Verses For the Dead - Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

   2018; 328 pages.  Book 18 (out of 22) in the “Agent Pendergast” series.  New Author? : No, and No.  Genres : Police Procedural; Thriller; Serial Killers.   Overall Rating: 8½/10.

 

    It’s a brand new day for Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast of the FBI.  For starters, he’s got a new boss, Walter Pickett, who admires Pendergast’s “successful investigation rate” but hates his attitude towards heeding authorities and working with others.

 

    So it’s no surprise that Pendergast also finds he’s been assigned to a new area: Miami, Florida.  Say goodbye to the Big Apple, Aloysius.  Say hello to The Sunshine State.

 

    That means Pendergast gets to work with a new partner, a Native American named A.B. Coldmoon.  Don’t ask him what the “A.B.” stands for; those are white man’s appellations.

 

    Oh well, it could be worse.  Some psycho killer could start slashing the throats of Miamians, cutting out their hearts, and leaving them on other graves.

 

    And also leave excerpts from classical works of literature, aka “Verses for the Dead”.

 

What’s To Like...

    I enjoyed the setting change for Verses For the Dead, even if it did mean meeting a whole slew of new characters and remembering which ones were Miami PD and which ones were Miami FBI.  Agent Coldmoon is developed into a worthy assistant for the quirky Pendergast.  Instead of being cast as a bumbling rookie, he impresses Aloysius with his investigative technique and shrewd deductions.

 

    As always, the case rapidly becomes more complex.  There are clues aplenty, but how do they fit together?  Road trips are taken, and bodies are exhumed.  Is the killer right-handed or left-handed?  Are some of the deaths suicides?  Why does Agent Coldmoon have a “malodorous chemical refinery” (Pendergast’s description, not mine) smell about him?

 

  Verses For the Dead is both a Medical Thriller and a Police Procedural, both of which  are among my favorite literary genres.  It was a treat to also learn a few phrases in Latin, Spanish, and even in Coldmoon’s native Lakota tongue, including “Atanikili” and “Philamayaye”.  Thank goodness for Google.

 

    The ending is delightfully 50-pages long, well thought-out, and filled with twists, thrills and nail-biting fights.  In other words, it’s vintage Preston & Child.  It’s also quite complicated, and the last two of the fifty chapters involve Pendergast answering the questions a Miami Herald reporter had, and which had puzzled me as well.  Verses For the Dead is both a standalone novel and part of a series.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.6*/5, based on 10,948 ratings and 1,069 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.22*/5, based on 18,296 ratings and 1,605 reviews.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Empyrean (n.) : heaven; especially the highest part of heaven.

Others: Diener (n.); Iconoclast (n.); Persiflage (n.).

 

Excerpts...

    Something even louder than the music blasted one of her eardrums; she looked over to see a skinny, goateed guy in a post-punk outfit yelling at her.

    She turned to him. “What?”

    “I said, are you a parking ticket?” he yelled back.

    “Parking ticket?  What are you talking about?”

    “Because you’ve got fine written all over you!”  He laughed wildly, eyes wide.  (pg. 85)

 

    “Coffee, partner?”

    Another, longer pause.  Then Pendergast accepted the cup; took a small, tentative sip.  “The floral bouquet of poison sumac blooms first on the palate,” he announced.  “Followed by notes of diesel oil and a long finish of battery acid.”  And he handed the cup back.

    “Exactly the way I like it,” said Coldmoon, closing his eyes contentedly and downing the lukewarm beverage in a single gulp.  (pg. 251)

 

“Of all the would-be witnesses out last night, not one mentioned seeing a blood-spattered man carrying a hatchet and a human heart.”  (pg. 101)

    The profanity level in Verses For the Dead seemed lighter-than-usual for a Pendergast novel.  I counted just 13 instances in the first 20% of the book, four of which were f-bombs.  Maybe Miamians cuss less than New Yorkers.

 

    One reviewer was disappointed that there was no “is it natural or supernatural” aspect to the story, which is a much-loved Preston & Child trademark literary device.  He has a point, but at least they didn't awkwardly force it into the plotline.  Similarly, some of my favorite New York characters, such as Constance Greene, Vincent D’Agosta, and Proctor, only get a brief mention, but I have a feeling they’ll make a dramatic comeback in the upcoming books.

