London Bridges is something of a departure for James Patterson"s Alex Cross novels in that it contains a serious speculation about what would--some might say, what will--happen if international crime copies the methods of terrorists or forms an alliance with them. The Russian mafia boss known as the Wolf delivers an ultimatum--large cash payments will be made and various prisoners released, or he will set off nuclear explosions in London, New York, Paris and Tel Aviv. To prove his seriousness, he has already destroyed several small townships and a couple of bridges; this book inhabits a world where people will murder thousands just to prove that they are serious. Cross"s usual ability to get inside the mind of a killer is far more of a problem when the killer is a man who has successfully erased his past, who communicates through cut-outs and expendable hirelings. Patterson"s terse chapters and breakneck pacing are effective here--with its extended displays of insider knowledge and casual attitude to torture, this is not a likeable book, but it is a suspenseful one.--Roz Kaveney