Theodicius

Good. Evil. Bratwurst.

The Big Bad Wolf

Posted on by arlen

James Patterson’s recent outing for profiler Alex Cross was, to be blunt, a disappointment. The premise is that Alex Cross has left the DC police and joined the FBI in order to have more time with his family. We’ll leave the obvious point that this is unrealistic and scarcely credible alone, chalking it up to the required “suspension of disbelief” that reading every novel involves.
But after passing over that point, there are just too many stale plot cliches. The mother of his (Alex Cross’s) child reappears with a nasty lawyer and you can deduce every detail of the progression of that subplot just from that statement. Another subplot revolves around how the supervisor of Cross’s mandatory FBI orientation and training classes feels towards this new guy the the bigwigs recruited and brought in by promises. Yep, you guessed it. Most of the other devices in this novel have beards fully as long or even longer.
Still, I’ve always said that I don’t mind a trip down a familiar road so long as the tour guide makes it enjoyable. The major plot involves a white slavery ring operated by a Russian mafia, ex-secret police, gangster. It involves the kidnapping and delivery into slavery of white suburban soccer moms to order (with the token gay request thrown in for diversity) from a catalog assembled by the organization. Fortunately, Patterson manages to avoid descending into the obvious titillation offered by this premise, and the pacing of developments and plot twists in it occasionally show flashes of his mastery of the genre. But generally speaking, instead of a tight plot and good characterization we get a lot of running around with accompanying shouting and waving of hands, with no real satisfying conclusion at the end of it all.
It’s a rather pedestrian effort from a writer I’ve come to expect more of. Diehard fans of Alex Cross will want to pick it up, if for no other reason than it marks a sea change in his life. If you’re new to Alex Cross, pass on it; you’ll find material at least as good in almost any book selected at random from this genre.

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