London Bridges FROM THE PUBLISHER
Alex Cross is back--and so is the Big Bad Wolf.
Terrorists have seized the worlds largest cities. London, Washington, DC, New York, and Frankfurt will be destroyed, unless their demands are met--and their demands are impossible. After a city in the western United States is fire bombed--a practice run--Alex Cross knows that it is only a matter of time before the bombers threats to the other cities are brutally executed.
Heading up the investigation by the FBI, CIA, and Interpol, Alex Cross is stunned when surveillance photos show Geoffrey Shafer, the Weasel, near one of the bombing sites. He senses the presence of the Wolf as well, the most vicious predator he has ever battled. With millions of lives in the balance, Cross has to see if the most powerful law enforcement agencies in the world can stay ahead of these two men's cunning.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Any thriller writer, wannabe or actual, would do well to study Patterson's 10th Alex Cross novel. A sequel to last year's The Big Bad Wolf, the book is a model of economy, delivering a full package of suspense, emotion and characterization in a minimum number of words. The story brings back not only Big Bad Wolf's arch-villain, the Russian mobster known as the Wolf, but also an earlier Patterson bad guy, the Weasel, recruited by the Wolf to further his plans. These involve extorting Western powers for billions of dollars to avoid major terrorist attacks on New York, London, Washington and Frankfurt-attacks the Wolf offers a preview of by wiping out a town in Nevada by aerial bombardment after hustling its citizens to safety, then by doing the same to a village in England without evacuating the populace. The novel features numerous exciting scenes, most notably one in which Cross is kidnapped, then shackled to a suitcase atomic bomb. It's not the steady tension, the numerous colorful locales, the reliable action climaxes nor the novel's effective doomsday gloss that makes this thriller work so well, though. It is, of course, the characters, and in Cross, Patterson continues to elaborate his finest hero, cerebral yet emotional, dedicated yet flawed, caught between duty and family. Regrettably, the novel is marred in its final chapters by a series of surprises that skirt playing unfair with the reader, but most Patterson fans probably won't mind and they are legion enough to send this to the top of the charts, for good reason. (Nov. 8) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
It's Alex Cross vs. the Big Bad Wolf again, even as terrorists grab major world cities from New York to Frankfurt. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
AudioFile
James Patterson's newest book in the Alex Cross series just might be his best to date. The dual delivery by Peter J. Fernandez and Denis O'Hare invites the reader into the frightening world of Cross's old enemies, the Wolf and the Weasel, who appear to have joined forces to inflict unspeakable terror on the people of the United States. The production is enhanced through the use of the two distinct voices; accents and background noises also help keep the listener in a constant state of anticipation. The narrators convey the stark evil that permeates the world of anti-American terrorism and leave listeners thankful that good guys exist. S.K.P. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine
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