The Big Bad Wolf (Alex Cross novels) [Paperback]

James Patterson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 27, 2004

Alex Cross's first case since joining the FBI has his new colleagues perplexed. Across the country, men and women are kidnapped in broad daylight and then disappear completely. These people are not being taken for ransom, Alex realizes. They are being bought and sold. And it seems The Wolf is the master criminal behind this terrible trade and who is bringing a new reign of terror to organized crime. Even as he admires the FBI's vast resources, Alex grows impatient with the Bureau's clumsiness and caution when it is time to move. A lone wolf himself, he has to go out on his own in order to track his new prey and try to rescue some of the victims while they are still alive. As the case boils over, Alex is in hot water at home, too. His ex-fiancee, Christine Johnson, comes back into his life -- and not for the reasons Alex might have hoped. Full of the unexpected twists and heartrending surprises that James Patterson delivers better than any suspense writer alive, The Big Bad Wolf is an unforgettable thriller from the 'master of the suspense genre' (Sunday Telegraph).

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In a recent column in Entertainment Weekly, Stephen King cited Patterson's thrillers as the example of "dopey" bestsellers. We hope that doesn't mean that those who enjoy them are dopes, because this new one is vastly entertaining. Alex Cross, Patterson's black lawman hero, has left the D.C. police force for the FBI. But Cross was a star cop, so when the Bureau becomes aware that attractive white women are disappearing at an unusually high rate in the nation's capital, Cross, despite still being in training at Quantico, is brought onto the case and is personally mentored by the Bureau's director, earning the ire of some Feds but the support of others. Behind the disappearances is a sexual slavery operation run as a sideline by one of the more believable and most compellingly evil villains in the Patterson universe, the Wolf, a mysterious former KGB man who's now the world's top mobster. The narrative throughout is swift and varied, as Patterson cuts among the diabolical schemes of a Russian magnate who may be the Wolf, the plight of several kidnap victims, the dogged pursuit by Cross and company of the Wolf, and the hideous designs of the members of an encrypted computer chat room who pay the Wolf fortunes to snatch women who fit their fantasies. And there's domestic drama, too, as the mother of Cross's young son, Alex, decides that she wants her boy back. Full of plot surprises and featuring a balanced mix of intrigue, hard action and angst, the novel, on which Patterson notably does not share cover credit, grips from start to finish. The Alex Cross series remains Patterson's finest, and this is the finest Cross in years. Maybe we're dopes, but we're smiling ones.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Alex Cross finally took the plunge at the end of Four Blind Mice (2002) and joined the FBI. The training is a little beneath Cross, who has spent years working with the FBI on the toughest cases, but he dutifully attends classes until he's pulled out to consult on a case. Wealthy women have been disappearing around the country. The latest, a judge's wife, was snatched at a shopping mall. It appears these women (and soon several young men as well) are being abducted and sold to people who have "selected" them and paid a hefty sum. The man behind it all is a Russian known only as the Wolf. Cross gets a break when one of the buyers releases the woman he paid to have abducted, but when they track him down, they find he's committed suicide. Then a major bombshell in his personal life distracts Cross from the case: his ex-girlfriend Christine, the mother of his youngest son, has reappeared, and she wants custody. Cross' first major case with the FBI will have readers on the edge of their seats, swiftly turning the pages to the exciting showdown. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Headline Paperbacks (September 27, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0755300297
• ISBN-13: 978-0755300297
• Product Dimensions: 4.4 x 1.1 x 7.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (294 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #577,109 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

From my publisher:

James Patterson...


* James Patterson holds the New York Times bestsellers list record with 63 New York Times bestselling titles.

* JP has sold more than 220 million books worldwide. And considering pass-along and libraries, it's safe to say many more people than that have read a Patterson!

