1st to Die (2001) (edit title/settings)

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Characters edit see section history

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• Lindsay Boxer: An inspector in the San Francisco Police Department Homicide division. She gets assigned on the bride-and-groom murders case and solves the case. Works out of the Hall of Justice. Was a sociology major at San Francisco State University. 34. Mom had died ten years before, from breast cancer. Dad had been out of the picture since she was thirteen. 5'10, slender and impressive. Was nice looking, with sandy blond hair and animated, bright brown eyes. Divorced. Hates living alone; loves people, friends. She was into yoga. Liked to read travel books and mysteries. She was tough, with dazzling smarts. She even had a conscience.
• Warren Jacobi: Lindsay's former partner. Forty-seven, but he looked ten years older. His hair was white, and he was beginning to bald. His face always seemed on the verge of a smirk over some tasteless wisecrack. He and Lindsay had worked together for two and a half years. Reported to Lindsay though he had been on the force for 7 years longer.
• Christopher John Raleigh: A former police captain from the San Francisco Mayor's office who gets assigned to become Lindsays new partner on the honeymoon murders case. He becomes Lindsays lover. A nice-looking type with short, dark hair and strong shoulders. He had a handsome, intelligent face. Captain Raleigh has worked as a Community Action liaison with the mayor's office. He specializes in managing potentially sensitive cases. Every part of him oozed a practiced, confident air. Before that he was a district captain over in Northern.
• Claire Washburn: Chief medical examiner at the San Francisco coroner's office. She is Lindsay's best friend. Friend of Lindsay, Cindy, and Jill. Brilliant and totally accomplished.. For six years, she had been the city's chief medical examiner. Black. Nickname is Butterfly. 50 pounds overweight. Bright, confident demeanor. She had the body of a Brahman, the mind of a hawk, and the gentle soul of a butterfly. Has 2 teenagers. Married to Edmund. She was not beautiful, at least not in the way society taught us to admire. She was large and soft and round, her shapeless waist merging with her hips. Even her hands- her well-trained, efficient hands that controlled delicate instruments all day- were pudgy and full. The only thing light about her, her husband always said, was when she was on the dance floor. Yet in her own eyes she had always felt blessed and radiant. Because she had made it up from a tough, mostly black neighborhood in San Francisco to become a doctor. Because she was loved. Because she was taught to give love. Because she had everything in her life that she ever wanted.
• Cindy Thomas: Reporter for The San Francisco Chronicle. She becomes good friends with Lindsey. Friend of Lindsay, Claire, and Jill. Has spent two years covering local interest on the Metro desk of the Chronicle. Undergraduate at Michigan. She was into yoga. Liked to read travel books and mysteries.
• Jill Bernhardt: Assistant district attorney. Friend of Lindsay, Claire, and Cindy. Assistant District Attorney. She was tough, with dazzling smarts. She even had a conscience. Has sharp blue eyes. Jill was dark, disarmingly attractive. Curly jet-black hair framed a narrow, oval face. She was an achiever, thirty-four, a rising star in Bennett Sinclair's office. Two years out of Stanford Law, she had married a rising young partner at one of the city's top venture firms. Leapfrogged a squadron of career prosecutors to the D.A."s right hand. In a city of high achievers, Jill was the kind of girl for whom everything clicked.
• Nicholas Jenks: A best-selling writer who becomes the suspect for the bride-and-groom serial murders. Kathy Kogut's lover in San Francisco. Nicholas Jenks was famous. A national figure. One of San Francisco's most prominent citizens. Untouchable. Forty-eight. Went to law school but never finished. Started writing novels his first year. Wrote two books that didn't go anywhere. Then this twisted thriller, Crossed Wire, hit. Trim, well-built, no more than five-ten.
