London Bridges (Alex Cross) (Mass Market Paperback)

by James Patterson (Author) "COLONEL GEOFFREY SHAFER loved his new life in Salvador, Brazil's third-largest city and some would say its most intriguing..." (more)
Key Phrases: crisis room, suitcase nukes, targeted cities, New York, Geoffrey Shafer, Sunrise Valley (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From 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.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
'If you feel like a roller coaster, breathless ride, London Bridges is the hottest ride in town' -- Ballarat Courier, Australia 20041126 'Any thriller writer, wannabe or actual, would do well to study Patterson's 10th Alex Cross novel!Patterson continues to elaborate his finest hero, cerebral yet emotional, dedicated yet flawed, caught between duty and family' -- Publisher's Weekly 20041108 'Un-put-down-able' -- Daily Express 20051001 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Vision (October 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446613355
• ISBN-13: 978-0446613354
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (306 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,712 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 10 in The Alex Cross Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

99 of 106 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Bad villains return, but weak terrorist plot not much fun, November 16, 2004

By	Gerald M. Bull "Jerry Bull" (Fairview, TN United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: London Bridges (Alex Cross Novel) (Hardcover)

This is the tenth in Patterson's Detective (now FBI special envoy) Alex Cross series, and from the outset, we would surmise that if you are not a faithful follower of the previous nine, you will be lost. First, both central villains are reprised from earlier books (the "Weasel" from "Pop Goes the Weasel"; and the "Wolf" from "Big Bad Wolf"), but it's not so clear how or why they are in cahoots. The Weasel in specific gets bumped off so unceremoniously that we almost wonder why he was even included in this novel. Second, and worse, the brief scenes featuring Alex's little boy and his mother Christine, Alex's current squeeze Jamilla, and his ex-partner Sampson, etc. etc., were so sketchy that the uninformed reader might think these segments irrelevant filler.

Couple that with an incredulous plot wherein the Wolf is leading the presidents of four countries around by their noses, almost a trite post-9/11 recital of terror with Al Queda thrown in every few chapters just for effect; it soon becomes clear this is not one of Patterson's better efforts. The storyline is as usual reeled out in short, three-page chapters, with action galore. But we are given so little meat, so little background, so little motivation to care, that the race toward the end of the book was almost anticlimactic. An overdose of red herrings and gratuitous slayings did little to endear the plot to us either.

While we generally enjoy Patterson's fast-paced thrillers, this one looks too much like a bad screenplay - you know the feeling: it's not that it's horrible, but you wonder later why you spent so much money for so little real entertainment. He can do much better, and so can you.

79 of 93 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not what I expect from Patterson, November 10, 2004

By	Tom Arnold "A beach bum" (USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: London Bridges (Alex Cross Novel) (Hardcover)

I have been an on again off again James Patterson Fan, generally he writes entertaining books (but some I have found wanting). The problem with London Bridges is it assumes the reader already knows the lead character, Alex Cross - it also assumes this about secondary characters. I have read other Alex Cross books, so I am familiar with the character, still some development of is character would be good background info and help get the reader back up to speed. For example the relationship with his ex wife and son are left totally unexplained?

The short chapters and pacing of the book were another annoyance. The speed of the book was too fast right from the beginning leaving no room to pick up the pace toward the end, which is what you want in a thriller. It almost seemed as if the author was leaving out needed detail at the expense of a fast pace. It almost felt as if the author were pressured to get this book out under some kind of time line?
I am Lucky to have read other James Patterson books that rated higher than this one, so I know the author is capable of better things. Fans of the author will surely still want to read this book but there money may be better spent on a used copy or waiting for paperback.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Tepid & Unsatisfying, November 13, 2004

By	BU Guy (Peoria, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: London Bridges (Alex Cross Novel) (Hardcover)

If you look back through James Patterson's celebrated Alex Cross series, you'll find some of the finest thrillers written in the past decade. Along Came a Spider, Kiss the Girls, Pop Goes The Weasel, and Roses are Red are all prime examples of a talented writer at the height of his career. Unfortunately, Roses are Red was the last entry in this series that truly captured the essence of the Alex Cross character, and everything that's come after has been mediocre at best, with London Bridges being no exception.

The story picks up right where The Big Bad Wolf left off. Cross is working for the FBI tracking the Wolf, the most ruthless predator he's dealt with in his long career. To complicate matters, the Wolf has joined forces with the Weasel, a villian from previous Cross novel Pop Goes the Weasel. After blowing a small Nevada town off the map, the duo holds four major cities hostage, demanding a multi-billion dollar ransom. Naturally, it's up to good old Alex Cross and his team of FBI agents to put a stop to their diabolical scheme.

When the series started, Alex Cross tracked serial killers, expertly piecing together clues to solve crimes that baffled other detectives. Seemingly overnight, he seems to have switched his focus to combating world espionage. It's not that the writing itself is bad, the problem lies in the fact that the plot is so contrived and unrealistic, readers can't help but think "yeah, right". And isn't it interesting that with each new novel, Patterson describes the villian as Cross' most formitable foe??? Formitable or not, the Weasel served absolutely no purpose here. His role in the story seemed like nothing more than a cheap way to win back fans who have long since abandoned this lukewarm series.

No matter what reviews say, Patterson fans will devour this new novel in one or two sittings hoping for some kind of improvement over his last dozen or so novels. Sadly, they won't find any improvement here. Only a mediocre thriller that makes them long for the days when Patterson's books were fantastic.