The Imperfect Murder

by James Patterson

Prepare to be hooked by this compulsive cat-and-mouse thriller from bestselling thriller author, James Patterson, in which a brilliant cop must nail down an ingenious true crime writer for murder.



Wife. Writer. Murderer?

When Denise Morrow is discovered standing over the body of her husband, a bloody knife between them, Detective Declan Shaw thinks it’s an open-and-shut case.

But Denise is no ordinary murder suspect. She’s a famous true crime author, who knows how killers operate. And how they get away with it.

Then, Declan discovers the subject of Denise’s next book – the violent murder of a girl called Maggie Marshall. A case that Declan worked on. A case that has haunted him for years.

Denise knows much more about Declan than she’s letting on, and she might just be the slipperiest suspect he has ever encountered . . .

Genres: Thriller, Audiobook, Mystery Thriller, Crime, Mystery, Fiction

389 pages, Paperback

First published April 10, 2025

About the author

Official US Site
Official UK Site
JIMMY Patterson Books
ReadKiddoRead

James Patterson is the most popular storyteller of our time and the creator of such unforgettable characters and series as Alex Cross, the Women’s Murder Club, Jane Smith, and Maximum Ride. He has coauthored #1 bestselling novels with Bill Clinton, Dolly Parton, and Michael Crichton, as well as collaborated on #1 bestselling nonfiction, including The Idaho Four, Walk in My Combat Boots, and Filthy Rich. Patterson has told the story of his own life in the #1 bestselling autobiography James Patterson by James Patterson. He is the recipient of an Edgar Award, ten Emmy Awards, the Literarian Award from the National Book Foundation, and the National Humanities Medal.

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fan of some books by James Patterson, I have always liked his collaborative work with J.D. Barker. They work well together and their thrillers are usually unputdownable. After popular author, Denise Morrow, is found with a bloody knife over her dead husband, Detective Declan Shaw is sure this will be the easiest case he’s worked in a long time. However, Detective Shaw never expected to cross swords with the likes of Denise Morrow, who is anything but your traditional murder suspect. Her experience writing true crime means she knows how to get inside a killer’s mind. When Detective Shaw learns that Denise is working on a new book, one about the murder of a teenager named Maggie Marshall, he stops in his tracks. He worked the case and Denise appears to know a great deal that was never discovered during the investigation. Working every angle, Detective Shaw will have to be careful if he plans on capturing Denise Morrow. However, she has a defense all her own that muddies the waters for all involved. A gripping thriller that shows the great collaborative efforts of James Patterson and J.D. Barker.

I have long had a love/hate relationship with James Patterson novels. However, his collaborations can sometimes bring about a gem or two, many of which appear when J.D. Barker shares the cover. While Barker has an illustrious career all his own, he complements Patterson’s work well and keeps the reader hooked with each piece. A strong narrative pushes things to its limits and there is always something that does not quite make sense to the linear thinker. As the story gains momentum, the authors treat the attentive reader to something stunning and twisty, which added to my enjoyment of this piece. Short chapters, a story that is anything but straightforward, and two authors who know how to write. All of this creates the perfect thriller work devouring in short order.

Characters work well to complement the story, mixing all sorts of great individuals. The authors craft a strong core group that is well worth the reader’s attention, supporting the larger story well. There are a number who play protagonist roles, keeping the reader wondering who will prove to be the ultimate character. Each of those who grace the pages of the book find their own ways to flavour it effectively. I could not help but see how much Barker influenced the characters, as his have often been sharp and truly fit well into the cracks offered by the story.

Plot points help keep the surprise factor as the story progresses, none more so than the final dozen chapters. While this was meant to be a mystery and police procedural, there were aspects of a great thriller that left me wondering which was was up. The authors find ways to twis what seems predictable and leave things in a massive question mark by the end, even as there is something tied off. I could not have expected all the authors offered here, but I loved every moment of it, as I lapped it up with ease.

Kudos, Messrs. Patterson and Barker, for a thriller that left more questions than answers. 

Love/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This whole book was such a well crafted read - but the ending?? One of the best endings to a thriller I’ve ever read!

[Kelli W · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is also titled "The Writer".

