Look, I grabbed this one for my post-shift drive home because I needed something that would keep my brain engaged but not require me to think too hard. After twelve hours of actual life-and-death situations, sometimes you just want fictional ones where nobody's really going to code on you.
And honestly? This delivered exactly what I needed.
Three Cities, Three Shooters, Zero Time to Breathe
The premise hooked me immediately - vigilante shooters taking out criminals across San Francisco, L.A., and Chicago. As someone who's seen what violence actually does to bodies (spoiler: it's messier than books make it sound), I appreciated that Patterson and Paetro kept things moving fast enough that I didn't have time to nitpick the medical details. Short chapters are perfect for audiobook listening. You hit a chapter break right as you're pulling into the hospital parking lot? Perfect stopping point. You're almost home and there's one more short chapter? You can justify sitting in the driveway.
The moral ambiguity here is what kept me thinking. These victims weren't innocent people - they were criminals who'd probably hurt a lot of folks. So when the shooters start picking them off, you catch yourself wondering... is this wrong? It's the kind of ethical gray area that makes for good 3 AM contemplation when the unit is quiet and you're caught up on charting.
That same moral complexity had me hooked in Hidden, though that one went darker with it.
January LaVoy Gets It (Mostly)
January LaVoy has that AudioFile Golden Voice designation for a reason. Her pacing matches the thriller energy perfectly - she knows when to speed up during action sequences and when to let tension build. Lindsay Boxer comes through clear and strong, which matters when you're following a character through twenty books of a series.
But here's the thing - and I'm not the only one who noticed this - her voice for Claire felt off. Way off. I don't know if it's because Claire's dealing with a cancer diagnosis in this book or what, but something about the vocal choice just didn't land. As a nurse, I've sat with a lot of cancer patients. They don't sound like that. They sound tired, sometimes. Scared, often. But not... whatever that was.
(Carlos asked why I was muttering at my steering wheel. I told him it was work stress. It was not work stress.)
Minor pacing hiccups here and there, but nothing that pulled me out of the story completely. Overall, LaVoy does solid work with the Women's Murder Club.
The Plot Holes I'm Choosing to Ignore
Okay, so there's this thing where characters leave a kid home alone and it's treated like no big deal? That pulled me out for a second. In my line of work, you see what happens when people make decisions like that. But this is fiction, and I'm trying to decompress, so I'm letting it go.
The investigation itself moves at a good clip. Lindsay's working across jurisdictions, which adds complexity without getting bogged down in procedural stuff. Patterson's trademark short chapters keep everything punchy. You're never more than a few minutes from something happening.
Is it predictable in places? Sure. But predictable isn't always bad when you're driving home at 7 AM and your brain is running on coffee and adrenaline fumes. Sometimes you want comfort food, and this is the thriller equivalent of my mom's adobo - familiar, satisfying, hits the spot.
Who Should Listen (And Who Should Skip)
If you're already into the Women's Murder Club series, this is a no-brainer. You know what you're getting, and LaVoy delivers it consistently. If you're new to the series, you could probably jump in here without being totally lost, but you'd miss some of the character history that makes the friendship dynamics work.
This is perfect commute listening. Perfect post-shift decompression. Perfect "I need to stay awake for this drive" material. It's not going to change your life or make you rethink everything you know about justice, but it'll keep you engaged for eight and a half hours.
Skip it if minor narrator inconsistencies really bother you, or if you need your thrillers to be 100% realistic. (I yelled at my dashboard exactly once during this one, which is actually a pretty good ratio for me and medical-adjacent fiction.)
My mom would probably like this, actually. She's been asking for audiobook recommendations since she retired. Something exciting but not too complicated. This fits the bill.
Night shift approved. Just maybe bump it up to 1.25x speed if the pacing feels slow in spots.
