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Summary and Reviews of The Big Bad Wolf by James Patterson

The Big Bad Wolf by James Patterson

The Big Bad Wolf

An Alex Cross Thriller

by James Patterson
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus (5):
  • Readers' Rating (10):
  • First Published:
  • Nov 17, 2003, 400 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Oct 2004, 432 pages
  • Rate this book

About This Book

Book Summary

Alex Cross battles the most ruthless and powerful killer he has ever encountered--a predator known only as the Wolf.

WHO'S AFRAID?

Alex Cross battles the most ruthless and powerful killer he has ever encountered--a predator known only as the Wolf.

Alex Cross's first case since joining the FBI has his new colleagues stymied. Across the country, men and women are being kidnapped in broad daylight and then disappearing completely. These people are not being taken for ransom, Alex realizes. They are being bought and sold. And it looks like a shadowy figure known as the Wolf--a master criminal who has brought a new reign of terror to organized crime--is behind this business in which ordinary men and women are sold as slaves.

YOU'RE AFRAID.

Even as he admires the FBI's vast resources, Alex grows impatient with the Bureau's clumsiness and caution when it is time to move. A lone wolf himself, he has to go out on his own in order to track the Wolf and try to rescue some of the victims while they are still alive.

As the case boils over, Alex is in hot water at home too. His ex-fiancée, Christine Johnson, comes back into his life--and not for the reasons Alex might have hoped.

Chapter 1

THE PHIPPS PLAZA shopping mall in Atlanta was a showy montage of pink-granite floors, sweeping bronze-trimmed staircases, gilded Napoleonic design, lighting that sparkled like halogen spotlights. A man and a woman watched the target - "Mom" - as she left Niketown with sneakers and whatnot for her three daughters packed under one arm.

"She is very pretty. I see why the Wolf likes her. She reminds me of Claudia Schiffer," said the male observer. "You see the resemblance?"

"Everybody reminds you of Claudia Schiffer, Slava. Don't lose her. Don't lose your pretty little Claudia or the Wolf will have you for breakfast."

The abduction team, the Couple, was dressed expensively, and that made it easy for them to blend in at Phipps Plaza, in the Buckhead section of Atlanta. At eleven in the morning, Phipps wasn't very crowded, and that could be a problem.

It helped that their target was rushing about in a world of her own, a tight little cocoon of ...

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Reviews

BookBrowse Review

BookBrowse

The plot is a little too heavy on torture, rape and murder in general for some tastes, but one can't help liking Alex Cross, despite the fact that there is this ridiculous ongoing dichotomy between Patterson's depiction of Cross as the ultimate family man and the fact that book after book he puts his family in mortal danger.

Media Reviews

New York Times
Full of the unexpected twists and heartrending surprises that James Patterson delivers better than any suspense writer alive, The Big Bad Wolf is an unforgettable thriller from one of America's most influential authors.

Booklist - Kristine Huntley
Cross' first major case with the FBI will have readers on the edge of their seats, swiftly turning the pages to the exciting showdown.

Publishers Weekly
Full of plot surprises and featuring a balanced mix of intrigue, hard action and angst, the novel, on which Patterson notably does not share cover credit, grips from start to finish.

Kirkus Reviews
... it's business as usual in this laughably rough-hewn fairy tale of modern-day white slavery... As in summer movies, a triple dose of violence conceals the absence of real menace when neither victims nor avengers stir the slightest sympathy.

Reader Reviews

Sarah

Good stuff!
I've read quite a few Alex Cross novels and I would have to say that this is one of my favorites!! Sex, scandals, detective work, and Russian mobsters what more could you ask for in a book??? Seriously?? haha!
MarkH

Best Alex Cross book to date, James Patterson is definitely the master of detective novels
sara

This book had my attention the whole time reading it. I read this book in 2 days and it usually takes me longer to read books. It was so interesting that I had to keep reading to find out what was going to happen next.
Joe

I thought the book drew me in to the life of the supercriminal only known as the wolf. I am waiting to see how Alex ends up crackin the mystery of who the wolf is in future novels.

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Read-Alikes

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