 

    Enough of the quibbling.  I’ve now read 15 books in this series, and have been hooked on it since Book One, Relic.  The mystery storylines are always unique, well crafted, twisty, and devoid of any slow spots.  The character development is always superb, especially Agent Pendergast.  The endings are always surprising and plot threads always get tied up.  Verses For the Dead is no exception.

 

    8½ Stars.  One last thing.  As with any Police Procedural, acronyms are commonplace.  Here OPR and ViCAP are encountered, but their full-length meanings are given.  Not so for TBI, which shows up twice, and which I couldn’t suss out on my own.  It stands for Traumatic Brain Injury.  Now you know.

City of Endless Night - Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

   2018; 374 pages.  Book 17 (out of 21) in the “Agent Pendergast” series.  New Author? : No, and No.  Genres : Suspense; Thriller.   Overall Rating: 8½/10.

 

    The body of a young women has been found in an abandoned garage in New York City, under a pile of leaves.  Well, that’s not so unusual, there are some rough neighborhoods there, and Lieutenant Vincent D’Agosta knows this is one of them.

 

    Unfortunately, the young lady has been identified, and she’s a well-known, rich, young, spoiled socialite.  Great news fodder for the local tabloids.  That’s going to put a lot of pressure on the NYPD to solve this quickly, and in particularly on D’Agosta, who’s in charge of the investigation and has just arrived at the crime scene.

 

    He’s not particularly surprised when his friend, Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast also shows up.  Pendergast has some amazing deductive talents, and D’Agosta welcomes any help he can get.  Maybe it was a mob hit.  Maybe drugs were involved.

 

    Let’s just hope it’s not the work of a serial killer.  Because whoever did this also decapitated the corpse.  And took the severed head away for some unfathomable reason.

 

What’s To Like...

    If you like the idea of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child returning to the tried-and-true formula of FBI agent Aloysius Pendergast teaming up with Lieutenant Vinnie D’Agosta to solve a series of brutal murders, you’ll love City of Endless Night.  Connie Swanson is a no-show, and Constance Greene and Laura Hayward only make cameo appearances.

 

    It’s not a spoiler to reveal that a string of murders-by-decapitation follow the initial one described above.  Pendergast’s normally reliable Holmesian deductions are stymied by a seemingly lack of killing pattern, which opens the door to possible multiple and/or copycat murderers, or even random slayings just to blur the killer's motives.

 

    There are several secondary plotlines that bolster our protagonists’ sleuthing.  Tabloid reporter Bryce Harriman decries the lack of progress in the investigation, and comes up with a whodunit theory of his own, which even Pendergast has to admit has merit.  Harriman also coins the titular phrase “City of Endless Night” to describe a city terrified by a plethora of killings that the police seem to be unable to solve.  Meanwhile, an ex-Jesuit priest stirs the passions of the populace by reinventing the historical “Bonfire of the Vanities”.  I found it fascinating how Preston & Child smoothly blended both of those plot threads into the main storyline.

 

    As with any Pendergast thriller, the pacing is quick, plot twists abound, and our protagonists teeter on becoming the next victims.  At least one recurring character in the series fails to make it to the end of the book.  I liked that the perpetrator(s) are just as cunning and resourceful as our heroes.

    The chapters are short: 66 of them plus an epilogue to cover 374 pages.  The ending is 100 pages of excitement and thrills.  Pendergast finds himself being forced to play and badly outwitted in a deadly game where only an adjustment in his usual thought processes will keep him alive.  All of the plot threads are nicely tied up.  City of Endless Night is both a standalone novel and a part of a great series.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.5*/5, based on 12,771 ratings and 1,287 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.07*/5, based on 18,763 ratings and 1,718 reviews

 

Excerpts...

    “Our private investigators have submitted a preliminary report on Harriman.”

    “Give me the short version.”

    “All reporters are of questionable character, so I’ll leave out the minor sins and peccadillos.  Aside from being a muckraking, ambulance-chasing, rumormongering, backstabbing journalist, the man is a straight arrow.  A preparatory school product who comes from old, old money—money that is petering out with his generation.  The bottom line is that he’s clean.  No prior convictions.  No drugs.”  (pg. 135)

 

    “We must understand the anomalies before we can understand the patterns in what followed.  Why, for example, did somebody take the head twenty-four hours after the girl was murdered?  Nobody seems troubled by this anymore, except for me.”

