2nd Chance

The Women's Murder Club

By: James Patterson, Andrew Gross

Narrated by: Melissa Leo, Jeremy Piven

Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

This presentation features an exclusive special introduction by James Patterson.

Master of suspense James Patterson continues the Women's Murder Club series with this sequel to 1st to Die.

The sensational killings that have rocked San Francisco appear to be unrelated except in their brutality. But detective Lindsay Boxer senses there's some thread connecting them all. She calls her friends in the Women's Murder Club together to see if they can discover what it is.

Working with Chronicle reporter Cindy Thomas, Assistant District Attorney Jill Bernhardt, and medical examiner Claire Washburn, Lindsay discovers that there is indeed a link. Each of the victims had a close relative in a particular profession, a profession that sends a chill through Lindsay's heart.

The partners in the Women's Murder Club deduce where the killer is likely to strike next and bait a trap that can't be resisted. But if their calculation is wrong, the consequences will be lethal. And there will be no second chance.

©2002 James Patterson, All Rights Reserved (P)2002 Time Warner AudioBooks, a Division of the AOL Time Warner Book Group

Critic reviews

"As with Patterson's best novels, the surprises keep coming until the final pages." (Booklist)

No Second Chances

Very bad narration. Every word is over-annunciated and over-acted. It was torture listening to this...

Painful pastime

If this was a decent novel to begin with, the narration ensured that I would ever know. The whiny voice, exaggerated diction and overemphasis without relevance to the action distracted from the text and made listening a painful process, like a finger nail on a chalkboard.

A true 2nd chance.

If this was a stand alone story or the first in a series it would be a much better story, but the fact that Mr. Patterson forgets so much of the history of the first book detracts from the main character, Lindsay Boxer. While the story itself is solid and has its twists, as it should, like any good story, I find that I was disappointed with the characters more and more as the story went on. Characters that are supposed to the the brightest in the city are missing glaring clues and not doing simple things to catch the bad guy. Now I realize that some of these simple things would make a "bad read", so I do not hold that against Mr. Patterson, but ,without revealing a "spoiler", no one picked up on Lindsay's savior (By the time you get to it, you'll already figure it out!).

If I could have given this story a three and a half, I would have, but since I have enjoyed other pieces of Mr. Patterson's work before, I decided to give him a "true 2nd Chance." The first book in the series I really enjoyed, this book is a mild let down, hopefully a third book in the series will be forthcoming to see if this will be a series that I will continue enjoy.

Great story almost ruined by the "talent"

What did you love best about 2nd Chance?

Patterson's tales are always hard to put down and this is no exception. Twists and turns, a fast pace and a great heroine.

Any additional comments?

The female narrator's über-dramatic reading was so annoying that I almost stopped halfway through.

Bad narration, writing

The only way I could get thru the melodramatic narration was to imagine this as a take-off from Saturday Night Live on a detective show - reminded me of that bad acting by William Shatner on his detective show - people (and I hope cops) just don't talk this way. But if you think of it as a spoof - it is quite funny.

Shold have stuck with the 1st narrator

This was the worst narration of any audio book I have tried to date! I couldn't get past the first 4 chapters. Sorry, Melissa, you should stick to acting.

What are they thinking?

Why don't producers of audio books make the narrators audition before signing contracts? I agree with the reviewer who said it was the worst narration ever. If the producers of these books aren't familiar with the work of narrators like Barbara Rosenblatt and Jim Dale, they should not be in the business. I hate wasting my money on books that could be better narrated by a third grader. The story is OK but not as good as the first. It would have been more enjoyable if there had been some decent narration. Is this woman really an actress? Did she listen to her own narration? It boggles the mind.

Do not waste time or money.

I think James was drunk when he wrote this book. The story is good but it's terribly written and read. The narrator cannot make up her mind whether she is reading a poetry book or a murder mystery. "1st to Die" was pretty good though.

2nd Chance Blown

Even more than the previous volume of the series, 1st to Die, I found 2nd Chance an intriguing story brought to its knees by narration so amateur and ill-dramatized as to be very unpleasant listening. I finally forced myself to listen to the last twenty minutes to hear the ending.

The story continues..

I read 1st to Die and loved it. I was thrilled to come across the next novel in the series, and this story was even better. The narrator was also better for this book.

The characters in "The Women's Murder Club" have become so endearing. I feel like they are friends of mine. They have very distinct personalities and it adds so much to the story. It's more than just a good mystery - which it is - it also held my interest in wanting to know what happens to them. Patterson is on to something with this series, and I hope it continues.