Rating: 
Summary: My first James Patterson novel
Review: People have been telling me for years that I should read the Alex Cross books by James Patterson. I don't know why it took me so long, but I'm glad I finally picked one up.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and had a hard time putting it down. I enjoyed the story and the characters a lot. I especially liked Alex Cross. Within a few chapters, he seemed like an old friend.
I'm anxious to read the sequel to this one, but I may have to go back and read all the other Cross books in order. I've got a feeling I'm going to have some fun reading ahead of me!
Rating:
Summary: (4+) Will the FBI Change Alex Cross ?
Review: The long awaited next book in James Patterson's Alex Cross series is back with Alex now beginning his FBI career after being recruited by the new director Ron Burns. Readers of the series know that Alex has decided it is time to leave the Washington PD and continue his career elsewhere. Despite Alex's trepidations about bureaucracy within "The Bureau", Burns has convinced Alex that his police instincts and profiling skills would be incredibly useful as Burns tries to achieve the seemingly impossible task of eliminating both the bureaucrats and cowboys from the FBI's ranks. This is typical James Patterson, mostly two to four page chapters, a rapidly developing plot, minimal character development, and a clever villain with a violent streak. In juxtaposition is the pull of Alex's family, Little Alex, Jannie, Damon and Nana Mama as well as his long distance relationship with Jamilla Hughes. While Alex is involved in his FBI intake orientation and training, a series of widely scattered and very unusual unsolved abductions cause Director Burns to involve Alex in the case, creating enmity within the ranks (including from Alex's superior) due to the special treatment that he receives. There are no ransom demands, and Alex and his associates believe that the victims are being sold and traded as part of a white slave ring operated by wealthy individuals with bizarre and illegal inclinations. When two particularly high profile kidnappings catch the attention of the media, pressure increases on the FBI to solve the case and (not unexpectedly) a few clues create the suspicion that a shadowy figure (THE WOLF) whose existence has never been verified by the FBI is at the center of this kidnapping ring. He is reputed to be a former KGB agent who now is head of the Red Mafiya in the US, but there have been no clues to his identity or location. A few breaks create momentum that eventually makes Alex optimistic that they are on the trail of THE BIG BAD WOLF, but of course you know the villain will create several instances of misdirection and layers of reality for his pursuers to fight through. Meanwhile, Alex's personal world is rocked by the reappearance of Christine Johnson (Little Alex's mother) in DC and her desire to become a part of her child's life despite her (temporary and understandable) abandonment of him given the turmoil that a previous case of Alex's had caused in her life. This is a fastmoving, intricately plotted very fast read - you would be surprised at anything else in an Alex Cross story. And you have the "pleasure" of seeing Kyle Craig continue to play a (very peripheral ) role in Alex's life. The background element regarding the need to reform the FBI echoes the daily headlines and rings true. While the thread regarding Christine is interesting, there is much less involvement of Alex's family than in several of the other books. There is a great degree of violence, including the sexual incidents which are an integral part of the story, but in most cases the descriptions are very brief, and in only a few cases is there nauseous detail. Besides the obvious pursuit of the WOLF and the discovery of his real identity, the biggest mystery that the reader faces is whether this is a self contained story or whether it will simply be the first installment of several stories regarding the necessity of unraveling the several layers of the WOLF's identity. (You won't find out until the last ten pages.) And at the same time it is not clear whether Alex's complex relationships with Jamilla and Christine will be resolved. The factors that kept this from attaining a five star rating were the even more than usual number of loose ends to the story and the complete lack of any character development at all. I was especially disappointed at the minor role of Lili Olsen, a fourteen and a half year old ("going on twenty-four") computer genius whose abilities to hack into web sites help Alex despite the skepticism of his associates. She seemed a wonderful character with a lot of potential, but with the exception of one memorable line she simply disappeared as the story plunged forward. So when you want a quick read for a short flight or a rainy day, you will enjoy this if the Patterson formula appeals to you. But don't expect much detail, and be ready to suspend your belief about the plausibility of many of the events. Certainly not his best, but much more enjoyable than many for me because of the lack of gruesome detail contained in some of his other books. Tucker Andersen
Rating: 
Summary: Who Swiped the Ending
Review: The Wolf is a Russian criminal, head of the Red Mafiya, who was brought into the States by the CIA and now he wants to be the head don of American Crime. He bribes a guard at a maximum security prison and gets in to meet an American Mafia don, ostensibly to offer a merging of organizations, but he kills the American criminal and breaks all the bones in his body, a Russian Mafiya custom known as zamochit. Alex Cross is a new agent in at Club Fed, what the recruits call the FBI Training Academy in Quantico. He has only been there for six weeks, when the Director of the FBI takes him out of school to help work on an abduction case. Someone is kidnapping women, and sometimes young men too. They are never heard from again and because of Alex's uncanny ability of bringing serial killers to justice, the director wants him on the case. Alex quickly figures out that these are not normal kidnappings. There is no pattern and there is a team involved. These people are being bought, either as sex slaves or something worse. And as Alex is chasing the the Wolf, the Wolf is watching him and that's just about as far as I'm going with this review. Alex Cross has always been one of my favorite fictional characters, but something happened here that I don't understand. Every time there's a breakthrough in the case, Alex is pulled off it and sent back to school, something that not only made no sense, but also something that the real Alex Cross would never stand for. It was disappointing to see Alex knuckle under and it was horribly out of character for him. Also I don't have to worry about giving away the ending of the story, because there was no ending. Mr. Patterson just seemed to give up on the book, or maybe he wrote a super long novel and divided it in half, giving us part one this year and holding out on part two till next Christmas. I don't think that's fair. I felt cheated and this book only gets three stars from me. Reviewed by Vesta Irene
Rating: 
Summary: Great Followup on Alex Cross
Review: This book is a great continuation on the story of Alex Cross. For a moment I thought after 4 Blind Mice that was it..but reading about his transition in the FBI gets one to know the character even better and follow him as he accustoms himself to new procedures. Apart from that, The Wolf is one of the best foe's I've met and his way of being leads into the mind of a true psycopath. I can't wait to read London Bridges where I'll get reacquainted with the Weasel and the Wolf. James Patterson promises a definite suspense thriller on that one!
