The 9th Judgment
Encyclopedia
The 9th Judgment is the title for the ninth book in the Women's Murder Club
series featuring Lindsay Boxer by New York Times Bestselling author James Patterson
. This novel was released in 2010. It is about four friends that work for the San Francisco Police Department who pool their skills together to solve San Francisco's toughest murder cases.
sergeant Lindsay Boxer and her squad are tracking down a man who approaches young mothers in shopping center parking garages and kills them and their infant children. This happens several times and causes widespread panic. The man then makes contact and demands a $2 million ransom in exchange for stopping the killing. He strikes at such random places and times that, despite Boxer's protests, the police decide to pay the ransom.
Boxer is selected to deliver the ransom and has the man guide her via cellphone. After forcing Boxer to strip to her panties to prove she is not wearing a wire, the man has her drive throughout San Francisco. The trek culminates on the Golden Gate Bridge
where Boxer drops the suitcase with the ransom in it to a boat waiting below. The Coast Guard is able to apprehend the man in the boat, who turns out to be uninvolved in the killings—he had been told his picking up the suitcase was for a movie.
Upset at having not gotten his ransom, the man kills another mother and child. While at that crime scene, however, he was noticed by the owner of a store on Fisherman's Wharf
. The owner recognized him as having bought a prepaid cellphone from his store earlier and gives Boxer and her team the surveillance tape from his store. From the tape, Boxer and her team identify the man and begin tracking him down.
Before they can find him, however, the man strikes again. However, the woman he chose was armed with a 22 caliber pistol—carried in response to the general panic caused by the shootings. She shoots the man and he dies just as Boxer and her team arrive.
In the plot's secondary case, a female cat burglar breaks into the home of an aging movie star and his wife, the latter of whom happened to be law school classmates with Boxer's friend Yuki Castellano. The star and his wife come home unexpectedly and the burglar is forced to wait in the home until after they go to bed before she can escape. She waits, but in the process of escaping, knocks over a table. Suddenly, the movie star pulls out a gun and shoots and kills his wife, in the hope that he can blame it on the burglar. Through their investigation, Boxer and her team discover that the star had a girlfriend and wanted out of his marriage and that murder was cheaper than divorce. When confronted with the evidence, the star confesses.
It is also revealed that the cat burglar is actually a school teacher in an unhappy marriage. She is also in love with a female colleague and is only burglarizing in order to get enough money so that she and the colleague can escape to another country and start a new life together.
At the end, it is revealed that the female colleague the burglar has fallen in love with is also unhappily married—to the man who was killing mothers and children whom Boxer was tracking.
Women's Murder Club
Women's Murder Club is an American police procedural and legal drama, which ran on ABC from October 12, 2007, to May 13, 2008. The series is set in San Francisco, California and is based on the 'Women's Murder Club' series of novels written by James Patterson...
series featuring Lindsay Boxer by New York Times Bestselling author James Patterson
James Patterson
James B. Patterson is an American author of thriller novels, largely known for his series about American psychologist Alex Cross...
. This novel was released in 2010. It is about four friends that work for the San Francisco Police Department who pool their skills together to solve San Francisco's toughest murder cases.
Plot summary
SFPDSan Francisco Police Department
The San Francisco Police Department, also known as the SFPD and San Francisco Department Of Police, is the police department of the City and County of San Francisco, California...
sergeant Lindsay Boxer and her squad are tracking down a man who approaches young mothers in shopping center parking garages and kills them and their infant children. This happens several times and causes widespread panic. The man then makes contact and demands a $2 million ransom in exchange for stopping the killing. He strikes at such random places and times that, despite Boxer's protests, the police decide to pay the ransom.
Boxer is selected to deliver the ransom and has the man guide her via cellphone. After forcing Boxer to strip to her panties to prove she is not wearing a wire, the man has her drive throughout San Francisco. The trek culminates on the Golden Gate Bridge
Golden Gate Bridge
The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the opening of the San Francisco Bay into the Pacific Ocean. As part of both U.S. Route 101 and California State Route 1, the structure links the city of San Francisco, on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula, to...
where Boxer drops the suitcase with the ransom in it to a boat waiting below. The Coast Guard is able to apprehend the man in the boat, who turns out to be uninvolved in the killings—he had been told his picking up the suitcase was for a movie.
Upset at having not gotten his ransom, the man kills another mother and child. While at that crime scene, however, he was noticed by the owner of a store on Fisherman's Wharf
Fisherman's Wharf
Fisherman's Wharf may refer to:*Fisherman's Wharf, Monterey, California, a historic fishing wharf in Monterey, California*Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco, a tourist destination and still-functioning wharf, in San Francisco, California...
. The owner recognized him as having bought a prepaid cellphone from his store earlier and gives Boxer and her team the surveillance tape from his store. From the tape, Boxer and her team identify the man and begin tracking him down.
Before they can find him, however, the man strikes again. However, the woman he chose was armed with a 22 caliber pistol—carried in response to the general panic caused by the shootings. She shoots the man and he dies just as Boxer and her team arrive.
In the plot's secondary case, a female cat burglar breaks into the home of an aging movie star and his wife, the latter of whom happened to be law school classmates with Boxer's friend Yuki Castellano. The star and his wife come home unexpectedly and the burglar is forced to wait in the home until after they go to bed before she can escape. She waits, but in the process of escaping, knocks over a table. Suddenly, the movie star pulls out a gun and shoots and kills his wife, in the hope that he can blame it on the burglar. Through their investigation, Boxer and her team discover that the star had a girlfriend and wanted out of his marriage and that murder was cheaper than divorce. When confronted with the evidence, the star confesses.
It is also revealed that the cat burglar is actually a school teacher in an unhappy marriage. She is also in love with a female colleague and is only burglarizing in order to get enough money so that she and the colleague can escape to another country and start a new life together.
At the end, it is revealed that the female colleague the burglar has fallen in love with is also unhappily married—to the man who was killing mothers and children whom Boxer was tracking.