    “You really think it’s important?”

    “I think it’s vital.”  (pg. 237)

 

“It’s only hubris if I fail.” (Julius Caesar)  (pg. 258)

    The quibbles in City of Endless Night are minor.

 

    There’s a fair amount of cussing: 29 instances in the first 10% of the book.  I noted eight different cusswords utilized, including a couple of f-bombs and a sexual allusion.  Preston and Child will never be accused of penning a cozy murder-mystery novel.

 

    The character-building of Bryce Harriman is stereotypical, as shown in the first excerpt above.  Just once I’d like to see a tabloid reporter that turns out to be a valuable ally of a crime investigator.  Also, if you like the “is it natural or supernatural?” spin that Pendergast novels occasionally have, that’s totally absent here.  Lastly, dogs die.

 

    But I pick at nits.  City of Endless Night is a strong entry in the Agent Pendergast series, a real page-turner and a welcome rebound after what I considered a subpar previous offering, The Obsidian Chamber, and which is reviewed here.  But that was a rare exception to the fine books Preston & Child turn out.  I’ve been hooked on this series for several decades, and am still a half-dozen books away from being caught up.

 

    8½ Stars.  For those who think that the “Bonfire of the Vanities” scene is too outrageous to be believable, I once attended a “book/music/movie burning” here in the greater Phoenix area.  LPs, VHS tapes, and paperbacks were heaped into pile, battered by zealot wielding a sledgehammer, then put to the torch via a liberal helping of lighter fluid.  All in the name of the Jesus.  That was 30 years ago or so.  Today it's 2023, and we’re seeing an upsurge in book-banning.  A present-day “Bonfire of the Vanities” event seems to get more plausible each passing day.

Still Life With Crows - Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

   2003; 435 pages.  Book 4 (out of 20, soon to be 21) in the “Agent Pendergast” series.  New Author? : No and No.  Genre : Suspense; Thriller; Natural or Supernatural?.  Overall Rating : 9*/10.

 

    There’s a serial killer loose in Medicine Creek, Kansas.  Sheriff Dent Hazen thinks it’s some out-of-town psycho since he knows everybody in Medicine Creek, and none of them fit the profile of a psychopath.

 

    He’s a little perturbed that Special Agent Pendergast of the FBI has just shown up in Medicine Creek and is offering to “assist” in the investigation.  This is Hazen’s case, and he’s not one to share the glory with anyone else, especially some outsider.

 

    Although come to think of it, it is a bit odd that the FBI should take an interest in events in Medicine Creek.  And a phone call to the Kansas FBI office indicates they didn’t send any of their agents there.  Now that he thinks about, Sheriff Hazen realizes that Pendergast and the serial killer seem to have arrived upon the scene at about the same time.

 

    Maybe this "Agent Pendergast" and the serial killer are one and the same!

 

What’s To Like...

    Still Life With Crows is an early installment in Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child’s fantastic “Agent Pendergast” series, and introduces a recurring character, Corrie Swanson, a Goth-dressing teenager who can’t wait till she’s legally old enough to leave boring old Medicine Creek behind and move somewhere else.  Pendergast hires her to be his personal assistant on the case, tapping into her firsthand knowledge of all the locals, since he’s convinced the murderer is one of them.

 

    As usual, the crime-mystery aspect is skillfully constructed.  Agent Pendergast is a “Sherlock Holmesian” type of sleuth and it’s always fun to tag along with him and try to solve the case before he does.  Here, the list of suspects and motives is lengthy.  I thought I solved the case a half-dozen times, none of which turned out to be correct.  There’s also a nice touch of “is it natural or supernatural?” to the mystery, which I always enjoy.

 

    I also liked that all of the characters were “gray”.  Sheriff Hazen may be uncooperative with Pendergast and Corrie, but when things come to a head, he shows a dogged determination to uncover the killer, even if it proves him wrong.  Similarly, the killings may be horrific, but those responsible for the carnage do have a few redeeming qualities.