* In 2010, JP was named by kids everywhere the Children's Book Councils' Children's Choice Book Awards "Author of the Year" in 2010. More than 15,000 kid and teen readers voted for JP in a category he shared with Suzanne Collins, Carl Hiaasen, Jeff Kinney, and Rick Riordan. His Witch and Wizard series saw the biggest launch of a series for young readers ever, surpassing sales of first installments of Twilight, Diary of A Wimpy Kid, and Percy Jackson & The Olympians.

* JP has grossed over 3 billion dollars in worldwide sales. This is larger than the worldwide theatrical gross of Avatar, the highest grossing film of all time.

* JP has had 43 New York Times hardcover #1 bestselling novels, also a publishing industry record.

* Last year, JP has sold more books than John Grisham, Dan Brown, Tom Clancy, and Stephen King combined (source: Nielsen BookScan).

* JP properties are gaining wide interest amongst film and TV producers. JP's award-winning series for young readers, Maximum Ride, is currently with Avi Arad (Spiderman, Iron Man) and Universal Pictures. Lloyd Levin (Green Zone, Watchmen) is attached to produce a feature film adaptation of JP's newest young readers series, Witch and Wizard, and James Patterson Entertainment is set to produce the next Alex Cross film, I, Alex Cross which will feature Idris Elba (The Wire, The Losers) as Alex Cross. And, a television adaptation of JP's 2007 love story Sundays At Tiffanys aired in December 2010 starring Alyssa Milano and Eric Winter.

* JP's books are licensed in 43 countries worldwide, and are in print and actively sold in 100 countries.

* According to a 2010 Bowker Sisters in Crime Survey, JP is the favorite mystery writer amongst readers under 50...AND over 50! Survey respondents comprised American men, women and teens who bought at least one mystery fiction title in 2009 and/or 2010.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Damn! Patterson just misses..., January 31, 2004

By 

R. Shaff "Velocipede" (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Big Bad Wolf

Will the real James Patterson please stand up? Most Patterson loyalists have been waiting for this moment. When will the real Patterson emerge again? We've had glimpses of the greatness and BIG BAD WOLF ("BBW") is no exception however, Patterson seems to just fall short time and again. It always seems worth the read just to determine if the magic has returned. Regardless and like most Patterson fans, I'll continue to buy and read his books until I tire of waiting for the real Patterson to stand up.

Early in BBW, the Wolf, a renegade Russian mafiya soldier, is introduced to the reader. In something of urban myth fashion, the Wolf has gained underground notoriety as a ruthlessly cold killer without face or name. One particularly telling tale revolves around the Wolf's encounter with a jailed U.S. mob boss. As the story goes, the Wolf is able to walk into a 'super-maximum' security prison in Colorado to speak with jailed mob boss, don Augustino "Little Gus Palumbo." Ostensibly, the Wolf has a proposition for Little Gus. The Wolf completes his business and walks out off prison grounds undeterred. The next day, Little Gus's body is found in his cell with virtually every bone in his body broken. Those familiar with Russian mafiya tactics know this as "Zamochit." The urban tale became reality and the universal underground came to know that the Wolf's reputation was well deserved.

At the end of the previous Cross iteration, Alex had just joined the FBI. As BBW opens, Alex is in the early stages of training at FBI headquarters. Given his impressive law enforcement background and experience, Alex is finding much of the "newbie" work and training quite rote however, ever the good trooper, Alex presses on and doesn't complain openly. Alex's theoretical training soon becomes on the job training. Alex is called in when the wife of a prominent judge is kidnapped in the parking lot of an Atlanta shopping mall. Unbeknownst to Alex, an underground, internet-based cabal of twisted individuals "places orders" for human slaves. This woman seems to have become the next victim of this perverse group.