Rating: 
Summary: Just awful . . .
Review: This book just stinks. Unlike some of Patterson's other books in the Alex Cross series, this book has no redeeming qualities. The story is about a group of men who pay for the kidnappings of beautiful women and men to satisfy their sexual pleasures. In Patterson's hands, the resulting story is enough to put you to sleep. What is worse, many scenes are unbelievably stupid and outrageous. Take one scene in which a bad guy drives by a man surrounded by FBI agents and takes a shot at him. No mention of how this guy got away. I guess he lost the FBI agents at a red light. During another scene, a stool pigeon is blown away by a rocket launcher. Nice touch. I am sure that Patterson thought this scene was cool, but it's just dumb. It's the kind of hyberbole that lesser talented writers may rely on, but not James Patterson!
Rating: 
Summary: I must be a masochist ... (Warning - Some Spoilers)
Review: to keep listening to Patterson's audio books. I have despised his books for years, but unfortunately, my library resources for audio books are very limited and I travel a lot.
"The Big Bad Wolf" is about as bad as it gets. At the risk of repeating previous reviews, I must say that we'd be hard put to find a more amateurish, unsophisticated, boooooring writer of best-selling fiction. The only thing Patterson has going is a pretty good imagination for a general plot. It's all downhill from there.
You will not find one original sentence or phrase in any of this guy's books. The descriptions are hackneyed and bring to mind 5th grade schoolwork. All characters are one dimensional and stereotypical.
The protagonist, Alex Cross, is the most perfect human being to have ever lived. We know this because we're hit over the head with it over and over again, especially at the beginning of the story. Everyone throws compliments at him like confetti and superlatives abound. Of course, he takes it in stride because Cross is also modest. Perfect cop, perfect father, perfect son, perfect boyfriend. He must also be extremely lucky, since in this book he is able to bypass FBI prerequisites to get hired, skip most of his training, work on a major case, and get promoted all within a week or two. Wow!
Not only is the hero a saint, but his children are well-behaved, beautiful and brilliant and his mother is the grouchy grandma with the heart of gold.
Now, the victims are duly frightened and the villains truly villainous. "The Wolf" manages to murder his ex-wife at a large crowded party and escape without trouble or detection. For some reason, no one in the police or FBI is able to guess the identity of the killer. Huh?
The holes in the plot (and I use the word generously) are too numerous to count. Some of the backstories are hinted at, but never followed through properly. But some things are just blatantly silly and unintentionally funny.
"The Wolf" holds a kidnapped sex-slave in a closet, while living in a multi-million dollar mansion. What, he couldn't afford a whole room? The victim knows him as "The Wolf". I guess he must have introduced himself before he raped her. But at least we know that there must lights in the closet because the victim has seen The Wolf's very private tattoos.
The dialogue is amateurish and ridiculous. The scenes between Cross and his family are nauseatingly saccharine. Listening to the cliched "thoughts" of the victim (and others) is worse than any soap opera on TV. I wish I could remember an example from the tape, but I found myself laughing out loud when I was supposed to by sympathetic. Patterson has no clue about how women think.
I could go on and on with the faults of this book (and this writer, in general), but it would require reading or listening again and I don't have the stomach for it. Let it be said that Patterson would not know a lyrical, originally-phrased sentence if it bit him on the nose. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
There are hundreds of writers out there in this genre who could write rings around Patterson. Unfortunately, the average reader can't tell the difference. May I recommend Dennis Lehane, Robert B. Parker, Lee Child, James Lee Burke, Eric Handler, and the list goes on.
Rating:
Summary: He just gets better and better!
Review: Wow, I looked over other reviews and it seems people either really loved or hated this book. Some of the "hated" reviews were by those who are reading Patterson for the first time. Please understand, while each book can and does stand alone, this is an ongoing story of the life and times of Alex Cross, former detective, now a FBI agent. There is a history behind Cross and his family. Before you judge too harshly, maybe it would be a good idea to read a few of his newer novels to get an idea of just who Alex Cross is, where he comes from, and how his family and friends interact.
I found this to be a great book. Once again, Patterson left me on the edge of my seat. The action and suspense were great and the characters took on lives of their own. There are plenty of plot twists and the ending is huge.
Someone is kidnapping people to sell to collectors. Any and all fantasies can be fufilled if you have enough money. Cross, new to the FBI, is assigned to find the "Wolf", the man believed to be responsible for the human slave trade. At the same time, Cross is trying to deal with his own personal crisis at home.
Patterson delivers another solid performance. I can't wait to read the sequel to find out if the Wolf is captured and what happens to Cross's personal life. So if you love the Alex Cross series, you will love this one. If you haven't read any before now, do yourself a favor and pick up a couple so you can understand where Cross has come from. Enjoy!
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