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The appeal of James Patterson's work cuts wide and deep. He is not a stylist; one could harp on his occasionally choppy transitions, his sketchy descriptions, or his sometimes-irritating jump from first person to third. But what cannot be denied is that the man is a storyteller, which is what a writer is supposed to be, first and foremost. Patterson writes for an audience; if Guttenberg had never invented the printing press, Patterson would be filling amphitheaters, night after night, with audiences from far and wide ready and willing to listen to his stories.
While Patterson has broadened his creative horizons over the past couple of years, Alex Cross remains his primary bread and butter. One of Patterson's biggest strengths is his willingness to bring major changes into his storylines. The reader accordingly never knows quite what to expect. Patterson recently moved Alex Cross from the Washington, D.C. police force to the FBI. This was a brilliant strategy, as it gives Patterson the ability to sketch on a broader canvas without sacrificing the familiarity of people and places created over the course of several novels. Cross is still based in Washington, D.C. but is no longer as confined there as he once was. And as his horizons have gotten broader, his bad guys have gotten "badder." Two of them are in LONDON BRIDGES, Patterson's latest Alex Cross novel.
LONDON BRIDGES unites two of Cross's most interesting and deadly adversaries, the Wolf and the Weasel. Actually, "unites" may be too strong a term, as they are only together for a very brief period at the beginning of the book. They work together, however improbably, against Cross, and against the world.
The novel begins with the forced evacuation of Sunrise Valley, a small Nevada town, under the steely eye of a mysterious battalion of soldiers. No sooner is the town evacuated than it is dramatically and instantaneously destroyed. Cross is chilled when photographs of the scene indicate that Geoffrey Shafer, aka the Weasel, is involved.
The Wolf, however, makes his presence and intent known soon enough. The governments of the United States, England, France, and Israel are put on notice: what happened in Sunrise Valley will occur in their respective capitals, unless the Wolf is paid a king's ransom and several hundred "political prisoners" are released. The countries are given a deadline of four days. Working with the police forces of the affected nations, Cross is in a deadly race against time as he battles two foes who have targeted not only the capitals of the world's greatest nations but also Cross personally.
As with the best of Patterson's work, it is impossible to stop reading LONDON BRIDGES once started. Patterson makes it easy for the reader. The focus here is on the action, and he delivers with an urgency so intense that the story threatens to break loose from the printed page. LONDON BRIDGES, from beginning to end, never falls down.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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