London Bridges - James Patterson > Reviews (7)

“There are many who lust for the simple answers of doctrine or decree. They are on the left and right. They are not confined to a single part of the society. They are terrorists of the mind.”

It was a warm and clear skied day in Sunrise Valley, Nevada, and the towns three hundred inhabitants were going about there business in and around there mismatch of mobile homes as best they could. Little did they know that there peace was about to be interrupted on a grandiose scale, a convoy of army trucks and jeeps swamped the town and set about evacuating its people for “emergency” reasons. All seemed to be above board until one man – Dougie Puslowski – refused to leave and was promptly shot and killed in front of his wife. The other inhabitants were then taken away in the troop carriers and trucks and dumped in the middle of the Nevada desert some forty odd miles away. What followed was a breathtaking and violent act; a cargo plane circled lazily over the deserted town and dropped a massive thousand gallon fuel-air bomb with devastating results. The town was demolished completely – those parts that were not vaporised on impact were burnt to the ground by the tide of burning all encompassing fuel. But who would do such a thing? And why plan such a devastating attack on a shanty town in the middle of nowhere?

“Our war that we now fight is against terror and evil... Our struggle is going to be long and difficult. But we will prevail. We will win. Good will overcome evil.”

It didn’t take long to find out the answer. Notorious terrorist and bane of all that was good in the civilised world - the Wolf admitted carrying out the attack as a pre-amble to bigger and far more deadly attacks. London, Washington, New York and Frankfurt were to be the targets of deadly and vicious bombings the like of which had never been seen before. The price to stop these bombings was $2 Billion and the release of a number of political prisoners throughout the world with a two day deadline for the powers that be in each Country to raise the ransom. FBI agent Alex Cross was immediately put on the case with the sole aim to track down and immobilize the Wolf and his killers before the massive loss of life that each bomb would bring. For Cross this was a personal mission as he and the Wolf had a violent past, a past in which the Wolf had slipped through his fingers more than once, and should he manage to do so again it would prove fatal for many hundreds of people living in the four targeted Cities. With the Wolf seemingly always one step ahead of Cross and the FBI there was a feeling of inevitability that he would not be captured and stopped in time. Maybe, just maybe though, the Wolfs penchant for blowing up famous bridges might just prove to be his undoing.

“People ought to feel comfortable going about their lives, knowing that their government is doing everything humanly possible to disrupt any potential activity that the evil ones may try to inflict upon us.”

London Bridges marks the seventh outing for Alex Cross and our hero has still got what it takes to keep the reader turning the pages in eager anticipation.

The beauty of this book is that it can be picked up and enjoyed either by a die hard fan of James Patterson’s Alex Cross series or a complete newcomer to the collection, there is just the right level of information at the beginning of the book to bring newcomers up to scratch without alienating those readers who already know about the life and times of Alex Cross. As with most Patterson books the reader is thrown straight into the action so as to get a real feel for the nastiness of the current situation. We are also introduced to Alex Cross` family which is a clever piece of writing from Patterson and shows us the human being behind the badge. Scenarios are believable and characters well described in Patterson’s unique way so that the baddies are boo hiss bad while the good guys are willed on to bring order to the situation. As with all Patterson books the chapters are amazingly short – usually two or three pages – which I really like as it lends a nice fast paced to the story. Four stars out of five from this die hard James Patterson fan then, and the recommendation that this is a good book to introduce you to his writing. I just can’t wait for the next instalment!

“This is an evil man that we're dealing with. And I wouldn't put it past him to develop evil weapons to try to harm civilization as we know it.”

ISBN:- 0755305787
307 Pages Hardback
£12.59 from Amazon.co.uk