Fear The Wolf

House of Wolves #0.5

by James Patterson, Mike Lupica, Ellen Archer (Narrator)

1 hour, 14 minutes

Best-selling author James Patterson and award-winning sportswriter Mike Lupica team up to launch this power-family football thriller, a pregame for their next blockbuster, The House of Wolves.
Meet the Wolf. Joe Wolf. He’s the head of a multibillion-dollar empire—a newspaper, a holding company, a football team—and the head of a family that puts King Lear to shame.

His empire shows signs of crumbling when he’s approached with an "offer" to sell. It’s clear from the start that Joe is going to pay the ultimate price—and maybe more—if he refuses.

Genres: Audiobook, Mystery, Thriller, Fiction, Short Stories, Sports, Crime

Audible Audio

Published December 8, 2022

About the author

Official US Site
Official UK Site

James Patterson is the most popular storyteller of our time and the creator of such unforgettable characters and series as Alex Cross, the Women’s Murder Club, Jane Smith, and Maximum Ride. He has coauthored #1 bestselling novels with Bill Clinton, Dolly Parton, Michael Crichton, and Viola Davis, as well as collaborated on #1 bestselling nonfiction, including The Idaho Four, Walk in My Combat Boots, and Filthy Rich. Patterson has told the story of his own life in the #1 bestselling autobiography James Patterson by James Patterson. He is the recipient of an Edgar Award, ten Emmy Awards, the Literarian Award from the National Book Foundation, and the National Humanities Medal.

Reviews

[Kay]

I read quite a few JP books each year. I have many series I follow and have been enjoying short stories/book shots. This one takes place in San Francisco, the Wolf family empire includes a football team, not really my thing. Thank you for this "freebie" with Audible, I can skip this series.📰🏈
1 h 14 m

[Cris]

This is the first book in a new series. This is almost a sneak peek teaser to the main first book. The Wolf Family has three sons, one daughter who wants nothing to do with her family business and the dad. Dad runs The Wolves (NFL football team) and a newspaper. One son runs each, then Thomas and Jenny, the youngest didn’t work for dad…

[Abby Stopka]

I like this, it is going to be interesting to see how the next book in the series proceeds on.

[Natalie M]

A little over an hour on Audible, so it can’t do too much harm.

The usual for Patterson nowadays …another collaboration with cheesy one-liners added to the stock standard formula.

Enough to engender some intrigue but not enough that I’d rush out to read it.

[Rebecca Hollingsworth]

I’m anxious to hear more.. unfortunately, I’m not a fan of cliffhangers or super short stories that don’t give us any conclusion… to me I don’t believe it should be labeled as a book even a titled .5, because this doesn’t give us anything!!!! Other than some names, and a whole bunch of questions.. 🤦‍♀️

[Natalie H]

June 2023
Audiobook edition
1h 14m (1.3x speed)

This one was a surprise from the start. I'm used to males for Male characters and likewise with females. This one switched things up which was nice. A man that doesn't want to give up his legacy and a countdown before that life ends. Joe wasn't a likeable character, but neither was his family. A lot of miscommunication issues. I did like the military guy, was gutted about him. I'm curious about this one will go. It sounds like Knives out or Succession family drama wise, if that's the case, I'm looking forward to it.

[Tiffany]

Another short story that I won't be providing a star rating for. This one was different in that you jumped straight into the action and the story focused mainly on one person. However, I don't really know why the main character is in such a pickle and don't know who is the person coming for him. It leaves me with many questions, and you're encouraged to read the rest of the series to find out the bigger picture. Not for me.

[Nick Fowkes]

I’ll revise after finishing House of Wolves

[January]

Fear the Wolf by James Patterson and Mike Lupica
1h 14m narrated by Ellen Archer
House of Wolves #0.5

Genre: Mystery, Short Stories, Fiction, Audiobook, Sports > Sports

Featuring: San Francisco, California; Multi-billion Empire, Extortion Football Team, Audible Originals

Rating as a movie: R for adult content

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

My thoughts: I have read a few of these, find-out-what-happens-next prequel-novellas. Most of them I don't discover until after I read the novel and after reading I'm glad I skipped as the preview gave major spoilers for the novel, like A Witness to a Trial and The Whistler. In this case, I'm glad I read it, there is no major spoiler unless the bad guys are revealed near the middle or end of the novel. As far as I can tell this does exactly what it's supposed to do, set up the novel. I was a little disappointed as reading the first few lines of the blurb for The House of Wolves gave away the ending to this story, but it was still a good ride.

