didn't finish.

High literature this ain't! You'll enjoy it anyway!

Pure pace! Pure dialogue! Pure hard-driving action! Pure plot! That's the good news! The bad news? London Bridges reads like a high speed jet boat ride in the very shallow end of a very large swimming pool. No depth! No character! No development! No background! No scenery!

Patterson is certainly capable of much, much better! But, for many readers (including myself, I'll confess) London Bridges will come up to a passing grade, depending on your mood and what you're after at the time! (I happened to be in exactly the right mood when I picked this one up) Like a rock-em, sock-em made-for-television thriller drama, this novel requires absolutely no attention or effort to follow and the action and the plot is more than enough to absorb you completely and pull you from first page to the last! (Did I hear somebody say "screenplay"?) And the plot? A detailed outline for this type of novel just isn't necessary. You'll get exactly what you'd expect - mass murder, assassination, nuclear weapons, terrorism, Russian mafia, extortion, snipers, assault teams, megalomania, globetrotting, CIA, FBI, Homeland Security and more!

Oops! Silly me! Did I say there was no character development? Strictly speaking, that isn't quite true. In a moment of weakness, Alex acknowledged that he was "smitten" with his newly found lady friend, detective Jamilla Hughes. Like so many other men, he just couldn't seem to find it in himself to use the "L" word! And, he certainly continues to demonstrate that, despite his dedication to the job, he is the consummate family man.

I haven't read Big Bad Wolf yet and it's been a long time since I read Pop Goes the Weasel. Despite that, I don't think I missed a thing as references to the Weasel and the Wolf as bad guys in London Bridges seemed forcibly shoe-horned into the story to provide some sort of affected continuity to the saga of Alex Delaware's life.

High literature, this ain't! But, what the heck! Put your feet up, let yourself relax and turn the pages quickly! It's practically unavoidable. Think of London Bridges as a giant vacuum cleaner - it'll pull you along like an irresistible force but, ultimately ... it still just sucks!


Paul Weiss

Not a complete waste of time, since there were some mentions of poverty in SE DC, and a sense of moral compass. Nevertheless, this thriller was worth reading mostly for the practice of French, and to see how the author uses 1st person for his hero, Alex Cross, with shifting 3rd for other MCs. Reasonably predictable plot, despite the twists at the end.

Universal Date: 19 September, 12014 H.E. (Holocene/Human Era)

I thought the story was a little forced and the book a little slow. It had great potential as Alex Cross continues to chase the Wolf and the Wolf has brought the bad guy from Pop Goes the Weasel back to assist him. But for me the story dragged and required some effort to get through.

I have not read anything by this author for some time, and have to say I was a little disappointed. Ok I've not read the rest of the series but this does stand alone to a certain degree. Two of the bad guys have appeared in previous books so it may have helped me understand them a bit better, but in this book they w ere a bit flat. I was also expecting a bit of a twist as to who the Wolf was, but there wasn't really one. This copy does have at the top of each page a little shilouette of a weasel and a wolf chasing each other and from a design point of veil I quite liked this, not that it added to the story in any way! A quick read though and I'm not entirely put off from reading others in the series.

Not one of my favorites.

Ugh, always a like-hate relationship with Patterson’s books. This one not much to like- juvenile writing, cartoonish characters, and over the top implausible plot. So am I going to continue reading the series? Yeah, probably the next one will be better. But this wasn’t it.