As the title indicates, this is the 23rd installment in the Women’s Murder Club series, which shows not only the persistence of the authors but also their uncanny ability to keep churning out interesting stories featuring these dynamic characters.

THE 23rd MIDNIGHT by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro kicks off with an intense sequence of events and never lets up. A man known as Blackout is terrorizing the streets of San Francisco. Not only is the name creepy, he is following in the footsteps of the infamous and imprisoned serial killer Evan Burke.

"THE 23rd MIDNIGHT is a wild game of cat and mouse.... Those who have read any of the prior entries in this series will be in for a treat as they get to spend more quality time with these leading ladies, all of whom are in fine form here."

Detective Lindsay Boxer and reporter Cindy Thomas are connected to Burke, which means they have a more than vested interest in Blackout once his campaign of evil begins. The book opens with the brutal slaying of an attractive young mother and her baby, both of whom are subsequently dumped in the ocean by Blackout. He wants them to be found as this double murder is a love letter of sorts to Burke and a shot across the bow to both Lindsay and Cindy.

This is followed by a bizarre scene at a bookstore signing of Cindy’s new book, which is about her work on the Burke case. A male audience member confronts her aggressively, accusing her of profiting on misery and murder. He is escorted out of the store, but Cindy is badly shaken. When that same individual is later found dead in his own vehicle via a silencer to the head, Cindy clearly gets the message that she is on the killer’s radar.

Another member of the Women’s Murder Club, Yuki Castellano, is prosecuting a difficult case involving the brutal beating of a woman by her husband. With the novel moving along at a nice pace, I was initially distracted by this storyline until Patterson and Paetro brilliantly tie it together with the Blackout narrative.

Lindsay realizes that the only way to stay ahead of Blackout and figure out what his intentions are is to involve Burke, who is now on death row. Burke loves the attention and even lets on that he plans to publish his own book detailing elements he did not share with Cindy.

THE 23rd MIDNIGHT is a wild game of cat and mouse. When Blackout confronts Cindy, the plot really heats up, and there is much suspense around the possibility that she might not make it out of this situation alive. Those who have read any of the prior entries in this series will be in for a treat as they get to spend more quality time with these leading ladies, all of whom are in fine form here.