WHEN your leading character has helped you sell 50 million books, it takes a brave man, or indeed an incredibly rich one, to introduce someone new. But James Patterson manages to pull it off in style.

Alex Cross, the hero of thrillers such as Kiss The Girls, Along Came A Spider and Roses Are Red, is a hard act to follow, but Patterson's new creation, tough, no-nonsense, but sensitive San Fransisco detective Lindsay Boxer, is up to the job.

When a bride and groom are murdered in their honeymoon suite shortly after their wedding, Boxer is called in to investigate.

After a second, then a third murder, it becomes clear that a serial killer of newlyweds is on the loose.

Against protocol, Boxer teams up with a female forensic pathologist, journalist and lawyer in a bid to catch the killer. All of them are frustrated in their careers by their orthodox male bosses. The Women's Murder Club is born.

Patterson is already working on his second Murder Club book and a television series is in the pipeline. If 1st to Die is anything to by he's got a real winner on his hands.