2.5 stars.

This is by far my least favorite installment in the series. It just seemed to be way too over the top and completely unbelievable. There was an excessive amount of action happening, but with very little detail provided. It was as if things were blowing up and people were dying, yet the descriptions used were the same as those for the lunch they had. The writing felt extremely disconnected, lacking any real emotion.

It was difficult to become invested in the story or the characters when the events were presented in such a flat and unengaging way. The author seemed to be more focused on creating a sense of chaos and excitement rather than developing a coherent and meaningful narrative.

Overall, this book was a disappointment and failed to live up to the standards set by the previous installments in the series. I hope that future books will return to the more engaging and well-written style that I have come to expect.

Just horrible.

There is no real "detective" work involved. It's just a matter of flying around. And there is almost constant nagging about the balance between work and home. This is really starting to get on my nerves.

Plus, there is that annoying "swoosh, clip, clop, clip, clip, boom, chapter 99, chapter 99, twinkle, twinkle" track that plays before every chapter of the audiobook. Yes, they actually say every chapter number twice, and there are over 120 chapters. It's extremely irritating.

I really hope that something changes in the story or the way the audiobook is presented. Otherwise, I don't think I can continue listening to it much longer.

Maybe the author should focus more on the mystery and less on the work-home dilemma. Or perhaps the producers of the audiobook could come up with a more engaging and less repetitive introduction for each chapter.

As it stands now, it's just a frustrating experience that I'm not enjoying at all.

This review can also be found on my book review blog, The Never-Ending TBR Pile.

Explosive. Terrifying. Shocking. These are the words that come to mind when describing "London Bridges," the 10th installment in the Alex Cross series. As always, Alex Cross is unwavering in his pursuit of the bad guys. In this book, he has his sights set on two truly terrifying individuals, The Weasel and The Wolf, whom he has long desired to remove from the world. Once again, he gets a chance, but he is faced with impossible deadlines and the entire world as a playground for these two.

The writing is fast-paced, characteristic of Patterson's style for this series. Each short chapter reveals only what the reader needs to know, without a lot of extraneous detail. While this may be a positive for some readers, for me, it has always been a negative. I never feel fully connected with the character of Alex Cross. It's as if he is always at arm's length. I understand that this is part of the character's makeup, but it does result in a less than completely satisfying read for me, hence the four stars instead of five.

The story itself is gripping and horrifying. It's easy to envision it happening in reality. There are numerous twists and turns, shocking reveals, and chaos that keep the tension high until the very end. Overall, it's a really good read that will keep you turning the page, eager to find out how things will work out for Alex Cross.

As much as I have a great passion for reading James Patterson's works, and as deeply as I am in love with Alex Cross (yes, I freely admit it), this particular installment, "London Bridges," unfortunately failed to meet my expectations. And it did so in a rather miserable way.

Perhaps my disappointment stemmed from the novel's overly grand scale international crime plot. These villains seemed to engage in killing simply for the sake of it. Without giving away spoilers, even the deaths of some of the antagonists felt anticlimactic considering the manner in which Cross had pursued them and vice versa, and the significant amount of trouble they had caused him and the general public.

Or maybe it was the lack of truly captivating and interesting characters that put me off. The Weasel and the Wolf? Seriously. Antagonists with no personality and no redeeming qualities whatsoever. I couldn't even bring myself to hate them.

Even Cross' love life in "London Bridges" appeared stilted. The supposed passion between Alex and his Jamilla didn't ring true, at least not for me.

Moreover, there were far too many characters to keep track of in this book - on both the good and the dark sides. At times, it was extremely difficult to differentiate between them. True, "London Bridges" was written with Patterson's typical flair and had a detailed plot. However, I still struggled to stay engaged with the book until its conclusion and found myself skipping passages. This is definitely not a good sign. Maybe there was just too much focus on "government" and the idea of all these entities working together in unison? Yeah, as if that would ever happen in the real world.

"London Bridges" had me constantly thinking, "enough already with the bombing and killing - and for goodness sake, who is the real Wolf?"

Nevertheless, my feelings about "London Bridges" (this copy is going straight into the donation box) will not prevent me from reading future Patterson/Cross installments. I still have hope that the next one will be more to my liking.