2nd Chance reconvenes the Women"s Murder Club, four friends (adetective, a reporter, an assistant district attorney, and a medical examiner)who used their networking skills, feminine intuition, and professional wiles tosolve a baffling series of murders in 1st to Die. This time, themurders of two African Americans, a little girl and an old woman, bear all thesigns of a serial killer for Lindsay Boxer, newly promoted to lieutenant of SanFrancisco"s homicide squad. But there"s an odd detail she finds even moredisturbing: both victims were related to city cops. A symbol glimpsed at bothmurder scenes leads to a racist hate group, but the taunting killer strikesagain and again, leaving deliberate clues and eluding the police ever morecleverly. In the meantime, each of the women has a personal stake at risk--andthe killer knows who they are. 2nd Chance speeds along at a Formula One pace through many tight curves,but unlike recent entries in theAlex Cross series, itdoesn"t sacrifice good characters to a twisted plot. Lindsay"s the star, butthere"s a fine esprit de corps among the four women, who are even betterdeveloped here than in the first book. What makes them both convincing andinteresting as a criminal-justice juggernaut is their willingness to stick theirnecks out, even if they suffer for it. If you haven"t picked up a JamesPatterson novel in a while, this is a great time to start anew. --BarrieTrinkle