Short & Sweet Review: The 19th Christmas by James Patterson

Title: The 19th Christmas
Author: James Patterson
Series: Women's Murder Club, #19
Published: October 2019, Little, Brown & Company
Format: Hardcover, 344 pages
Source: Personal copy

Summary:
It's not sleigh beels that are ringing this Christmas.

As the holidays approach, Detective Lindsay Boxer and her friends in the Women's Murder Club have much to celebrate. Crime is down. The medical examiner's office is quiet. Even the courts are showing some Christmas spirit. And the news cycle is so slow that journalist Cindy Thomas is on assignment to tell a story about the true meaning of the season for San Francisco.

Then a fearsome criminal known only as "Loman" seizes control of the headlines. He is planning a deadly surprise for Christmas morning. And he has commissioned dozens of criminal colleagues to take actions that will mask his plans. All that Lindsay and the SFPD can figure out is that Loman's greed -- for riches, for bloodshed, for attention -- is limitless.
Solving crimes never happens on schedule, but as this criminal mastermind unleashes credible threats by the hour, the month of December is upended for the Women's Murder Club. Avoiding tragedy is the only holiday miracle they seek.

***Short & Sweet Reviews are short, quick reviews. These will mainly be used for series books where I have already done full reviews on some of the earlier books or for books that I feel will suffice with a quick review. These will not be used for review requests or blog tours.


My thoughts: I was excited to see that this series was coming out with a Christmas-themed book and after the last installment had questions as to how the series was going to move forward. Well, I'm happy to see that things have moved back to normal and enjoyed this holiday-themed mystery, though I do wish that Claire had been more involved.

This latest installment had one main story that involved Lindsay and her partner and the other side story involves Cindy and Yuki. While I enjoyed both, I do miss the older books where the four women would get together and hash things out at their weekly get-togethers. I miss getting updates on their lives seeing them working together to solve the mysteries. I just feel that it's missing that part of what made this series great to begin with.

Of course, I'm not quite ready to throw the towel in just yet. I will see what comes next with book 20, which is out but I haven't bought yet. I find these books to be fun, quick reads and I'm hopeful they will eventually go back to what they were.



Books in this series:

     1.   1st to Die                                    13.   Unlucky 13
     2.   2nd Chance                               14.   14th Deadly Sin
     3.   3rd Degree                                15.    15th Affair
     4.   4th of July                                 15.5   The Trial
     5.   The 5th Horseman                   16.    16th Seduction
     6.   The 6th Target                          16.5   The Medical Examiner
     7.   7th Heaven                                 17.    The 17th Suspect   
     8.   The 8th Confession                  18.   The 18th Abduction
     9.   The 9th Judgment               19.   The 19th Christmas
    10.  10th Anniversary                 20.   The 20th Victim
    11.   11th Hour
    12.   12th of Never