 

    There were a couple of neat music references: NIN, Tool, and an obscure (for me, at least) group called Kryptopsy.  You can follow the step-by-step instructions to learn how to pick a lock, which might come in handy, and walk through a slaughterhouse for turkeys, which might cause you to eat just a salad on Thanksgiving Day.  The mention of “shoo-fly pie” brought back childhood memories, and being a chemist, I loved the mention of “C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁” as part of the investigation.

 

    The ending is nicely drawn out, being several chapters long, and suitably exciting and gory.  The final chapter is an Epilogue, with a couple surprising plot twists just when you thought things were winding down.  All the story threads are tied up, and the reasons for some of the ritualistic slayings will make your jaw drop.  For the most part, I’ve been reading this series in order, but it isn’t necessary.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Phreatic (adj.) : relating to or denoting underground water in the zone of saturation (beneath the water table).

Others: Parfleche (n.).

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.7*/5, based on 2,562 ratings and 861 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.20*/5, based on 35,775 ratings and 1,844 reviews.

 

Things That Sound Dirty But Aren’t…

    “Miss Swanson, would you kindly hold the flashlight while I examine the posterior of this dog?”  (loc. 1313)

 

Excerpts...

    “Only a dipshit would stay in a town like this.”

    There was a pause.

    “Miss Swanson?”

    “What?”

    “I can see that an insufficient, or perhaps even defective, socialization process has led you to believe that four-letter words add power to language.”

    It took Corrie a moment to parse what Pendergast had said.  “’Dipshit’ isn’t a four-letter word.”

    “That depends on whether you hyphenate it or not.”  (loc. 893)

 

    “Have you ever heard of a memory palace?”

    “No.”

    “It is a mental exercise, a kind of memory training, that goes back at least as far as the ancient Greek poet Simonides.  It was refined by Matteo Ricci in the late fifteenth century, when he taught the technique to Chinese scholars.  I perform a similar form of mental concentration, one of my own devising, which combines the memory palace with elements of Chongg Ran, an ancient Bhutanese form of meditation.  I call my technique a memory crossing.”

    “You’ve totally lost me.”  (loc. 3249)

 

Kindle Details…

    Still Life With Crows presently sells for $10.99 at Amazon.  The other books in the series range in price from $7.99 to $11.99.

 

“I’d rather be sucking gibs out of a turkey than ending up gibs in a field myself.”  (loc. 2376)

    I’m admittdly hooked on this series, so the quibbles are minor.

 

    Be aware that Still Life With Crows contains a goodly amount of cussing.  I counted 27 instances in the first 10%.  That’s a higher rate than I remember for other books that I’ve read in this series.  Also, there are multiple killings in the storyline, and we sometimes get to witness the victim’s final moments, with the requisite blood and gore.  This is not a cozy mystery.

 

    The reader gets to witness a truckload of turkeys getting killed in the slaughterhouse.  I once had to tour a beef slaughterhouse in Texas as part of my job.  It’s the only time in my adult life that I seriously considered becoming a vegetarian.  To boot, a couple of dogs die along the way, in brutal fashion.  

 

    Finally, there’s a brief mention of a place in Arizona called “Leisure”.  I live in Arizona; I’ve never heard of any place with that name.  We do have a retirement community in the Phoenix area called “Leisure World”.  I suspect that what was being referenced.

 

    That’s about it for the nitpicking.  Overall, I thought Still Life With Crows was a great Suspense-Thriller tale.  For me, it was a page-turner, and I use that term sparingly.  Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child are still churning out the books in this series at the rate of about one per year, and that’s not counting several spin-off series.  I don’t know how they do it.

 

    9 Stars.  One last childhood memory.  The phrase “hawked up a loogie”, gets used early in the book.  I can attest that as a young lad, the ability to perform that feat, with the loogie having the optimal density and traveling a creditable distance, was a sure way of gaining the respect and awe of my fellow male classmates.

The Obsidian Chamber - Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

   2016; 408 pages.  New Authors? : No & No.  Book 16 (out of 20) in the Pendergast series.  Genres : Suspense; Thriller.  Overall Rating: 5½*/10.

 

    The spacious mansion is eerily silent, and that suits Constance Greene just fine.  The butler Proctor, and the housekeeper Mrs. Trask, have both taken temporary leave from their duties.  Mrs. Trask is attending to a sick relative, Proctor left with no explanation, although his departure seems to have been a hasty and unplanned one.

