Page-turner of the week
Sick of the old sleuth-plus-sidekick routine? Patterson (Kiss the Girls) doubles the roster in a kickoff to a new series (and the basis for a planned NBC miniseries). 1st to Die gives us four San Francisco women—a homicide inspector, a medical examiner, an assistant D.A. and a reporter—who team up to catch a serial killer. ("Homicide Chicks," one of the quartet suggests for a group nickname. How about something snappier, like the Slice Girls?) True to Patterson's MO, the case is grisly to the max: Someone is murdering newlyweds just hours after they swear to love each other until death do us part. While Patterson sometimes lapses into cliché, his clever twists and affecting subplots—such as a rare blood disease that threatens the life of the central heroine, tough-but-tender cop Lindsay Boxer—keep the pages flying. (Little, Brown, $26.95)
Bottom Line: 2nds, please
