and affect each other, making Unlucky 13 feel like more than a collection of short stories. As always, there is an all-encompassing design followed by the authors from start to finish, and while there are a couple of moments where the connections fell a little flat, such moments were few and far in-between.

Personally, I found Lindsay's story to have been the most interesting out of the three, the one involving a bomber blackmailing her with new victims. The most enjoyable segments consisted of watching Lindsay and her partner Conklin racing after different leads trying desperately to uncover the culprit's identity, reminding us that despite all of its tangents, this novel remains first and foremost a solid murder mystery.

Character-Driven Mystery

I'm certain you have a lot of experience reading various types of murder mysteries and detective novels, at least enough to know the topic can be approached from a wide variety of angles. If you're a sucker for police procedural or the types of stories where every single detail and nuance is laid out for the reader to know, then you'll likely find Unlucky 13 a little lacklustre in this department.

Indeed, James Patterson and Maxine Paetro don't spend a lot of time filling in the smaller blanks of the investigation, often omitting to trace chains of events leading from one set of circumstances to another. Don't get me wrong; everything remains logical and perfectly sensical from start to finish, it's just a matter of the reader not being made privy to the inner workings of the investigation.

Rather than placing their attention on the finer details of the puzzle, the authors prefer to focus on the characters instead, and more precisely, how their interactions with each other eventually lead to satisfying resolutions. In other words, even while we're watching Lindsay Boxer following clues, we're learning as much about her as a person as we are about the case she's on.

If you're familiar with the previous works in the series, then I think you'll agree with me when I say the main characters have come a long way since their first outing, and this is one aspect where Patterson and Paetro have truly begun to excel. From one novel to the next, they are never totally static, constantly changing in slight and subtle ways based on their experiences, and it's the case for Unlucky 13 as well.

The personal lives of the Women's Murder Club members have always been a central element of the series, largely because of how realistically they tend to develop. Their exploits aren't embellished, nor are their failures overly-dramatized; over the course of multiple books, they've truly evolved from vehicles to advance the story into real people we can care and feel for. Unlucky 13 only continues this trend, to the point where if this keeps up, I fear Lindsay and company will crawl out from the pages into the real world a few more books down the line.

The Final Verdict

Unlucky 13 by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro is yet another highly-successful entry in the Women's Murder Club Thriller series, upping the stakes and sending our protagonists on three different adventures, which ultimately overlap in surprising and exciting ways. Ultimately, it manages to give us an original murder mystery while further developing a beloved cast of realistic and profound characters.

If you're a fan of the previous works in the series, or are looking for an exciting murder mystery story with more to offer than your run-of-the-mill detective novel, then I strongly recommend you give this book a try.

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James B. Patterson Personal site James Patterson is an American writer who has dedicated a large part of his literary career to writing murder-related thrillers, inventing in the process two memorable character-based series in Alex Cross and Michael Bennett. His most prominent works include Kiss the Girls and Along Came a Spider.

Maxine Paetro Maxine Paetro is an American author who began her published career all the way back in 1979 with How to Put Your Book Together and Get a Job in Advertising, which was revised for the fourth time in 2010. She has remained an active author, writing numerous novels since then, including Manshare, Windfall and Woman of God. Additionally, she is known for collaborating with James Patterson on numerous entries in the Women's Murder Club series.