[Kate Codrington · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first James Patterson novel and I really enjoyed it. Lots of twists and turns and could never have guessed the ending. Will definitely be reading more of his books.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

[Abbey ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has embarrassingly taken me nearly four months to read and because of my own fault there were definitely times where I was very confused and found the story line hard to follow.

However, I believe this to be one of the best psychological crime books I have read. Genuinely throughout I would never had guessed anything that was to happen. Although I believe the ending to be frustrating I still had a lot of fun reading!

Would highly recommend, and as my first James Patterson book I look forward to reading more of his work.

[Jessica Armitage · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF’ed after 75%. Really just did not enjoy this book, I didn’t like any of the characters and the storyline was messy. I also wasn’t a fan of the writing

[Christopher Lynch · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a brilliant crime thriller. But I'm still getting used to crime and it was a bit busy for me - a lot going on and to keep track of.

Audio  3.5 stars rounded down but I'd listen to again and would recommend if you like a crime thriller.

Slightly similar to Basic Instinct but a lot more convoluted.

[Peter Oughtred · Rating 5 out of 5]

Twist after twist! Unpredictable! Absolutely loved it!

[Hannah Coutts · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️ everyone should read this omg

[adeela_books ❁ཻུ۪۪ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

This was such a twisty thriller with insane plot twists. It was my first time reading a James Patterson novel and I was pleasantly surprised by how captivating it was.

Reading this book felt like I was right there watching the scenes happen & unfold in real time. The writing is very transportive & captures the reader's intrigue effortlessly.

The expert planning of penning down this novel was evident by the well developed plot,prose and turns.

Just when you think things are gonna be tied up into a neat little bow with an alls well it ends well conclusion. You get hit with another twist that makes the story proceed further until finally the climax gets delivered but it's not how you expected it to go either.
I loved it, throughly enjoyed this gripping cop murder mystery and I definitely recommend.

• Thank you Penguin SA for the gifted review copy •

[Alice Walster · Rating 4 out of 5]

So many twists and turns throughout but right at the end felt a couple of twists were a bit rushed

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 three-card monte ☆

This type of book isn't my usual read. You know what they say when in Dublin buy lots.of books and this was one of them.

I. Just. Couldn't. Stop. Reading. It.

It is a nail biting read with a lot of twists and turns which I never saw coming. Well apart from one but that's good in my books. An excellent job in world building has been done with key characters not being who they seem. It never really was about Declan Shaw. The poor schmuck he should have seen it coming. Mediocre cop but the other one. Wow, just wow.

This book has my seal of approval.

[Deborah Scv · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 rounded up?

Listen this book was a 5 stars read until the last chapter. I inhaled it in less than 20h and I was in bed for 8 of those hours so it was promising. Loved all the twist and turns but the last one felt a bit much, I wanted more resolutions hence why I had to give it a touch less than 4 stars. If someone asked about this book I’d say yeah it was good but the ending didn’t stick… I don’t know I’m still processing lol

I’ll defo pick up more James Patterson’s book in the future tho

[Devi (TheBookAccountant) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Imperfect Murder - 4⭐️
Imagine you a cop walking into a scene where a famous thriller author holding a gun, drenched in blood and sitting near her very dead husband.
This is my first thriller by either author and I loved how addictive this was.
Apart from the rushed ending, I felt there was so much character depth and twists sprinkled along the story. Wow.

[Yerie Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my third book of the author and I loved it. Plot twist upon plot twist

[Jenny Parris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant. So many twists and turns that were so unexpected. Highly recommend

[Azaria Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Plot twist after plot twist.
Some parts were predictable but others I didn’t see coming at all.
Definitely kept me intrigued while reading this and it ended really well.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Too good to put down!

[Debbie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmmm.

I'm a big fan of JP but lately his books have just not been hitting the same way they used to.

I was enjoying the first half of this story and then we had a reveal, that I felt didn't fit the story, which made my enjoyment of the book go downhill and wasn't a fan of the direction I thought the book was going in. Once we were maybe 100 pages out from the end.... BAM major plot twist I did not see coming which upped the enjoyment level's again and then the ending happened.........disappointing and made no sense, like none of it. I'm flabbergasted as to why certain characters all of a sudden acted the way they did and there was absolutely no closure. I'm just lost for words lol

[Brielle "Bookend" Brooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 out of 5 stars
Best for: Thriller fans who like their murder mysteries meta, twisty, and fast-paced. Readers who enjoy authors like Steve Cavanagh, Jeneva Rose, or the 4MK series.
Skip if: You expect airtight logic or emotional depth. This one’s all about plot gymnastics and genre flex.

