Product Description

‘It’s all just a game, darling. I play with three other men. Their names are FAMINE, WAR and CONQUEROR. My name is DEATH. You’re a very lucky girl – I’m the best player of all.’

Geoffrey Shafter: a man who never loses, he is prepared to play the game of games for the highest stakes of all.

Alex Cross: senior Washington, DC, homicide detective, he is determined, whatever the consequences, to unmask the man he has nicknamed the weasel, the prime suspect for a spate of killings that Cross has been forbidden to investigate.

In POP GOES THE WEASEL, James Patterson has created a formidable villain every reader will see in the shadows when the lights are out, a tender love story, a plot powered by relentless suspense and psychological thrills kicked up to an all-time high.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #116712 in Books
• Published on: 2000-07-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Likened to a "young Muhammad Ali", Alex Cross, the Porsche-driving profiler, doctor, detective and father of two has seen his fair share of vicious killers. From a bloodthirsty butcher who came after his family (Cat and Mouse) to a devilish duo working cross-country (Kiss the Girls), Cross has managed to out-manoeuvre all of his enemies. Until he meets the Weasel.

A series of killings in the forgotten, crime-infested ghettos of southeastern DC has sent Cross and his 6'9" 250-pound-partner, John Sampson in search of the "Jane Doe" killer. However, their racist, tyrannical boss George Pitman orders them to stay out of the southeast and investigate the high-profile murder of a wealthy white man. Cross already has suspicions that the murders are linked, but when Sampson's ex turns up in an abandoned southeast warehouse kicked to death, the two detectives carry on with their original investigation.

Meanwhile, Cross's long-time love, Christine, (Cat and Mouse) has taken prominence in his life and it looks as if the two will finally get hitched--with one hitch: Cross leaves the force. Although Cross's instinct tells him to quit--to not put everything he loves in jeopardy again--he's compelled to catch the Weasel. Akin to a slick, Hollywood action flick, Pop Goes the Weasel doesn't have time for meaningful character development and thoughtful moral analysis. And it doesn't need to. Its winning formula is based in short scenes (chapters average about three pages), addictive plot progression and mean dialogue:

"Sampson sighed and said, "I think her tongue is stapled inside the other girl. I'm pretty sure that's it, Alex. The Weasel stapled them together." I looked at the two girls and shook my head. "I don't think so. A staple, even a surgical one, would come apart on the tongue's surface... Crazy glue would work."

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
'A master of the suspense genre'

Review
‘Patterson has a way with plot twists that freshens the material and keeps the adrenaline level high’ (Publishing News )

‘Cross, a brilliant homicide cop, is one of the great creations of thriller fiction’ (Dallas Morning News )

‘Cross is one of the best and most likeable characters in the modern thriller genre’ (San Francisco Examiner )

'Brilliantly terrifying... so exciting I had to stay up all night to finish it' (Daily Mail )

'A fine writer with a good ear for dialogue and pacing. His books are always page turners' (Washington Times )

'Terror and suspense that grab the reader and won’t let go. Just try running away from this one' (Ed McBain )

'A master of the suspense genre' (SUNDAY TELEGRAPH )

Customer Reviews

THIS TIME IT'S PERSONAL...
This book starts out as an intriguing thriller. A series of murders is sweeping Southeast Washington, DC. Detective Alex Cross, psychologist and expert profiler, nicknames this remorseless, stealthy, and psychopathic killer "The Weasel" and is itching to capture him.

From the beginning, the reader knows who the killer is. He is none other than urbane, British diplomat, Geoffrey Shafer, who is playing a macabre, role-playing game through the Internet with some of his former buddies from British intelligence. His role, appropriately enough, is "Death". The problem is that for Shafer it is no longer a game. It is an obsession.

Meanwhile, Detective Alex Cross and his long time main squeeze, Christine, have decided to get married, despite his relentless pursuit of "The Weasel". Just before they actually do so, however, this diabolical fiend creates a serious hitch in their wedding plans. Cross carries on, as "The Weasel" plays a cat and mouse game with him. There are a number of surprising moves and countermoves, though it seems that Detective Cross is always on the receiving end.

Unfortunately, while the book starts out with a bang, it sort of ends with a whimper. The author simply fails to realize the promise inherent in the book. The resolution of the issue involving his fiancee, Christine, is simply unrealistic. The final ending, however, with regards to Shafer is somewhat intriguing, as it leaves open the possibility of a sequel with this most intriguing killer.

Engaging Alex Cross mystery.
Someone is killing randomly - mainly black and Hispanic women - but the police seem reluctant to recognise that there is a serial killer on the loose. The murder victims are, for the most part, unimportant, the detritus of a big city, people on the margins and in the shadows. But Washington homicide detective Alex Cross is determined to root out the killer and establish the connections between these apparently random crimes.

The killer, as we are quick to learn, has a solid disguise and the skills to employ misinformation and disinformation. He also has a penchant for playing games, and he appears to have read "The Dice Man". Who he kills, where, and when, are all largely random decisions - a sure way to camouflage his insanity and disrupt any pattern to the crimes.

Thus we enter a cat and mouse game, intriguingly written in two narrative voices. Cross appears in the first person, the murderer and the incidentals in the third person. It's an intriguing technique and helps elaborate a sense of distance between hunter and hunted. Patterson writes with page-turning ease and you are quickly swept up in the story. There are unsatisfactory elements - a computer geek magically comes up with answers at the right time, there are a couple of over-stretched coincidences - but it's a helter-skelter, entertaining tale and one which fans of the thriller genre will love.

Designer Violence for the none too intelligent
This is my first Patterson, and dare I say it, my last.

I agree wholeheartedly with the reader from Woking, Surrey's comments. This is detective fiction for people who find Miami Vice a bit too intellectual.

I can't be bothered on this fine Sunday morning to point out the inconsistencies and unbelievable events that occur in this novel. The chapters are also maddeningly short - probably because his readership has such a short attention span.

Even the title is crap.

The depiction of police procedure is very poorly done - like his research consisted of watching rubbish American cop shows on TV.

Never mind, if the story fails to enthral (and it does - believe me!), you can always flick the pages and see a weasel cavorting about at the top of the page. Says it all really.

Patterson seems to churn out these "blockbusters" at an alarming rate. Perhaps if he took a couple of years out and thought about things he just MIGHT produce something approaching the quality of, say, "Red Dragon" by Thomas Harris. Now that's REAL dramatic tension and quality crime writing!