Pop Goes the Weasel (Alex Cross) (Paperback)

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.

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.

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!