Pop Goes the Weasel

Ah good ole Patterson, the king of the stock character.

 

In the fifth installment of the Alex Cross books, Cross is on the trail of the Jane Doe murderer.  Indigent women in Southeast Washington (one of the poorest neighbourhoods) are turning up dead, and Chief of Police Pittman refuses to admit a serial killer may be in their midst.  Undaunted, Cross continues to follow his gut and track an insane killer, and his actions once again puts those closest to him in jeopardy.

 

One of the recurring storylines in these books has been Cross’ love affair with school principle Christine Johnson.  In Pop Goes the Weasel, Christine agrees to marry Cross, despite misgivings over his career choice and the dangers it involves, and the two, along with Cross’ family, take a trip to Bermuda where Christine is kidnapped, ostensibly by the very killer Cross is trying to catch back in Washington.

 

There are so many things wrong with this book, I don’t know where to begin.  Dead bodies pop up everywhere, though most never get discovered by the police.  The police work is incredibly shoddy, and Cross spends most of his time mooning over Christine and thinking about future career paths, then he does chasing the killer.  Much of the plot is contrived, and when Christine disappears, it’s so obviously a trumped up plot ploy to throw obstacles in Cross’ path, that it’s beyond believable.  Also, Cross and his family seem to be the only ones affected by Christine’s kidnapping – no family, friends or co-workers come out of the woodwork to lament her disappearance.  Months jump by from one chapter to the next in which Cross does nothing to find Christine nor solve the multiple deaths in Southeast.  I could go on, but you’re probably as tired of reading this as I was of the book by the end.

 

That being said, there were elements of the book that still kept me reading.  The killer’s character was quite well drawn, and the book had the usual James Patterson thrill rides, though often disrupted by his use of stock characters and banal plot twists.  And the ending I found maddening.  Once again, Cross fails to follow through and properly catch his man, so I expect the killer to pop up again in the next book or two.  I like characters that are flawed – makes them relatable, but really, Cross is turning out to be less flawed and more just plain inept with each subsequent book.  I can only hope the series improves with later books, because I’ve unfortunately committed myself to reading the lot of them.

 

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

 

 

TBR = 8

WPL = 19