The Big Bad Wolf (Alex Cross novels) Review

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(More customer reviews)Will the real James Patterson please stand up? Most Patterson loyalists have been waiting for this moment. When will the real Patterson emerge again? We've had glimpses of the greatness and BIG BAD WOLF ("BBW") is no exception however, Patterson seems to just fall short time and again. It always seems worth the read just to determine if the magic has returned. Regardless and like most Patterson fans, I'll continue to buy and read his books until I tire of waiting for the real Patterson to stand up.
Early in BBW, the Wolf, a renegade Russian mafiya soldier, is introduced to the reader. In something of urban myth fashion, the Wolf has gained underground notoriety as a ruthlessly cold killer without face or name. One particularly telling tale revolves around the Wolf's encounter with a jailed U.S. mob boss. As the story goes, the Wolf is able to walk into a 'super-maximum' security prison in Colorado to speak with jailed mob boss, don Augustino "Little Gus Palumbo." Ostensibly, the Wolf has a proposition for Little Gus. The Wolf completes his business and walks out off prison grounds undeterred. The next day, Little Gus's body is found in his cell with virtually every bone in his body broken. Those familiar with Russian mafiya tactics know this as "Zamochit." The urban tale became reality and the universal underground came to know that the Wolf's reputation was well deserved.
At the end of the previous Cross iteration, Alex had just joined the FBI. As BBW opens, Alex is in the early stages of training at FBI headquarters. Given his impressive law enforcement background and experience, Alex is finding much of the "newbie" work and training quite rote however, ever the good trooper, Alex presses on and doesn't complain openly. Alex's theoretical training soon becomes on the job training. Alex is called in when the wife of a prominent judge is kidnapped in the parking lot of an Atlanta shopping mall. Unbeknownst to Alex, an underground, internet-based cabal of twisted individuals "places orders" for human slaves. This woman seems to have become the next victim of this perverse group.
Alex is whisked from newbie orientation and flown to Atlanta. The Director of the FBI wants Alex on this case. Alex soon learns of the case and the fact that this isn't the first unsolved disappearance; to the contrary, the FBI has recent unsolved disappearances in several other states. The puzzling and troubling aspect of each of these disappearances is the total lack of contact, no ransom demand and no reappearance of the missing person. After a tip, the FBI is able to track down the two-person team responsible for the Atlanta kidnapping. The two turn out to be low-level associates in the Russian mafiya, Slava and Zoya. But, neither can shed any light on the whereabouts of the judge's wife as they are both found dead...Zoya, by means of Zamochit.
The plot thickens when Alex and his FBI team run on to 14-year-old computer hacker Lili Olsen. It seems Lili, a modern-day Kevin Mitnick, has hacked her way into a secure chat room called "The Wolf's Den." Lili clandestinely observes the dialogue between such aliases as Sterling, Mr. Potter, Sphinx, Marvel, and, of course, The Wolf. The dialogue centers on buying individuals with certain characteristics and attributes. However, the talk quickly descends to the depths of sickness when the discussion turns to disposal of these "slaves" and their willingness to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for their next minion.
BBW has all the makings of a great Patterson offering. The storyline is brilliant however, where BBW falls short is character development and ultimately, climax. The reader has peripheral glimpses of the characters in this book, other than Alex, his kids, and Nana Mama. If Patterson had taken the time to truly allow the reader to see inside the characters, to know them, this novel would have been fabulous. Instead, it became a middle-of-the-road novel written by an author who used to write great novels. And, one of my great pet peeves of Patterson in his Cross novels, Alex always seems to find some personal tragedy in the midst of an intense investigation. It gets old. You want to scream, "When does Alex ever win
Overall, this is a very readable and worth reading book. It is still not the Patterson of old but it is a reasonable offering.

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