This series would be better served with less family drama and more detecting. It would also be better if bad guys didn't walk away scot free. 4 of 10 stars

Was going to give this one 4 stars rounded up to 4.5. Until the ending.

When this book starts ramping down for conclusion it then decides to revs back up just to make you really engaged and understand that the lull was to number your sense of security into what is a crazy third act full of twists and turns. Not handled the best way, but it makes you wonder if any other way would actually be worse... hmmmm. On to the next one.

Thirty-seven-year-old Elizabeth Connolly is in the midst of a busy day. There are errands to run, an appointment to keep with a hairdresser, and one of her children’s birthday parties to plan and conduct. She’s pretty in that Claudia Schiffer way, and she looks closer to 30 than 37. Her world changes forever in the parking lot of an Atlanta mall where she is kidnapped by a man and woman with heavy Russian accents, and, with her children looking on, she is forced into her own car, which is driven off by the Russians.

Alex Cross is in his first few weeks as a trainee with the FBI as this ninth Alex Cross novel begins. He’s hoping that the change to FBI agent from DC cop will allow him more time with his kids and a greater opportunity to develop a relationship with his latest love interest. But Elizabeth’s kidnapping puts an end to all that for some time, and it will be up to Alex to solve the mystery of who the Wolf really is and why Elizabeth and a host of others have disappeared.

This is not a book free of profanity, and while rape is committed on Elizabeth and other characters, the actual scenes are not graphically described.

If battling the Russian mafia and some of the old guard at the FBI who resent his presence isn’t enough, poor Alex must face his ex-lover and the mother of his youngest child who drops in to demand full custody of the little boy.

I enjoyed this book; it finally pulled me out of the bad book slump I’ve been in most of the summer. The audio production is overdone as far as I’m concerned. Every one of the more than 100 chapters had to start with some kind of musical flourish, and that was a bit much for me. But the narration was good and the audio effects were, for the most part on track. Since I speed the book up significantly to read it, those sections where the producers felt the need to have crickets chirping in the background were pretty funny. The speeded up book sounded a lot like an old cassette player whose belt is on its last dry leg during those cricket scenes.

But the characterization is really quite good. Alex retains his humanity despite the horror of what he is seeing. This is a brutal book in spots wherein kidnappings and forcible sexual assaults are either described in the case of the kidnappings or at least mentioned in the case of the assaults. It isn’t just women who are being kidnapped by the Wolf’s emissaries. One of his paying customers likes young college boys, and he pays top dollar to have them purchased and brought to his remote location where he disposes of them after he’s had his emotional and sexual way with them.

There’s plenty of suspense to keep you reading, and I sure didn’t see the end coming, especially where poor Liz Connolly was concerned. Still, the writing style here is good. This appears to be vintage Patterson before he farmed his work out to other writers.

This was your typical Alex Cross book. The writing isn't great but there is a lot of action and the story is good enough to keep the reader interested. That being said if you've never read an Alex Cross book before I would not start with this one. There is little to no character development in this book and if you aren't already familiar with the characters you probably won't be interested in this story. It seems like Patterson spent more time reviving unresolved issues from previous books so that he could tie them into a new case than he did actually developing this story so that it can be enjoyed by both new and old readers.

3.5 stars

Back a few years ago the Alex Cross books were my favorite series and I listened to the first 8 books almost back to back. I don't remember why I paused the series back then and only now picked it up again but it took me only a few minutes to bond again with Alex and his family and I even remembered the minor characters which almost never happens to me since my brain is a mess :D

As usual the case started almost immediately and while Alex Cross now works for the FBI and has a new environment around him it still felt like good old times to be back in this series, even though I kinda missed his former partner and friend John Sampson who only made a short appearance this time.

The story dealt with kidnappings and human trafficking and had a good level of suspense but it didn't give me quite the thrill of some of the previous books. What bothered me most was that a lot of things happened way too fast and I sometimes had the impression that James Patterson didn't take enough time to thoroughly write some scenes (maybe because he is too busy publishing 8,323 novels per year^^). There were passages where Alex and his colleagues flew to a place, went on a mission and arrived back in what felt like 10 sentences and that made it sometimes a bit hard for me to feel as if I as a reader were a part of the investigation. Also it seemed to me as if Alex' and his team's progress was often based on luck and not on their skills which made the case appear a bit simple.

However I had a good time listening to the book and it seems as if Pattersons has found a new remarkable villain with the "Wolf" and I definitely want to catch up on all the other books in the Alex Cross series now!

really liked the first few Alex Cross books, until they degenerated into weak, implausible plots, written blatantly for the money, not for the readers.

I carried on for a while because i hoped they'd pick up again. I lost the will to give him the benefit of doubt any more when there was a two page product placement for Mercedes and he was chasing off to Africa, because of yet another woman he loved and ended in an eyeball showdown with a crocodile.

The Big Good Patterson!

Another doozie from Patterson. This is Alex Cross' first case in the FBI and it doesn't disappoint. Cross has a few enemies already in the FBI, but that does not stop him from going head on with The Wolf. Women abducted and sold as sex slaves. A Russian mafia. The hunt. Cross' personal life takes a back seat to his. Re position. This one was a good ride.

Not bad. Will be interesting to see where the little Alex situation goes long term. I found this crime plot only ok. I expected to like the plot a lot more than I did based on the description but honestly I only found it okay.

My quick and simple overall: an okay installment. Really getting into this series though.

Another action packed addition to the series! It's amazing how many action scenes Patterson packs into one of these books . . . it literally never ends from beginning to end. And once again, it spills over into the next book via the epilogue shadowing. As in most of these stories, we get both the personal and business views of Alex Cross. There's a big personal loss in this one that broke my heart even as it made me angry. Anxious to see where it may lead in future books. Several bad guys put under wraps in this one and yet no conclusion for others as they escape to terrorize again. It seems to be the pattern for Cross. Highly recommended to fans of crime fiction.

The Big Bad Wolf had a lot of messes within this book. It constantly made me question what the hell Alex was doing. I get that he is in a new job at the FBI but he was a god damn detective before this .. so why the hell did he make so many mistakes in this book?? I have no idea but that's why I took a star away.

I also gave it four stars because Christine came back and I just didn't like her or what she did. I really hope she doesn't appear in the next book, like at all. Then there's the whole "Wolf" thing because you never knew who the wolf actually was. There were way too many suspects to keep track of and at one point I just gave up and didn't even try to predict how this book would end.

Other than that I really liked his family moments and how his family was adjusting to his new job. I love how Nana gave him crap about him working longer hours than he used to and for working more than he said he would. I just love Nana so freaking much.

I need more of Nana please. Also, can Alex stop messing up so much?

Good book and a quick read even though there were a few things I got a little mad about. One thing was little Alex’s situation. I’m not going to spoil what it is for those of you who might not have read it yet. For me, there were some surprises towards the end. I couldn’t believe who had done what and what had happened.