• Kathy Kogut: Third bride killed by honeymoon killer. Was Kathy Voskuhl. James's wife. Grew up in Ohio, Shaker Heights. Father's a corporate attorney. Cute, redhead, freckles, glasses. Was always the rebellious one, a free spirit. It took her a while to find herself, but she was just settling down. She had a good job- a publicist for a firm in Seattle. She went to UCLA. For a year or so she stayed in Los Angeles. Tried to catch on with one of the studios. She started out with a temp job at Fox. Then she got this publicity job in San Francisco, covering music. It was a very fast life. Parties, promotions, no doubt a lot worse. She was promiscuous and did drugs.
• Joanna Wade: Nicholas Jenks's first wife. Blond, trim, sculpted. Medium-height, right-handed, the Tae-Bo instructor, was strong enough to handle a man twice her size.
• Sam "Cheery" Roth: Lindsay's boss. Lieutenant. Likes Lindsay. Can be condescending.
• Detective McBride: Policeman presiding over the honeymoon murders in Cleveland
• Gerald Brandt: David's father
• Dr. Victor Medved: Lindsay's hematologist. Pleasant, smallish man with a narrow, chiseled face and a a trace of an Eastern European accent.
• Melanie Brandt: First bride killed. David's wife. 29 years old. 5'5.
• Phillip Cambell: The bride-and-groom killer
• Stetson Leff: Nicholas Jenks' lawyer
• Chief Mercer: Chief of the SFPD
• Chessy Jenks: Nicholas Jenks's current wife. Undeniably pretty, with gentle, aquamarine eyes, a pale complexion, long, free-flowing hair. She had a tall dancer's body.
• Greg Marks: Nicholas Jenks's former agent. Short, balding, smartly dressed.
• Sweet Martha: Lindsay's border collie, also known as "Sweet Martha" or "Her Sweetness"
• James Voskuhl: Third groom killed. Kathy's husband. From Seattle. Had something to do with the music business. Worked with rock bands. Producer .. . marketing guy.
• Dr. Roy Orenthaler: Lindsay's doctor
• Charlie Clapper: Chief of the San Francisco Police Crime Scene Unit.
• Paul Chin: An officer who Lindsay works with; bright, efficient junior grade for police department
• Frank Hartwig: Cop at Napa. Lieutenant.Tall, lanky man.
• Murphy: Bought wine. Threw a dinner party for his wife's birthday.
• Suzie Fitzpatrick: Chronicle usual crime reporter
• Andrew Sharp: Head of security at the Voskuhl's wedding. Was a trim, wiry man with a square chin and narrow, colorless lips.
• Bennett Sinclair: District Attorney
• Anthony Fazziola: Officer from Northern
• Maryanne Perkins: The department manager was a stylish, affable woman of about fifty, just the type who would work with brides for twenty years.
• Dr. Robert Yatto: Head of hematology at Moffett.
• David Hale: Police Officer.
• Anthony Righetti: Righetti is Claire's overbearing, power-thumping, credit-stealing boss.
• Christine Kogut: Kathy's mom.
• Hillary Bloom: Third bride's older sister
• Chancellor Weil: Melanie's father
• Kaylin: Bright-eyed, bushy-bushed reservation clerk at the Lakefront Hilton
• Arthur Abrams: The prominent local attorney.
• Merrill Shortley: Kathy's friend from San Francisco. Used to be Merrill Cole. he turned out to be stylish, maybe twenty-seven, with shoulder-length, chestnut brown hair. Has a 1 year old. Merrill, though pretty, had the hard-edged face of a street survivor who had remade herself as a soccer mom.
• Judge Stephen Bowen: Judge of murder case
• Roy C. Shoen: Bought wine. He's a dentist.
• Tom Stone: Chronicle usual crime reporter
• Michael DeGeorge: Second groom murdered. An Accountant. In his 20s.
• Karen: Civilian clerical worker
• Loretta: Regular Waitress at Susie's.
• Sidney Glass: Cindy's editor.
• Edmund Washburn: Claire's husband. Played bass drum for the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.
• Marion: Raleigh's soon to be ex-wife.
