Pop Goes the Weasel

By: James Patterson

Narrated by: Keith David, Roger Rees

In this heart-pounding thriller from the world’s most popular storyteller, Detective Alex Cross and his beloved fiancé find themselves tangled in a complex murder investigation—threatening not only public safety, but their chance at happiness together.

Inspiration for the thrilling Prime Video show, Cross.​

​Alex Cross is happy, but his happiness is threatened by a series of chilling murders—murders with a pattern so twisted, it leaves investigators reeling. Cross's ingenious pursuit of the killer produces a suspect: a British diplomat named Geoffrey Shafer.

But proving that Shafer is the murderer becomes a potentially deadly task. As the diplomat engages in a brilliant series of surprising countermoves, in and out of the courtroom, Alex and his fiancée become hopelessly entangled with the most memorable nemesis Alex Cross has ever faced.

Pop Goes the Weasel reveals James Patterson at the peak of his power. Here is a chilling villain no reader will forget, a love story of great tenderness, and a plot of relentless suspense and heart-pounding pace. To read Pop Goes the Weasel is to discover why James Patterson is one of the world's greatest suspense writers.

Excellent Narrator/Storylines, Poor Production

I read the hard copy years ago and it’s as good as I remember. I’m rereading to get ready for the TV series. I really hope they keep things canon and authentic to the books. I love Alex and I’ve read 30 books and 2 of Ali’s books. I always love the twist and turns of the crazy psycho nemesis of Alex Cross. I hate it when they go after him and his loved ones. Some plots are surprising, some predictable but great stories nevertheless. I absolutely love that Alex is tough, super intelligent, and no-nonsense. But that he’s also soft, vulnerable, and sensitive with the people he loves, and he’s not afraid to show it. I like Bree and Alex a lot; however, I absolutely love Christine and Alex more, but I understand why things happened the way they did. I just love Christine and Alex’s love story, and so happy he found her! Christine said Little Alex (Ali), the baby, is just like Alex, she has no idea how much LOL! The narrator was awesome. I love how he voiced Alex, but also Sampson, Christine, and others. He did an amazing job!

The production was way off. I’ve read and listened to enough Alex Cross books that I knew when a new chapter was supposed to start. However, the chapters ran together. So much so that they were too long. I knew something wasn’t right when I saw a 25, almost 30 minute chapter. One of the things I love about reading the books is that they don’t drag the chapters out. They’re relatively short and easy to read. The producers did a very poor job with editing and cutting where they were supposed to. It was 60 something chapters that they framed into 15. That was exhausting to get through, especially since I knew better. I can only give 3 stars for Overall because of the poor production. Otherwise, I totally enjoyed it!

Wonderful book but bad copy

The book comes to a close and then jumps back to the beginning and plays through again. It’s more like a 4 1/2 hr book.

Interesting but not my favorite Cross novel

I really loved the story of the four horsemen, but the trial seemed to drag on a little bit. All in all it was a great book that left an opening for the next novel.

Meh...

It was ok. A lot of mushy, sensitive, romantic parts. I'm just not that kind of gal. The previous stories were good so I'm starting the next book but if it's going to be all mushy again, I may have to find something else.

Loved the story, despite some minor discrepancies

Where does Pop Goes the Weasel rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Its definitely higher ranking than a lot of others, especially by James Patterson, I did like the idea of the storyline, however some parts I find not only far fetched but plain unbelievable. Mainly the part about Alex Cross's fiancée, it doesn't give to the plot it takes away from it, which is sad, cos the main storyline is so good, even great one might say

What other book might you compare Pop Goes the Weasel to and why?

I do not have any comparison in mind, James Patterson has a very unique way of writing although his books sometimes are fairly similar to one another at times, that is not true for this book, thank you very much.

Which character – as performed by Keith David and Roger Rees – was your favorite?

Geoffrey Shaffer is brilliantly written and very nicely thought out, I tremendously enjoyed him as the books antagonist

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

no I did not, I enjoyed it, there have been better books but this one was great anyway