nomadreader

Entertainment Weekly has a fantastic new book blog, Shelf Life . It's fantastic because there is so little book coverage in the magazine itself (space, advertising, timeliness, interest, I get it, but I don't like it). There's a fantastic post about James Patterson's contract renewal today. I read James Patterson (Women's Murder Club), but I don't think he's a great writer. One could argue he's not even a writer anymore given everything he publishes is co-authored. I've read all eight WMC books, and the last one was an embarrassment. He's clearly a brilliant marketer or was smart enough to hire a brilliant marketer. I know there are many, many people who not only love his books, but buy all of his books. There are those who would argue he's a good writer. The big question for me is if he is good for publishing. The librarian in me truly believes "as long as they're reading...," but the part-time literary snob in me wants to en...

The 8 th Confession is the eighth book in Patterson's Women's Murder Club series. This novel features our four main characters working more independently than most prior books have. Cindy, the reporter, manages to be walking outside of her apartment and stumble upon a fresh corpse of a homeless man revered by the homeless population and dubbed Bagman Jesus. She calls Lindsay, the detective, to the scene. Naturally, Lindsay and her partner don't have much time to work the case of a homeless man, even one shot repeatedly and likely not the victim of the usual homeless on homeless crime. Still, the two detectives vow to work on it in their spare time. Meanwhile, Yuki , assistant district attorney on a brutal losing streak, is awaiting the verdict of a high-profile case of a young woman who allegedly killed her parents for the insurance money. Also, the young, rich and fabulous in San Francisco are suddenly dying while our expert coronor can find no cause of death on their ...