Beth's Books

Originally on my book blog

Actual rating: 4.5 stars

If I thought the last few books were lacking something, this one brought it all back. I couldn’t stop reading it because the two story lines were intense and interesting. The writing was spectacular in this one as well. I never once thought about giving up on this series, but I am sure glad that I didn’t take a break from it. For anyone that felt like the last few weren’t as good, keep going. It gets better. Now onto the book!

Rich people were dropping dead, but from what? Why were there so many that had paths that crossed but no one knew who the killer was or what killed them? The thing that kept me interested in this story was the mystery in the death. A mystery novel can easily get boring if we know how someone was killed, who killed them, and why they killed them. With this story, we didn’t have any of those answers for a lot of the book. It kept me guessing and kept me reading. I was extremely surprised by the ending of this story line. It was unexpected and perfectly orchestrated. Like I said, the writing was great. This book left us guessing until the very end.

Rich people are dying, but so did a homeless man around the same time. The San Francisco Police Department only had enough man power to handle one case, so they went with the rich people. That’s normal. Cindy wasn’t having it though. After Cindy “investigated” the case of the murdered Bagman Jesus on her own, she found too much information and she finally had to show Lindsay what she was working on.

Bagman Jesus is a homeless man that, to many, seemed to be the perfect, loving man that just wanted to help people. The more Cindy, Conklin, and Lindsay looked into his life, the more they found some holes in their perfect and loving theory. Had he actually been a bad person? Did he actually deserve to die? This story kept me interested the whole time because it was just as mysterious. We didn’t know his real name, we didn’t know anything about him except for that he was dead and that other homeless people looked up to him.

I’ve said it twice and I’ll say it again: the writing was incredible. Most mystery books aren’t the best at also including romance, but this series can intertwine them very well. Lindsay and Joe are in love, so why isn’t she running away with him to get married? She feels something for her partner, Conklin, but she won’t admit it. But now, Cindy and Conklin hit it off and are spending some quality time together. Can Lindsay handle seeing her best friend with the guy that she feels something for? Does she have the right to be jealous even though she already has an incredible boyfriend? 8th Confession left that up to the readers.

Here is my take on it: Lindsay, you cannot be mad about their relationship. Sure you can be jealous- it’s not like you can stop that feeling. But YOU are the one that turned Conklin down. YOU are the one that has a boyfriend. YOU are the one that’s still trying to decide if you want to marry him or not. You have no room to be mad about their relationship. Conklin is not yours. He is also not Cindy’s but he could be if you didn’t get mad every time they looked at each other. I understand you feel something for him, but either be honest with him and yourself or move on. It’s not fair to anyone in the situation, including Joe, to sit around and get mad at your friend and partner for something that is only your business because you are their friend and partner.

I feel better now that I got that out.

The further into this series, the less the Women’s Murder Club becomes a way to solve crimes than it is just four best friends talking about their lives. At first, I wasn’t sure how I felt about the change but now that I’ve gotten used to it, I like that the readers get to know more about the characters as people instead of as a group. Unfortunately, that means we may also dislike characters. I do not like Yuki. I’m not sure if it’s because Jill quickly became a favourite of mine or if there is just something about her, but I am not as impressed with her as I am with the others. I do hope this changes further into the series.

8th Confession is a great, easy read that brought me right back into the series. Good story lines, great endings, awesome writing. If there is anyone that gave up this series before this book, you missed out. I hope that one day Maxine Paetro writes her own books so I can read all of them. She has proven to me that she is a gifted writer and will do well in the mystery genre if she decided to pursue it.