 

    Of course, the owner of the mansion, who also serves as Constance’s guardian, the FBI special agent Aloysius Pendergast, is also missing and presumed dead.  He was swept out to sea while working on a case with Constance a couple weeks ago and undoubtedly drowned.  The FBI conducted an intensive search, but it came up empty, finding neither a dead nor alive Pendergast.

 

    Constance now wanders the mansion halls alone until Proctor and Mrs. Trask return.  She’s in no danger, the estate’s security system is incredibly thorough, and besides no visitors ever come calling.

 

    So it’s quite the shock when some secret admirer starts to woo her, leaving strange gifts for her like a book of love poetry, a feather, a bottle of champagne, and romantic notes.  How in the world did he get past all the security?  Outside of the servants, only Aloysius could do that, and he’s dead.  Even if somehow he survived, romancing just isn't something he would ever do.

 

    So if he’s not the mystery suitor, who else could it be?

 

What’s To Like...

    There are multiple storylines in The Obsidian Chamber to keep you turning the pages.  We start out with Proctor’s abrupt departure, with frequent cutaways to the wooing of Constance.  The equally important plot thread, Pendergast’s whereabouts, is then initiated.  It's not a spoiler to reveal that, since Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child have dubbed this the “Pendergast series” and there’s four more books after this one, which wouldn't work if Aloysius is a corpse.  After that, the last main plotline is introduced: the FBI’s investigation into the Pendergast's demise.

 

    As always, the action and plot twists begin immediately, here with a protracted, 68-page chase that starts at Pendergast’s mansion in Harlem and spans several continents.  I liked that its first stop was the fine city of Teterboro, New Jersey.  My company used to have an important customer there, and I once had to drive the New York and New Jersey thoroughfares to call on them, capped by a timely slam into the New York City 5 o’clock rush hour traffic.  It was quite the hair-raising experience.

 

    Preston & Child never skimp on a variety of exotic settings for these stories.  Here we mostly travel up and down the North American east coast, with brief stops in Europe, and southern Africa.  We are also treated to some Latin classical literature (the poems of Catullus), Afrikaans dialogue (quick, name any other book you’ve read that used that language), and conversational French, including several cusswords plus the esoteric insult “del glouton souduiant!”, for which I was unable to find a precise translation, but it will definitely land you in a fight.

 

    I liked the brief music reference to three extremely obscure, but real, classical composers: Ignaz Brull, whom I've actually listened to, Adolf von Henselt, and Friedrich Kiel.  The book’s title is first referenced at about 60%-Kindle, and plays an important role in the tale.  I finally learned what the initials in the protagonist’s name, A.X.L. Pendergast, stand for, although I’m sure that information was given in earlier books as well.

 

    The ending is so-so at best.  It accomplishes its basic task – Pendergast successfully rescues Constance, which of course was the obvious culmination.  I didn’t find it particularly exciting or twisty.  All the major characters live to see another day, and I was disappointed in how the fate of the main baddie was resolved.  Didn’t any of the good guys ever watch those Austin Powers movies?  Don’t they know what to do when you capture your main adversary?

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.5*/5, based on 2,561 ratings.

    Goodreads: 3.97*/5, based on 14,884 ratings and 1,378 reviews

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Palapa (n.): an open-sided dwelling with a thatched roof made of palm leaves.

Others: Cilice (n.); Incunabula (n.).

 

Excerpts...

    “Mr. Longstreet, these men are clearly not stupid.”

    At this, Longstreet unfolded himself from his chair in a sort of easygoing way, then strolled to the front of the room.  “I’m sorry to be blunt, Agent Spann, but I believe this plan of yours will pretty much guarantee Pendergast’s death.”

    Spann stared at Longstreet.  “I respectfully disagree.  This is classic, exhaustively researched and tested SOP.”

    “Which is exactly why it will fail.”  (loc. 1497)

 

    The feeling of surrealness overwhelmed her again, seeing him sitting in a leather wing chair, smiling in domestic content as he removed a bottle of champagne from a silver ice bucket and poured two glasses, offering one to her.

    “Nineteen ninety-five Clos d’Ambonnay, by Krug,” said Diogenes, raising his glass and touching the rim to hers.