"They say write what you know. Denise Morrow took that personally."
In The Imperfect Murder, James Patterson and J.D. Barker team up again to deliver a slick cat-and-mouse thriller wrapped in metafictional flair. The suspect is a crime writer. The detective? A man already haunted by one of her future chapters.

This is Clue for the Kindle crowd: murder, motive, and manuscript all tangled into one. The setup is pure Patterson—blood, lies, and a bloody knife in the opening scene. But Barker’s fingerprints are all over the pacing and psychological misdirection. This isn’t a whodunit. It’s a "who’s-playing-who?"

“When Denise Morrow is discovered standing over the body of her husband, a bloody knife between them, Detective Declan Shaw thinks it’s an open-and-shut case. But Denise is no ordinary murder suspect. She’s a famous true crime author, who knows how killers operate. And how they get away with it.”

And that’s the hook. Denise is smart, slippery, and soaked in narrative control—both on the page and off it. You never know if she’s orchestrating the story or surviving inside it. Meanwhile, Shaw is no clean-cut hero. He’s already compromised, emotionally unraveling, and possibly being written into a corner.

The dual timelines—2025 and flashbacks to a 2018 murder case—work surprisingly well, especially with the integration of transcripts, audio logs, and old case files. It gives the book a forensic texture. The authors clearly had fun layering fact and fiction, keeping readers second-guessing whether Denise is building her next bestseller—or covering her last one up.

But here’s the catch: The Imperfect Murder is all twist, little heart. The characterization is functional, not rich. The emotional fallout from Maggie Marshall’s cold case doesn’t land with the gravity it should. Denise remains more concept than character. And Declan, despite being haunted, often reads like a plot device with a badge.

“They’re all holding pieces of the truth…”

Yes. And the book spends a lot of time scattering those pieces, sometimes just to delay resolution. Some readers will revel in the mind games. Others will want a sturdier table to build the puzzle on.

And while the ending does land—part rug-pull, part moral shrug—it’s so stylized that it feels more clever than cathartic. You don’t walk away feeling changed. Just… entertained. Which, to be fair, is all it promised.

Verdict:
A murder mystery about murder mysteries, with enough twists to leave your spine tangled. High on concept, tight on craft, but light on character. Think: popcorn noir. You’ll finish it fast. You just may not remember it clearly next week.

[Anschen Conradie]

#TheImperfectMurder – James Patterson & JD Barker
#Century
#PenguinRandomHouse

One author, one genre, right?
Wrong.

JD Barker is cross genre author. His horror novels, ‘Forsaken’ (2014) and ‘Dracul’ (2018) earned him a worthy position in this genre gallery. His 4MK- trilogy, featuring Detective Sam Porter, ensured his place in the thriller and whodunnit groups. He is also no stranger to author collaboration. ‘Dracul’ was co-authored with Dacre Stoker, and four previous partnerships met James Patterson birthed ‘The Coast to Coast Murders’ (2020), ‘The Noise’ (2021), ‘Death of the Black Widow’ (2022) and ‘Confessions of the dead’ (2024).

Denise Morrow is found next to the body of her murdered husband. She is covered in blood and an equally bloody knife is lying next to her. Their luxurious high-rise apartment has tight security and access control, and, in the absence of any other person present, she is the most likely suspect. At least, according to the investigating officer, Detective Declan Shaw.

But all is not as it seems. Denise is a famous true crime writer, all too familiar with the mind of a killer and the investigation of crime scenes. And Declan is the dark horse in her soon to be published next book, focusing on the rape and murder of a young girl, Maggie Marshall, in 2018, a case that has been haunting him ever since.

The unreliable narrator-technique is most often employed by a first-person narration. The author collaboration has added a twist in this thriller: The narrative is in the third person, but there are alternating focalisers, all of them subtly manipulating and deceiving towards the other characters, as well as the reader: “They’re all holding pieces of the truth…” (242) Adding to the suspense, chapters often end on a cliffhanger, such as: “Can you meet me at the morgue? We’ve got a problem.” (92), and the main text, set in the present, is interrupted by flashbacks to 2018, when Maggie Marshall was murdered, in the format of transcriptions of investigative interviews and recordings.

