Confessions of a Murder Suspect (Confessions, 1) Mass Market Paperback – May 27, 2014

James Patterson is a fabulous writer! Enjoyed this book as I always do Patterson's books. My favorites are when he and Paetro partner up!

For our October read, my Book Club decided to select an author (a prolific one) and everyone would just read the book of their choice by that author. We had so much fun with that idea that we are doing it again for November. October's selection was James Patterson. I'm a fan of James Patterson. I find most of his books highly entertaining. And unlike some readers, I'm not bothered by the fact that he doesn't write them all by himself. You have to give him credit - he doesn't pretend that he writes them alone and he uses his celebrity to help other authors. What I liked about this book: It's a mystery and it's the first in a new young adult series. I love mysteries and young adult books. I'm especially delighted when a book falls into both categories. As with most James Patterson books, this is a quick read. I loved Tandy. In fact she may be the only character I really liked. She's not your usual teen girl. How many young girls, faced with the murder of both parents and being at the top of the suspect list would have the calm and cool nerve to set about solving the murders? Tandy's and her siblings' enhanced abilities do give the story a bit of an unreal aspect, but they also add to the over all mystery. Tandy is a very strong character who is aware of her flaws. I'm pretty sure this book is the first in a series, which makes me very glad as I have so many questions about Tandy, her childhood and her rather different family. I can't wait to read more. What I didn't like about this book: With the exception of the family lawyer (and we really don't get to know him at all) all the adult characters are extremely unlikable. I particularly did not care for the investigators. The lead investigator, Detective Caputo, is very unprofessional, treats the children with total disdain and even outright hatred. Not that I have very much experience with real policemen, but I found him to be almost unbelievable. He is such an unlikable character that it was easy to sympathize with Tandy as she struggled to deal with him. I had an inkling about the resolution of this mystery (which I won't share with you because I don't believe in adding spoilers to reviews - especially reviews of new books), but Patterson and Paetro still managed to work in something I didn't quite expect.This is a great thriller/mystery written for teens. Even though teens are the targeted audience, I highly recommend it for James Patterson fans of all ages.

So I just got done review one of my favorite Authors and now I am going to do one in which the name is so large that I expected a lot out of this book. However at the end of the first fifty pages I already knew what I was going to rate this book. I was in utter shock of how almost amateur this book was. I'll start with everything wrong with this book.1. Addressing the reader. This is an absolute no no. There are better ways get the reader involved than trying to communicate with them. "Dear Reader" just turned me off completely, and while that mechanic may be good younger readers. However doing it just flat out deflated the story, and grind on the reader more than it helps.2. Telling the reader. So this goes back to one and the best quote to show this is, "And it might not surprise you at this point to learn that I can actually read Chinese." Why is this bad? Show the reader she knows how to read chinese, instead of just magically learning chinese out of nowhere. It's silly, disjointed and frankly why doesn't she use it prior to telling the reader? It's flat out silly, makes the story hard to understand and follow through the laughter.3. Tangents. Tandy goes off on all these tangents or flashbacks to explain something to the reader again, than randomly stop in the middle of them and explain that you'll save them for later. It was a few pages of this that drove me crazy and I actually started skipping the useless information. Stop throwing the reader promises, and frankly I didn't feel like some of those even came about.4. Innuendos. Okay Innuendos are fun and all, but if you don't do them correctly or leak in your own prejudices or make the reader question the innuendo. There were names in the book and the one that stood out was a TV anchor Imbimbo, break it apart and you will question what he has against anchors. Its so easy to see and confusing. Pick a regular name and stop it. It's not funny, it doesn't add anything to the story at all. Future writers, please take note of the list and learn from why this book just doesn't do good at all. Add to that the lack emotion in the main character. She's a rag doll that just randomly moves around. There's no attachment to her at all, and in fact she's just hard to connect with. I didn't want to jump to a rating based on the ending, so in my search of other perspectives on the ending (from other reviewers), I've found that too many think it's just a complete letdown. Yeah, I will say that I didn't expect it, I saw it coming near the end, but frankly I didn't even think the ending was on the table. It was such a letdown I'm not even sure if I am going to read the sequel. This is a prime example of what not to do when writing a book. There was just so much wrong with the book that frankly I am afraid to read anything else. How can an author so prolific as this pour effort and time into a book and it just be viewed as a complete waste of time. Frankly I hope someone out there enjoyed this book, but I don't see who or why they would... I thought the book was just so dry, the style done wrong or detracted from the story, and the main character was so uneventful.

