In this tenth outing for now FBI senior agent Alex Cross, Patterson once again steps up a gear.He brings back two excellent villains in the Wolf and the Weasel, Geoffrey Shafer, from 'The big bad wolf' and 'Pop goes the weasel' repsectively.
In London Bridges, Cross is faced with the surreal bombing of a town in Nevada, and finds out Shafer was there during the bombing.After the Wolf, whose identity is really never properly revealed (not even at the end)claims responsiblility the story gets going.This latest Cross combines bullet-paced action but does not loose the feel of Cross the family man and his love life is hectic as usual.The plot is fast,complex enough and each action scene moves quickly, giving the novel a hectic and rushed feel, in my opinion exactly how Patterson wanted it to come out.There are many cliffhangers, shocks and twists throughout the book, highlighted at the end, basically a series of twists and turns to get you turning the pages with white hot anticipation.In addition , this books sees Alex travel to the UK, Paris, Nice, Monaco,and across the US aswell.I don't have any real solid criticisms, but I feel that many readers will really dislike the ending-I love it-but it is quick and could be viewed as 'convenient'.By the way, the ending is not a big Cross kills the two villains and he runs into the arms of Little Alex, whom he visits twice in Seattle.The synopsis in the UK edition of the book is slightly misleading-the 'revelation' of the Wolf's identity that Cross may not be able to survive does not really bear fruit, as we don't find out exactly who the Wolf is, i guess we will have to wait for the next Alex Cross novel...hint,hint...