As I stated with the previous book, whenever Patterson introduces a new protagonist for Cross you don't learn the true identity until 2 or more books later and now Patterson's added a previous villian to the mix in this latest Cross book.

This undermines all credibility of Cross' character. Of course this is fiction, but no one has that many evil maniacs getting away with murder and mayhem and then joining up together as a team to continue going after you with a vengeance. The first time, maybe, but again and again? No way.

I think it's very unfortunate as Cross is a great character otherwise and if more time were given to more realistic cases for him to solve it would make for much better read. ( )

The next Alex Cross adventure fits perfectly with the previous book. Alex is still hunting for the Wolf, and comes across another familiar killer.

All the while, Alex is still struggling with him family life, finding that maybe the FBI isn’t all he thought. Everyone begins to suffer and while Alex tries to finally catch a couple killers, he’s watching his kids grow up without him.

I really enjoyed this Alex Cross novel. They seem to keep getting better as the characters develop and the conflict continues to ebb and flow with Alex’s life. I’m speeding through these final books to catch up to the present. The newest titles and releases have me very curious as to what Patterson has up his sleeve for Cross but if it’s anything like the past, I’m sure it’s going to be amazing.

Fast read because of the tremendous amount of white space in a James Patterson book, but not very satisfying. This will be my first and last of his books.

Journal entry 2 by SKingList from New York, New York USA on Monday, August 08, 2005

To be honest I was somewhat disappointed by this. I think Patterson tried to touch on too many issues in this one rather than address any one in depth. Left me wanting to know more and the end was very confusing. Oh well, still glad I read it. ( )

From Publishers Weekly (amazon.com)
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.