LONDON BRIDGES by James Patterson

 Finished Tu 6/4/24

This is a hardback that Janny gave to me because she had duplicate copies.

Another book that brings a novel and compelling situation, but a worthy climax is missing. 

From The Spokesman Review:

"James Patterson's 'London Bridges' suffers from thin plot"

“London Bridges” begins when a Midwestern town is bombed off the map. The mastermind is a ruthless killer known as the Wolf. Cross, a forensic psychologist who is now an FBI agent, is dragged into the case and must battle his nemesis, the Weasel, who has teamed up with the more maniacal Wolf.

The Wolf plans mass murder and destruction in major cities around the globe, including New York, Paris and Tel Aviv, unless he is given several billion dollars and imprisoned terrorists are released. It is unclear how he has the funding and manpower to do such a thing, and Patterson never fully unravels this. The Wolf is part of the Russian mafia, but his reasons for an alignment with Mideast terrorists are also unclear.

Patterson fails to fully develop any of his characters, thus making them seem more like video game villains than fleshy, three-dimensional threats. The reader knows the Wolf is evil only because he kills his friends and blows up people, not because of any sleek writing by Patterson. Cross has family troubles, but they are never really developed. Instead, Patterson introduces myriad secondary characters that do not contribute to the thrust of the story.

As Cross hops from state to state and country to country, Patterson’s descriptions of the fellow investigators are staggeringly stereotypical. In Paris, for example, the French officers assigned to help him are rude and lazy: “The process was slow and the Frenchman needed frequent breaks for cigarettes and coffee.”