Recommend to others?: Yes. This is a nice little story if you have Audible.

[Foxy]

I am not sure how to rate this short story, and I am not sure if I want to read the whole series or book based on what I read. It shows it is a bit of a thriller, but there were more questions than answers which really didn't motivate me to start being crazy about the series. may I might have had a better attitude had I read 2 chapters of the series.

[Megneto♓️]

I listened to this on audible. I would give it 3🌟 Quite interesting but not my usual James Patterson books. I'm use to more tension, whereas I felt this was quite quick.

[Darinda]

Quick read. Fast-paced and entertaining start to the House of Wolves series.

[Paul Botterill]

This is the worst James Patterson book I have read or listened to. Very little plot or character development.

[La'Jacinth]

Perfect introduction of a family that seems to be as bad or maybe worst that the Duttons.

The patriarch has built a very prosperous and diverse empire and has basically left the lamb in charge - Jenny Wolf.

I am sooo reading THE HOUSE OF WOLVES.

[Andy Klein]

Thank you Audible for the free prequel. There is zero chance that I’d like the main book and upcoming series. I am not a fan of generational financial empire-control struggles. The authors are obviously trying to cash in on this genre following in the wake of a bunch of similar successful tv series. Hard pass.

[Regis]

Boring, with uninspired writing, and narration. Will not be continuing with the series.

[Jumping to Conclusions with ZellaBee]

🚨This is a Prequel Novella to The House of Wolves

ZellaBee Rating: Sis, Save Your Monion (cash grab if ever there was one)

(Audible): Ellen Archer

Summary: A Father in Name Only, but the title of Asshole is One He Came By Honestly

Here’s the thing about this book, it doesn’t provide literally ANY pertinent information to prepare you for the “real” book. You could skip this completely and still be fine going along with the story.

The basic jist of the story is that Joe Wolf loves the sound of his own name. He owned a sports team (The San Francisco Wolves) and a media empire (The San Francisco Tribune) but is now being blackmailed to sell it to “someone” who is never named, but everyone is too afraid to go up against like fucking Voldemort. Whoever he is, he has Joey here by the balls and whatever the dirt is is a doozy.

He has 3 sons (Thomas, Jack and Daniel) who each run something for him in his empire, hate his guts and are probably out to get him for his money. Jack probably most of all-maybe because they are the most alike. A philandering whore who may or may not be sleeping with his father’s ex wife but is definitely sleeping with a woman who works for the company…that his wife also works for. Ballsy, I’ll give him that. He runs the newspaper and is the one Joe used to call his other daughter until HS when Jack beat him like he stole his lunch money. Almost put him in the hospital (funniest part of the entire book). Thomas isn’t explained and Daniel is the manager of the team.

He has one daughter, Jenny. A 36-year old HS teacher & football coach who used to be married to his golden boy QB, whose now just a drunk about to get canned from his position. She isn’t fond of her father either BUT unlike the others she also doesn’t want anything to do with the family or family business in general. She even pays for her own tickets to the games. At 36, she’s the one her father loves as much as his football team and is the most proud of her. To all his children he was a father in name only, hell he even says his only real home was the football stadium SMMFH

This includes 2 ex wives, both of which he left for younger women Elyse was the first and the mother of his children. He left her for Rachel who was 30 years younger. Who wouldn’t hold a grudge until the day you die after that? I would. Four of your big headed children and you ride of with some skank. Nope. Rachel was his real estate agent and was willing to do anything for a sale and THAT landed her in her own lap of luxury…before the left her for someone not named.

Joe is being followed and the one person he enlists to help that isn’t afraid to do so is a former player from his team, Riggs. He’s got ties to an organization that takes out bad guys and is happier with his life this way, but is willing to help. Until someone runs him off the road and shoots him dead. Still a text lures Joe to the boating dock to meet him after he missed meeting him earlier. He never did find out that he was dead before the man who was hiding there shoots him in the back of the head.