The tension, twists and turns is reminiscent of Patterson’s earlier best-selling thrillers, like “Along came a spider” (1993) and ‘Kiss the girls” (1994) and one can only conclude that the collaboration of these two authors reveals the best of each other.

A word of caution: The title in the UK, published by Century, is “The imperfect murder” but the US title, published by Little Brown, is “The writer”.

#Uitdieperdsebek

[Lauren Swan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an absolutely amazing book! It’s like Cluedo gone wrong so you have a dead husband, his wife seems like the obvious suspect….but add in a questionable dirty detective and a dodgy lawyer and it’s just never ending shocks. I absolutely loved this and could not wait to turn the pages. I think my heart rate has only just slowed. Other ticks are that it has quite short chapters, some exerts from books and of course the writing is just the highest standard. I’m scared to saying any more without giving spoilers so read it! This is my book of the year so far.

Similar books: You will enjoy this is you like the 4MK series (by J D Barker) , Kill for Me, Kill for you/Eddie Flynn series (by Steve Cavangh) but equally, and possibly randomly, the perfect marriage too (Jeneva Rose)! This was basically a combination of all my favourite books this past year.

[Simone Cameron · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of those 'just one more chapter' books....which made for a really fast read.

Denise Morrow is found with the murder weapon next to her husband's dead body. It seems like a slam dunk....but then more bodies start turning up, links to old cases are revealed and we soon are in a very tangled web of deceit and honestly wondering.....whodunnit??

The plot was so far fetched and so diabolical, it made for really great reading even if you felt like you knew whodunnit. There's so much behind the scenes, so many red herrings, unreliable narrators, crazy plot twists.....I laughed out loud at some of the witty comebacks of our detectives. I loved it all!

I think I'll give it a solid 4.5 stars.

[Kenton Yee · Rating 5 out of 5]

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
(I read this novel under the title, The Writer.)
As expected in commercial mystery-thrillers, the characterization is stylized (archetypal, not intimate). So are setting and voice. However, the plot--its twists and surprises--kept me reading way past my bedtime. The Writer shows how plot creates mystery, suspense, and drama, and how plot complexity can be THE source of horsepower. (Isn't plot complexity also the draw in Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code?) This novel changes the way I will plot. A must read for writers who dismiss plotting. 🤓
5 out of 5

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

My second James Patterson book and it did not disappoint. I was hooked from the first page, I had know more. The endless twists I couldn’t predict, I thought I was figuring out the storyline as it went on but I was nowhere near close. That’s what I love about his books, you cannot figure out where the story is going so you’re always surprised. Denise truly was a villain but she was written so cleverly even I was impressed. I knew at the end it was too good to be true for Cordova to get away with it but even I couldn’t have predicted that ending.

[Oundle Crime · Rating 5 out of 5]

Declan Shaw is a New York police detective. Called to an apartment near Central Park he finds Denise Morrow – a bestselling true-crime writer – covered in blood and kneeling next to the body of her husband. So far, so simple. She must have attacked and killed her husband, surely? But actually, it’s not clear-cut at all. This is a brilliantly entertaining thriller, which twists and turns all the way through and I absolutely loved it.
Review by MadDog, Oundle Crime

[Zoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

i’ve read a small amount of James Patterson before, and been less than impressed.

But this book was thrilling!
It starts strong and keeps you enthralled. Guessing who’s the who and what’s actually happened.

Then bam, a shock twist. How does it all connect you wonder? Then BAM. BAM. BAM.

A shock end.

it was a wonderful read and kept me happily confused and guessing right up until the end!

definitely the best of Patterson that i’ve read.

[Lee-Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. I have been living under a rock. My first James Patterson book and I’m hooked. So grateful to the book store owner who recommended it. The Imperfect Murder … is there such a thing. This novel is full of twists and turns it will keep you on the edge of your seat at every page. The ending is amazing. Well written and a highly recommended read.

[Tate Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, this book I could not put down, I read it in three days.
JAMES PATTERSON slashed it out the park again. I did not see any of it coming. Usually I am good at working things out but he got me good with this one.

Incredible read and my favourite author. I cannot begin to express how much you need to read his books, especially this standalone.