I love the author. He is great at making u feel like you are part of the journey. This was by far the best book I’ve read in a very long time. I can’t wait to read the 2nd book and the last one of this confessions trilogy. If u love to read and you love murder/mystery than this is def a must read. Just make sure u read in order so I can follow the order. It’s worth it for sure.

My true rating is 4.5 stars.. Also check out my other reviews at[...]Recently I have been struggling to find an interesting book to read. Nothing seems to have been able to hold my attention. I knew I was going to like Confessions Of A Murder Suspect because I like a good murder mystery and that's rare in YA fiction. James Patterson is famous for his murder mystery novels for adults, so he knew what he was writing about. It was something he was good at. And I wasn't disappointed.One night, Tandy Angel's parents were murdered. Only herself, her two brothers and her mother's personal assistant were in the flat. It was locked. Which meant one of them must have killed them. Or did they?The story is fast paced and I read it in five hours, staying up until 3am because I couldn't put it down. Tandy is the narrator and she talks directly to the reader. I rarely read a book in this style but it made an interesting change. Strangely, the book I read before this was Liar by Justine Larbalestier which was written in a similar way.Another good point about this book are the characters. They all have their own voice and most of all - they were realistic. Tandy was my favourite character, closely followed by her twin brother Harry. You know in the summary when I said Tally had two brothers? Well she had three brothers. She had another brother called Matthew who wasn't in the apartment when their parents were killed, but he was a major character.My favourite thing about this novel? Romance is pretty non-existent. Matthew had a girlfriend but we never saw them together, and Tandy has memories of a boy she fell in love with but he doesn't appear in person. I know romance is very popular in YA fiction, but I am not a fan of romance at all; it was nice to read a book where I didn't have to skip pages full of love-dovey stuff.Murder Of A Murder suspect is full of twists and turns that will keep you hooked and you won't want to stop until the parents deaths are resolved.

Not the normal Patterson - I didn't actually stop reading this - but almost (I only give up if the book is badly written - which this was not) However, when I finally reached the end it didn't really fulfil the hints and promise of earlier and I wished I hadn't bothered to keep turning the pages!Told in the first person by a shallow and strange teenage girl from a "dysfunctional" (Patterson's word, mine would be "unbelievable") family it kept hinting at deeper mystery - but no! Just shallow and unreal.The very short chapters were annoying - maybe because I was reading this in the Kindle version(?) - but just one more thing that made me give this book only 2 stars.The title says "Confessions 1" - well, I won't bother with number 2!It is hard to believe that Patterson and Paetro would put their names to this book. I have enjoyed ALL their other books - what happened here?

Really enjoyed this book.The book starts with two police officers knocking on the door to the Angels apartment following a emergency telephone call. The discover the bodies of Maud and Michael Angel lying on their bed. There has been evidence of a robbery or break-in. The only other people their are Maud and Michael's children. Also their personal assistant Samantha.The book is narrated by Tandy one of their children. You get an insight into the strict lifestyle they lead. All the children become suspects though out the book aswell as other people. Tandy takes it on to become detective (even though she is number one suspect in the police's eyes).Very good book with a twist at the end which I did not see coming.

This undoubtedly the worst James Patterson book I have ever read, made doubly so because it was written with, arguably, his best writing partner, Maxine Paetro. I almost gave up on more than one occasion and it was only my long term loyalty to everything James Patterson writes that kept me going...a determination not to quit. But, oh boy, I came perilously close!The narrative is over long, terribly wordy and, dare I say it, totally tedious and utterly boring. Quite how Patterson and Paetro came up with this rubbish is beyond me.I see there are more in the 'Confessions' series. Not for me there aren't!

I thought this was a good read for young teenagers. Not quite meaty enough for adults though, but it gives a good starter for those youngsters who are starting out on the murder mystery ladder. I thought the main character was very good, she built up a personal relationship with you from the beginning and treated you like a best friend telling you all her secrets. It was a kind of family whodunnit, which was quite funny and it made you use your imagination to help her solve the murder. I thought the end was very sad though and I wasn't expecting it, which I think is a good thing as it means it wasn't transparent.