Alex is whisked from newbie orientation and flown to Atlanta. The Director of the FBI wants Alex on this case. Alex soon learns of the case and the fact that this isn't the first unsolved disappearance; to the contrary, the FBI has recent unsolved disappearances in several other states. The puzzling and troubling aspect of each of these disappearances is the total lack of contact, no ransom demand and no reappearance of the missing person. After a tip, the FBI is able to track down the two-person team responsible for the Atlanta kidnapping. The two turn out to be low-level associates in the Russian mafiya, Slava and Zoya. But, neither can shed any light on the whereabouts of the judge's wife as they are both found dead...Zoya, by means of Zamochit.

The plot thickens when Alex and his FBI team run on to 14-year-old computer hacker Lili Olsen. It seems Lili, a modern-day Kevin Mitnick, has hacked her way into a secure chat room called "The Wolf's Den." Lili clandestinely observes the dialogue between such aliases as Sterling, Mr. Potter, Sphinx, Marvel, and, of course, The Wolf. The dialogue centers on buying individuals with certain characteristics and attributes. However, the talk quickly descends to the depths of sickness when the discussion turns to disposal of these "slaves" and their willingness to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for their next minion.

BBW has all the makings of a great Patterson offering. The storyline is brilliant however, where BBW falls short is character development and ultimately, climax. The reader has peripheral glimpses of the characters in this book, other than Alex, his kids, and Nana Mama. If Patterson had taken the time to truly allow the reader to see inside the characters, to know them, this novel would have been fabulous. Instead, it became a middle-of-the-road novel written by an author who used to write great novels. And, one of my great pet peeves of Patterson in his Cross novels, Alex always seems to find some personal tragedy in the midst of an intense investigation. It gets old. You want to scream, "When does Alex ever win

Overall, this is a very readable and worth reading book. It is still not the Patterson of old but it is a reasonable offering.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Fast read, not worth it, March 30, 2006

By 

Jason Joyner "On the journey" (Southeast Idaho, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Big Bad Wolf (Alex Cross Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the first Patterson book I have read. I checked out the reviews on Amazon, and had it recommended by someone as well. Unfortunately, I was quite disappointed.

The best thing about the book is pacing. The chapters are very short, and so it is easy to keep plugging along. That is probably the only reason I finished.

I can't see that Alex Cross really grows as a person or changes due to the roller coster he is on. He is who he is, and things just come at him. I prefer characters who grow and change in response to what life gives them, whether good or bad.

The Wolf is this uber bad guy who is mysterious only in that he seems to be able to do what he wants whenever, and is never fully revealed. He is a cardboard character, plain and simple.

Incidental characters are given a quick, telling (not "showing" us with creative imagery) description, and do what they are supposed to do. Nothing interesting about them. The character who disappears initially and kicks the story off is lost in the garbled ending - no exploration of what really happens.

I'm not afraid to read books with profanity, but he seems to litter the f-bomb around just to sound tough. Not impressed. Use the GIFT of language to portray the characters' street cred next time, not just that they cuss well.

Overall, I won't bother with reading more from this author. There's much more interesting, well-written work out there.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Good Action, little else...spoilers contained, April 12, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Big Bad Wolf

After this book, I'm of the mindset to not read anymore Patterson. This was my 4th Alex Cross book, after Roses are Red, Violets are Blue, and Cat and Mouse. I loved Cat and Mouse and Roses are Red, Violets are Blue was just OK. But this. THIS piece of garbage is horrible. Everything just falls into place for Alex. He's handed every clue/suspect on a silver platter. The fact that you don't really find out who the Wolf is, is really annoying. I'm tired of Patterson selling half a book for full-book price. Sell one book as two, make twice the money. Well, he won't be making any more of mine. At this point, I don't CARE who the Wolf is or who his FBI "mole" is.

Most unbelievable part of the plot...when they catch "Sterling" and the Wolf drives by in his limo and shoots at the FBI and cops. The chapter ends, and you hear no more about anyone chasing the limo or even mentioning that they were shot at.

My recommendation is save your time and money. If you want good investigation stories read Jeffery Deaver's Lincoln Rhyme books.