Paul Weiss's Reviews > The 18th Abduction

Genocidal monster or Serbian war hero? History, of course, is written by the winners!

Ladies and gentlemen, meet THE WOMEN’S MURDER CLUB - Lindsay Boxer, police sergeant and homicide detective; Yuki Castellano, prosecutor and assistant district attorney; Claire Washburn, medical examiner and forensic scientist; Cindy Thomas, writer and investigative journalist. Their novels are as predictably formulaic as the proverbial Hallmark movie but that formula (as of the writing of THE 18TH ABDUCTION) is working like a well-oiled high speed machine so don’t expect authors Paetro and Patterson to be breaking the pattern any time soon.

Think of a WMC novel as a mash-up of two or three novellas or short stories, each involving one of the WMC ladies as a lead protagonist – a murder, trial or legal issue, medical drama, rape, breaking news story, kidnapping, bombing, arson, social issue … you get the idea. The stories weave in and out of one another in real time to produce a single larger novel but the interaction between stories is typically minor, incidental, or coincidental.

Sprinkle in a generous helping of personal issues interrupting the ladies’ professional lives – marital difficulties; flagging sex lives; questions of professional integrity or self esteem; pregnancy; professional discord in their employment; divorce or separation; commitment; changing personal objectives; morality … once again, all pretty predictable stuff!

Last but not least, toss in at least one or two coffee klatch, dinner and drinks, or purely pub meetings over booze during which the ladies meet and discuss their issues and brainstorm potential ideas and solutions with one another.

In a pretty real sense, if you’ve read one WMC novel, you’ve read them all but, darn it, they’re entertaining as hell, they manage to be quite gripping, and THE 18TH ABDUCTION is no exception to this astonishing string of successes. The story lines in this one? First, three teachers from a prestigious preparatory school, with no apparent common denominator have gone missing while out together. The clock is ticking and their deaths by excruciating torture seem inevitable as time passes. Second, a more political meta-story focused on the apprehension of a war criminal living free and easy in the USA spotted by a refugee from the Serbian genocide.

Definitely recommended. Read it and enjoy!

Paul Weiss