Women’s Murder Club Coming to A Computer Near You

If you just can’t get enough of Women’s Murder Club, the inane television series starring Angie Harmon and based on a book by James Patterson, the evil Microsoft might just have the answer.

Microsoft and I-play today released “Women’s Murder Club: Death in Scarlet” which they’re touting as “the first interactive game based on a story and characters by best-selling author James Patterson.” (Of course it’s the first. Would there need to be more?) It will be available exclusively on MSN Games until May 29th. (Not being a gamer, I don’t get why that’s a good thing but, hey: I don’t make this stuff up.)

While none of sounds terribly fun to me, the Microsoft publicists have other ideas and you can tell how excited they are from all the en-dashes:

The game, which features the characters from the “WMC” books and an all-new, never-before-seen storyline, is a thrilling seek-and-find adventure designed by award-winning game designer Jane Jensen in collaboration with Patterson. Its storyline lets fans experience the suspense of James Patterson’s stories interactively for the first time as they solve a chilling series of murders in San Francisco.

“The opportunity for casual games built around intriguing stories and compelling characters is largely untapped, and who better to lead the way than America’s No. 1 storyteller, James Patterson?” said Kevin Unangst, senior global director of Games for Windows in the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft. “We’re thrilled to partner with James Patterson and I-play to debut a game of this caliber on MSN Games.”

Dude, do you know how many books Patterson sells? Why wouldn’t you be thrilled? The i-Play people are also understandably thrilled:

“MSN Games is a great place to debut a high-profile casual game with a powerful brand like James Patterson, based on the strength of their audience and the scope and reach of the MSN and Microsoft networks,” said Don Ryan, head of I-play. “We’re excited to work with them and are looking forward to an incredible debut for the first ‘Women’s Murder Club’ game.”

It probably won’t hurt Patterson’s book sales either. However, it seems it will be too little, too late to help the show: earlier this week, ABC announced that the series had been canceled.

Patterson’s Five Most Important Books

Is it just me, or does James Patterson’s Five Most Important Books list look just a little predictable? From MSNBC via Newsweek’s April 30th edition:

1. “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel García Márquez. The great American novel, which just happens to be from South America.

2. “Ulysses” Blame James Joyce for making me a mystery writer. I read this and stopped pretending I could ever write a serious novel.

3. “Our Lady of the Flowers” by Jean Genet. Rudely woke me from my provincial, small-town view of the world.

4. “Day of the Jackal” by Frederick Forsyth. This was where I stopped being a book snob, and started loving books to death.

5. “Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain. I'm keen on coming-of-age novels, probably because I'm still coming of age.

And so you ask: are these Patterson’s five most important books or the five he wants us to know about? After all, if you were to sit down and draft a list of books that should be a mega-bestselling American author’s favorites, it would look an awful lot like this. Or maybe that’s the point of the exercise? Although, looking at Patterson’s schedule, he probably is way too busy to read. As Newsweek points out, Patterson has appeared on The Simpsons and has six (count ’em) books coming out this year.

Of the 15 or so authors Newsweek has polled thus far, Patterson’s is likely the name closest to a household world, though the others are all certainly esteemed and even renowned, including Michael Ondaatje, David Hajdu, Walter Mosley, Harold Bloom, Nathan Englander, Gay Talese and Geraldine Brooks.

Hat tip to Sarah Weinman.