2015;
352 pages. New Author? : No, and no. Book 15 (out of 17)
in the Agent Pendergast Series.
Genre : Thriller; Murder-Mystery; Natural or Supernatural? Overall Rating : 8*/10.
Someone has robbed dear old Percival Lake. Stole it right out of his quaint little
cottage beside the Exmouth lighthouse, of which
he’s the keeper. Those dastardly do-badders purloined his most
cherished possession: his wine collection.
He’s come to Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast
to ask his assistance in solving the theft.
Alas, despite being a wine connoisseur himself, Pendergast is an FBI
agent, and such a crime is not something they investigate. Indeed, no amount of money offered by Percival
will change his mind.
Curiously,
the thieves left one small bit of the collection behind – a case of Chateau
Haut-Braquilanges ’04, and that stands for 1904, mind you, not 2004. Not only is it the crown jewel of Percival’s
collection, but it’s the Holy Grail among wine collectors everywhere. So while Agent Pendergast can’t be persuaded
to help Percival for any amount of money, there is another fee that will make
him change his mind.
A
single bottle from that case of ’04 Haut-Braquilanges.
What’s To Like...
Crimson Shore
showcases my two favorite characters in the series, Agent Pendergast and his
ward, Constance Greene. They travel to
(the fictional town of) Exmouth, on the northern coast of Massachusetts. Other recurring characters, such as Proctor,
Lt. Vinnie D’Agosta, Margo Green, and Laura Hayward make cameo appearances,, as
well as one unnamed nemesis of Pendergast’s.
Needless
to say, the case quickly expands from a mere matter of pilfered wine. The problem for our heroes is not a lack of
clues, it’s one of too many clues and how to make them all fit. As always, the pacing is quick, with lots of
action and intrigue. I found Crimson Shore to be an incredibly fast
read.
The
storyline harkens back to a motif employed in early books in the series: “Is it natural or supernatural?” Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child had gotten
away from that for a while, and I for one have missed it. Here, all
sorts of suspects and possibilities arise: Did Percival Lake fake the whole
thing? Did witches do it for
revenge? Was it ghosts from a nearby
colonial shipwreck? Did Satanists do it
and leave their demonic runes as a warning?
Did local kids do it and leave the demonic runes as a red herring? Was it a hellhound? Was it the Gray Reaper? There’s evidence for each one of those
theories. Best of luck sorting through it
all, Agent Pendergast.
It's always a pleasure when a couple French phrases show up in a story, and here I was delighted to also run across a Latin one that I'd never heard before: “cum hoc, ergo propter hoc”. The editor in me liked seeing the proper plural “culs-de-sac”
and the correctly-spelled phrase “with bated breath”. I had to chuckle when Pendergast
attempts to teach Constance the prim-&-proper protocol of wine-tasting.
For those allergic to R-rated stuff, be aware there’s some cussing, and of course the requisite amount of violence and
gore. 60 chapters cover the 352 pages, which averages out to just under 6 pages/chapter. That means you can always find a good place to stop for the night.
The story has a stutter-step ending.
With a hundred pages to go (or about 70% Kindle), everything seems to
have been cleared up, and I was wondering if we were about to encounter an epilogue of epic length. But it turns out
the second phase of the fun was just beginning.
Preston & Child still have the ability to surprise me.
Kewlest New Word ...
Ouroboros (n.)
: a circular symbol depicting a snake swallowing its tail.
Others : Bespoke
(adj.) Spindrift
(n.) Ratiocination
(n.).
Excerpts...
“All right. You know what? I’m going to be watching everything you
do. One step, one toe, over the line and I’ll run you out of this town so fast your
head will spin. Is that clear?”
“Certainly. And while I investigate grand larceny, you
may continue to protect the town from the scourge of straddled parking.”
“You’re quite the
comedian.”
“That was an
observation, not a pleasantry.” (loc. 330)
“My apologies for
scattering your flowers. Atropa belladonna, I see. Deadly nightshade. Are you intending, like the wife of Claudius,
to poison someone with it?”
“I’ve no idea who
Claudius is, or his damn wife for that matter.
I supply an herbal pharmacologist with it – for tinctures, decoctions,
powders. It’s still compounded for
gastrointestinal disorders, in case you didn’t know. These woods are full of it.”
“You are a
botanist, then?”
“I’m a guy trying
to make a living. Can I get up now?” (loc. 1556)
Kindle Details...
Crimson
Shore sells for $9.99 at Amazon. The other books in the series are all in
the $6.99
to $9.99
price range. Ditto for the various non-Pendergast
novels on which Preston & Child have collaborated.
“Isn’t wormwood supposed to cause brain damage?” “The act of living causes brain damage.” (loc. 460)
After reading some of the Amazon reviews, it seems like a fair number of people didn’t like
the ending, which they labeled a cliffhanger.
Well, I hate cliffhangers too, but technically this was more of a
teaser, since the main threads in the storyline are all tied up.
Yes, Pendergast ends up missing and presumed dead. That’s happened before, but it’s not really a
spoiler since two more books in the series have been published since then. Yes, an unidentified baddie drops in out of
nowhere at the end, but that’s merely a plug for the next book, and Preston
& Child have pulled this sort of stunt before. Yes, it’s cheap and tawdry. But it’s not a cliffhanger.
8 Stars. Preston & Child also get accused of just “cranking
out” these stories, and that’s probably true. They’re still putting them out at a rate of
about one per year, and I’m still two books behind in the series, plus two others
from way back to somehow find time to read.
Their efforts may be formulaic, but it’s a good formula and I for one
always enjoy the tales they spin.
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