Patterson and Paetro have been teaming up for some time to work on the Women's Murder Club series. They seem to be kicking off a new series with this volume. The primary character is Jack Morgan, a former Marine and the owner of an investigative firm called Private. He has assembled an interesting team of investigators that includes a psychologist, a computer specialist, a crime scene investigater, and as well as a few regular detectives. The team basically works like a police unit, only they are not limited by the rules that normal police might follow.

For months they have been helping the Los Angeles Police Department working on a serial murder case. The victims have all been high school girls who live in the same part of the city. What is really strange is that there doesn't seem to be a single MO for the murders. Each seems to have been killed in different ways. While the murderer takes a memento from each crime seem, what is chosen doesn't seem to follow a pattern. The team psychologist (and Jack's ex) Justine even suggests that it might be someone with multiple personality disorder because of the variations.

Jack also takes on a case for his uncle, an owner of one of the national football clubs. It seems that someone has been rigging games so the score spread is maintained. This is causing a number of betting houses (and the mob) some severe losses. Jack's uncle is concerned about the damage that publicity about such a scheme might do to the NFL.

Jack is also drawn into a very personal case when the wife of his best friend is brutally murdered at home. As usual, the husband becomes the prime suspect, and Jack wants to do whatever he can to help. Unfortunately, it means uncovering some unsavory things about the victim.

While trying to lead the team in divvying up these cases, Jack is also trying to handle some personal issues:
*A recurring dream in which he relives a helicopter crash that occurred while he was serving in Iraq. He is haunted by the possibility that he didn't save someone he might have.
*His twin brother who is staying at a rehabilitation center to deal with a number of issues. The two twins have always been in competition, with Jack usually being viewed as the good brother and Tommy the bad one.
*Jack has a developing relationship with his secretary Colleen. While he really likes her, he doesn't have a love for her developing. They have been dating long enough now where it is probably move the relationship to the next level.

All-in-all, I thought it was a pretty good book. I liked the team approach to resolving the case. Each team member is unique and interesting in their own part, and I look forward to them being further developed in what is likely to be future books in the series.

One of the storylines seemed like a rehashing of a plot from one of Patterson's Alex Cross books. In some ways, it was modernized from a D&D format to today's MMPORPGs, but it is essentially the same plot device. I did still enjoy it, though.

On a weird aside, I have no idea what they were trying to do with the design cover, which seems to have absolutely nothing to do with any of the storylines in the book.