• Laurie Birnbaum: Was at the Brandt's wedding. Nicely dressed, attractive woman of about fifty.
• Mr. David Brandt: Melanie's husband. Killed in the honeymoon murders. 29 years old. He was handsome, with short, dark, tousled hair and a soft jaw. 6' tall.
• Ben: Rebecca's brother. Killed before she was born. A Daredevil.
• Bert Rosen: Former secretary of the treasury of the United States.
• Bill Toll: Medical Examiner
• Brandee: Attractive young woman at airport. Blond hair, tight ass, tawdry-looking.
• Captain Welting: Oversaw the Bureau of Inspectors
• Cat: Lindsay's sister. Lived in Newport Beach.
• Chin: Police Officer
• Chip Stein: Works for E-flix.
• Mr Chris Raleigh: Star
• Diane: Works at Gold's gym
• Ed Lester: an attorney; puts together real-estate partnerships
• Hugh Kogut: Kathy's dad.
• James S. Coonts: The first cop on the wall of the SFPD who died in duty in 1878
• Jason: Jason is the jock. Raliegh's son.
• Jim Heekin: Roth's contact on the Seattle police force.
• Maggie Sontero: Spielberg's buddy; hot SoHo designer from New York.
• Eddleson: Man staying at the Hyatt.
• Mayor Fernandez: Guest of Melanie.
• McBridge: Homicide detective in Cleaveland. He was was intense, sharp boned, maybe thirty-eight, and black.
• Mrs. Michael De-George: AKA Rebecca Passeneau. Was a legal secretary. Murdered. In her 20s.
• Milt Fanning: Works in the FBI Sex Crimes Unit
• Sherman Leff: Nicholas's lawyer
• Miriam Campbell: fancy consultant for weddings
• Murphy: Police Officer
• Murray: A pot  bellied cop
• Nicholas Chito: Serving twenty-five years to life in San Quentin for murdering a couple of prostitutes.
• Sal Esposito: Photographer
• Samuel Delgado: Officer from Northern
• Sara: Lindsay's transfusion nurse
• Steve: Jill's husband. Running a venture fund for Bank America.
• Sumner Smith: Billionaire who had made his money in the eighties through big-time LBOs.
• Susan: Chessy's friend
• Teddy: Teddy's the brain. Set up a home page for his sixth-grade class. Raliegh's son.
• Tom: Lindsay's ex-husband. Went to law school at Berkeley.
• Vasquez: Murray's younger partner.
• Willie Upton: Superintendent of public schools.
• Joseph Abboud: Add a description of this character.
• Inspector
• Dr. Orenthaler
• Phillip Campbell
• Rebecca Passeneau
• Sid Glass
• District Attorney
• Red Beard

Quotes edit see section history

• “Never wrestle with a pig, Lindsay. You both get dirty. The pig likes it.”

  Lindsay Boxer

• “There’s a Navajo saying, 'Even the still wind has a voice.'”

• “There’s a passage in Thoreau: 'Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it, but while I drink, I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its current slides away, but eternity remains. I would drink deeper, fish in the sky, whose bottom is pebbly with stars.'”

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• San Francisco
• Saks
• City Hall
• Napa
• Pacific Heights
• Cleveland, Ohio
• The Grand Hyatt Hotel

Organizations edit see section history

• San Francisco Police Department: Add a description of this organization.
• The San Francisco Chronicle: A local newspaper for which Cindy Thomas writes

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• Negli's aplastic anemia: A type of blood disorder wherein the body stops producing red blood cells, related to Leukemia. Has 3 stages and can be fatal.

Series & Lists edit see section history

Followed by 2nd Chance.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. James Patterson (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PS3566.A822 A613 2001
• Dewey: 813.54

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Violence and sexual desriptions

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Mystery & Thrillers › Authors, A-Z › ( P ) › Patterson, James
• Books › Mystery & Thrillers › Mystery › Women Sleuths
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Classics

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• James Patterson: Author's website

More Books Like This edit see section history