Book ~ "The 5th Horseman" (2006) James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

From Goodreads ~ It is a wild race against time as Lieutenant Lindsay Boxer and the newest member of the Women's Murder Club, attorney Yuki Castellano, lead an investigation into a string of mysterious patient deaths - and reveal a hospital administration determined to shield its reputation at all costs. 

And while the hospital wages an explosive court battle that grips the entire nation, the Women's Murder Club hunts for a merciless killer among its esteemed medical staff. 

There are four members of the Women's Murder Club ... Lindsay, Cindy, Claire and Yuki.

Lindsay is a police lieutenant in San Francisco.  Young dead well-dressed girls start being found in fancy cars around the city.  Her department is strapped for resources and everyone is working extra hard to find the killer(s).

Yuki was Lindsay's lawyer and has become a friend and the latest member of the Women's Murder Club.  Her mother, Keiko, has a stroke and is taken to the hospital.  Despite being told that she was getting better, Keiko suddenly dies.  Yuki discovers that the hospital where her mother had been taken is being taken to court because there have been many mysterious deaths of patients in the last three years.  Lindsay stumbles onto the case because she discovers that the dead patients were found with buttons on their eyes.

This is the fifth in the Women's Murder Club series (and the sixth one I've read). Though it is part of a series, it does work as a stand alone.  This book was less about the Women's Murder Club, though ... the focuses were on Lindsay and Yuki. Cindy and Claire popped up occasionally.

I enjoyed the writing style and it went at a good pace. I liked the short choppy chapters. The point of view shifted ... it was first person perspective when the focus was on Lindsay and third person perspective when the focus was on everyone else ... but it was easy to figure out.  As a head's up, there is swearing, adult activity and violence.

I found the two storylines interesting but it felt like I was reading two different books because there was no connection.  I found it odd that 32 people had mysteriously died in three years and were found with buttons on their eyes yet the head of the hospital didn't think it was bizarre enough to tell the police.  Another thing I found strange is one of the characters gets on a plane with a gash in their head and their face bruised and bloodied.  Wouldn't Security at an airport stop and report them or take them to a hospital?

The whodunnits are exposed throughout the book (the last reveal comes very quickly at the end).  I would have liked more explanation as to why the killers did what they did.

I liked this book and will continue to get caught up in the series.