There wasn’t much to hate or love about this book. It just…well is. It was too short to really get anything other than Joe was a man that pulled himself up by his bootstraps, screwed over and stepped on as many people as he could along the way, and was a shitty husband and father. Racially, he was a son of a bitch by many accounts that most people hated and many would have wanted to see dead for various reasons. And… they got their wish.

NEW SEGMENT: What I Would Have Done Differently 🤔
💭Well if you’re gonna do a prequel and not give away any killers or the main antagonist, give us something better than THIS. I get it’s basically its last few days alive and the real action is in the next book, but yikes. This could have been told at the beginning of or even in flashbacks in that book rather than a whole separate one. Money grab if you ask me.

💭Would have been nice if they hadn’t killed off the mother. It would be nice to see her have the last laugh on this one.

[Melani]

Joe Wolf is a very successful man and wasn't a great Dad to his kids. Someone comes up to him with an offer to sell all his businesses and when he declines everything starts going down hill for him. His kids and ex wife barely talk to him when he starts worrying about his life. He only has a guy he fired from his football team years before in his corner. He starts getting followed and starts getting upset about it all.

This book was an interesting listen. It was very visual which I enjoyed. Patterson and Lupica wrote a good book. It's not my typical being around so much football but having Patterson known for his amazing writing skills I figured I would give it a shot. It probably isn't one I will go out of my way to own but it is a good story nonetheless.

[Jonnie]

I knew this was a prequel to promote the book The House of Wolves, so I expected some unanswered questions. However, this novella left too many questions to be a satisfying read (e.g., Did Riggs die? Is Joe killed on the boat? Who was sent the killer to Joe's boat?).

This was only available on Audible, so the narrator also had an impact on my rating. I'm not a fan of female narrators in general. Archer was okay, but I would have preferred a male narrator especially since most all of the characters in this prequel were men.

[Baje Bookclub - Dawn]

From Chapter 1, I knew Joe Wolf would have been someone not to mess with. This short story that is 0.5 to The House of Wolves was an action packed short listen.

Joe shares his life story while fighting to hold onto his beloved football team - The Wolves. Whoever wants his team is not playing - they mean business and strong arming is not out of the question.

Now I can’t wait to read House of Wolves.

[Jessica Hicks]

I thought the “bonus prequel” at the end of my edition of House of Wolves was weird and unnecessary and now I see it was a separate thing for some people. There were a lot of things Joe did and said here that were exactly identical to things Jenny did later on and it felt too on-the-nose. Maybe if I’d experienced them further apart like this, it would have been better.

[Sarah]

What the actual fuck was this? Seemed more like an advert for how great Tesla is.

Joe Wolf is a dumb ass name for a main character.

What happened to Patterson and his incredible thrillers? The only thrilling part was when it ended. Fml.

Note - i will be reading the follow on novel in the hope that there is no more mention of Tesla.

[Yoly]

Pure 🍿
Will definitely listen to the main story The House of Wolves

[Brian]

An entertaining novella that brings together two authors from diverse genres; murder/mystery and sports. The story sets the stage for another novel that leaves the reader wanting more-in a good way.

[Jenny]

This left me curious about the rest of this series. It was the perfect appetizer. I love football and thrillers, this seemed like a no brainer to me and I wasn't wrong. Will definitely be reading the next book in this series.

[Susan Nightingale]

Not sure about this series, but I try to read everything Patterson puts out so I'm hoping the series is better than this little prequel. It's really just a teaser, not a short story so maybe that is why it was a little disappointing.

[Amber]

Thought this would be a complete story and it was just the start of one, a tease. Wish I knew that from the start. On the bright side, it didn't entice me enough to get the next book so at least I didn't waste more time .

[Charlotte Laver]

Considering this was a book made for audible it was pretty terribly done with a lot of “he said” and “she said” - didn’t need to be told so often who was speaking it was clear from the tones.

Hasn’t made me want to read the rest of the series.

[Db2567]

A short introductory novella about a sport team and the wolf family.
Ends in a cliffhanger ready for the book that should be released in January 2023.

[Lynn Cutting]

Love it