Pop goes the Weasel is the latest best selling novel from writer James Patterson. Patterson already has a stable of pedigree crime thrillers to his credit including Cat and Mouse, Along came a Spider and Cradle and All. He is the creator of the ever popular Washington D.C. senior homicide detective, Alex Cross, who once again reprises his role as chief protagonist for the forces of law and order, as well as objective first person narrator of the story.
Cross has been frustrated and prevented from getting on the case for some time, but when an opportunity presents itself to chase the elusive and bloodthirsty serial killer known as The Weasel, the seasoned detective embarks upon a roller coaster ride of deception and carnage, which ultimately brings him closer to the increasingly unsuspecting killer.
The story opens with the reader being introduced to the suave and sophisticated British Embassy appointee Geoffrey Shafer, who is every bit the James Bond right down to the Jaguar he drives. That’s were the similarity ends, and as soon as we discover that he has diplomatic immunity which he isn’t slow to flaunt in front of the police, we see a dark and sinister side to this prep school old boy.
He plays a deadly fantasy game called the Four Horsemen. He is Death and is based in Washington, the other three players calling themselves Famine, War and Conqueror are based in England, Jamaica and Thailand. Shafer considers himself to be the best player of all. He picks up a young black prostitute early in the story, and when her nude mutilated body turns up in waste ground, we realize that his game is for from fantasy. The girl has had her throat slit from ear to ear and other indescribably horrific things done to her body.
With the police and FBI closing in and other atrocities being perpetrated by the other horsemen, the real game of hunter begins as the trap is set for the Weasel and the net closes in. Unrelenting, thrilling and utterly terrifying, Pop goes the Weasel is a real page turner.