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Overview

First to Die is the first novel in James Patterson’s Women’s Murder Club series. Lindsay Boxer, a police inspector for San Francisco, has excelled at her job for six years but faces new challenges when she gets sick and must solve a tough case. She forms an alliance with other women who understand what it’s like to work in a male-dominated field and also includes her friends Claire Washburn and Cindy Thomas. Along the way, they’ll meet Jill Bernhardt (a highly ambitious assistant district attorney) and Chris Raleigh (Lindsay’s new partner). First to Die is another exciting crime novel by bestselling author James Patterson that will more than live up to his fans’ expectations.

Lindsay Boxer is diagnosed with a rare form of anemia, Negli’s. This diagnosis makes her feel vulnerable and weak, so she can’t handle the murder scene at a luxury hotel as well as she would have liked. The female victim was in her wedding dress when she was murdered, which makes Lindsay think about how young and hopeful the girl must have been before being killed by someone else.

Immediately after the beginning of their investigation, Lindsay and Chris are told that they will work together. Lindsay is demoted from lead on the case to second because she’s not a good mediator like Chris. However, as they work together, she learns that he’s a great cop who only wants to find the killer. Together they begin searching for motives among the couples’ friends and family members by researching everything about them including their business dealings.

Cindy Thomas arrives at the crime scene in Napa Valley. She and Lindsay discuss the case on their way home from Napa to San Francisco. They also realize they have a lot in common, so Cindy invites herself over for dinner with Lindsay and her wife Claire Washburn, who is also a medical examiner. The four of them decide to work together on the case because each one has something unique to contribute: Cindy as a reporter, Claire as an M.E., Lindsay as a detective, and Cindy’s cameraman husband Brian Speck due to his inside connections with local law enforcement officials around San Francisco Bay Area.

The next day, Lindsay and Raleigh return to Napa Valley. They go to the vineyard where they found the bodies of Nathan Lee and his wife. Claire drives up from San Francisco to speak with her coroner friend, who has examined the bodies. She is very upset about what she saw but understands that Lindsay needs to focus on solving this case.

Lindsay and Raleigh continue to investigate both cases. They talk to the clerk at Saks who saw the suspect in one of the bride’s dresses, which leads them to another witness who talked with a man wearing similar clothes at Brandt’s wedding. The case seems like it will be solved when two more couples are found murdered.

Lindsay and Raleigh fly to Cleveland, where they learn that Kathy and James were murdered at their wedding reception. The security tapes reveal a partial view of the suspected killer, but there is not enough information to make an accurate identification. Interviews with family members revealed that this person was abusive towards Kathy for most of her life, but she had recently begun dating him again before her death. This man turns out to be Nicholas Jenks, a famous writer who resides in San Francisco. Lindsay and Raleigh begin the investigation by interviewing everyone around him from his publisher to his estranged wife. However, this causes them problems because he’s so well-known in California that it makes it harder for them to gather evidence against him without being noticed or getting into trouble for interfering with people’s lives without legal cause