Confessions of a Murder Suspect

I'm a huge fan of James Patterson's one successful YA fantasy MAXIMUM RIDE. His writing is potato chip fiction at it's best. Short action packed chapters keep the reader turning the pages.

CONFESSIONS is his first YA mystery series. Once again Patterson's pacing and suspense take the reader by the collar for an action packed ride.

Fifteen-year-old Tandy Angel is awakened to police crashing into her posh NYC apartment where she lives with her brothers, parents, and her mother's personal assistant. Someone has killed her parents and all of them are suspect.

Just like MAXIMUM RIDE, these teens aren't normal. They all have exceptional abilities and dark secrets. I almost thought at first this might be kind of a spin-off to the other Sci-fi series.

Tandy at times sounds a lot older than her fifteen years. Also she has missing parts of her memory that are hinted at later in the book. What worked for me is how she was the one to take charge of the investigation, kind of like a twisted Veronica Mars, when everyone else had the whole family marked as murderers.

The detectives were at times a bit cliche with the bad cop, good cop dialogue. And the omniscient point of view was jarring at times and took me out of the story. But once you get pass that, this book is an addictive beach read. There's suspense, action, motive, and lots of dark secrets.

Going on this ride was fun though I do admit the ending was a tad bit anti-climatic. I do feel Patterson leaves it open for another Tandy novel as there are some loose ends.

Patterson fans will enjoy this new mystery series. If you're looking for a fast-paced beach read, this is the one.