content: I thought this novel would be a good in-between read. Usually, I select what I believe to be challenging novels, scholarly fiction.How I enjoyed this suspenseful tale! Alex Cross is a realistic, dynamic protagonist with a personal life, children and a past to resolve. He is also a student, a new FBI agent who hasn't learned the ins and outs of the bureaucracy. Cross is pulled out of class to hunt down and entrap an international godfather of the Red Mafiya, the Wolf.The Wolf snatches and delivers beautiful women, and men, from shopping malls and college campuses to be delivered to psychopathic members of a secure internet chat service. Cross has to find these innocent, tortured victims before they are murdered by their captors.This book caused me to lose sleep many-a-night because I couldn't put it down. This is my first Patterson novel and I guarantee it won't be my last.