Pop Goes the Weasel (Alex Cross Series #5) » (Abridged)

Not making any bones about his bid for success, James Patterson once declared he wanted to be known as the king of the page-turners. While that may seem like a pretty grand ambition, Patterson is as worthy of that title as any author working today.

Things are looking great for Alex Cross. He is in love with a very special woman, and even a series of ghastly murders he’s investigating can’t diminish his happiness. Cross’s pursuit of the killer quickly produces a suspect—a British diplomat named Geoffrey Shaffer. However, proving that Shaffer is the murderer is a difficult challenge. The diplomat engages in a brilliant series of surprising countermoves, in court and out, and Cross and his fiancee become the targets of a deadly cabal of killers masterminded by Shaffer.

Publishers Weekly

Patterson dedicates his latest (after 1998's When the Wind Blows) to "the millions of Alex Cross readers who so frequently ask 'Can't you write faster?'" Those readers won't be disappointed: the successful formula is in high gear, with the Washington, D.C., psychologist/homicide detective up to his ears in unsolved murders. This tale features a duplicitous villain, a glut of dirty office politics and the inevitable threat to someone Cross just can't live without. A highly moral character, Cross is now firmly rooted in many imaginations as Morgan Freeman, who played him in the film version of Kiss the Girls. When he's not caring for Damon and Jannie, his two young children, Cross takes boys to visit their fathers in prison and works in a soup kitchen. After his boss, Chief Pittman, refuses to believe that a serial killer is striking in the neglected Southeast section, Cross and four other officers work extra hours on their own, the only ones who really care. Readers learn early on that the killer is a British diplomat, Geoffrey Shafer, a chilling madman ostensibly holding his sanity together with drugs. Shafer is obsessed with a real-life version of a computer game called the Four Horsemen, during which he masquerades as a taxi driver who kills his unsuspecting passengers. If Shafer is almost too good to be true--another fictional psychopath with infinite resources--Patterson is shrewd enough to show him making mistakes (like forgetting to wash) as he comes apart at the seams. The killer is caught in the middle of the narrative, setting the scene for a bold courtroom drama. Even the disappearance of Cross's new lady love (his wife was killed in a previous book) is less of a clich d device than a ritual sacrifice as Patterson's well-oiled suspense machine grinds away with solid precision. (Oct.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.