    “Good champagne is wasted on me.”

    “Only until you develop your taste.”  (loc. 3000)

 

DeJesus was a reliable man, but about as intelligent as a side of beef.  (loc. 1211)

    The writing is as always superb, but the storytelling is another matter.

 

    For starters, that opening chase scene is entertainingly quick-paced, but the timing involved in each stage of it is incredibly far-fetched.  I’d forgive that if it was important to the storyline, but it isn't.  Proctor is removed to a half-a-world-away locale, apparently for no other reason than to get him out of the house.

 

    The same letdown arises with the leadership of the FBI probe.  The guy officially in charge, Agent Spann, gets upstaged by a higher-up, Agent Longstreet.  I expected to see some departmental infighting throw spanners into the works, but no, Spann just fades into oblivion and Longstreet performs investigative miracles.

 

    I was shocked when Proctor, alone and in the wilds of a foreign country, brutally stabs one of the locals there, not once but twice, and based on no more than a suspicion that he’s legitimately withholding confidential customer information.  Really?  I expect the bad guys to engage in aggravated assaults, and they do, but not one of the heroes.

 

    Also, it must be nice to have both the FBI computer-geek team and Aloysius’s personal hacker buddy available and capable of tracking down shady business dealings and the whereabouts of anyone, at any place or time, no matter how encrypted that data might be.

 

    Lastly, there’s the matter of the main storyline itself, which in this series usually involves saving the world, solving a murder, stopping a monster, or capturing a psychopath.  Here, Pendergast is stalking his ward Constance, who *willingly* took off with someone else.  You couldn’t even make a kidnapping charge stick against the baddie, and any information about his misdeeds would never be allowed into a trial.

 

    Still, let’s keep things in perspective.  The Obsidian Chamber is the thirteenth book I’ve read in this series, and the first one that failed to thrill me.  It kind of felt like Preston & Child “mailed this one in”, but hey, they’re still batting 12-for-13, and that’s impressive.  The high Goodreads and Amazon ratings notwithstanding, it appears a lot of other reviewers were likewise disappointed in this book.  The big question is whether this was just an anomaly, or marks the beginning in the decline of the quality of this series.  We shall see.  The next book, City of Endless Night, is on my TBR shelf.

 

    5½ Stars.  One last vocabulary tidbit.  Around 40%-Kindle a nautical term comes up referring to a part of a ship’s deck: gunwale.  It’s not the first time I’ve come across it in a novel, but it’s not a word I’d ever used in conversation.  Mentally, I’ve always pronounced it “gun-whale”, but it turns out it rhymes with “tunnel”.  Funnily enough, when it crops up again a short time later, it is respelled, phonetically and incorrectly, as “gunnel”.  I'm now left wondering how many other words that I'm mispronouncing because I only run into them when reading.

Crimson Shore - Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

   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.

Blue Labyrinth - Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

   2014; 520 pages.  New Author? : No, and no.  Book 14 (out of 17) in the Agent Pendergast series.  Genre : Thriller; Murder-Mystery.  Overall Rating : 8½*/10.

    Someone has delivered a message to FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast.  It's kinda like a Halloween prank; They rang his doorbell, then ran away before he answered the door.

    But instead a burning sack of poop, they left the body of Alban, Pendergast’s most lethal enemy, trussed up, and oh, so dead.

    Yet this is a bittersweet occurrence, because Alban also happens to be one of Aloysius’s sons.  And although they are estranged – Alban has promised to kill his dad  - the fact remains: this is, or was, his flesh and blood.  There’s no doubt that the message has been delivered, and in a most unmistakably stunning manner.  But there’s just one problem.

    Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast has no idea what the message is.

What’s To Like...

    Blue Labyrinth is the 14^th book in Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child’s immensely popular “Agent Pendergast” series, and definitely a step up from the previous book in the series, White Fire, reviewed here.  Aloysius Pendergast is back in the spotlight, and two of my favorite supporting characters – Constance Greene and Margo Green - replace Corrie Swanson as the female leads. Detective Vincent D’Agosta returns as a major player too, and that’s a plus.  Also back is the New York Museum of Natural History, which was the setting for Book 1 in this series, Relic, reviewed here, and was how I first got hooked on this series.

     The book is mostly set in New York City, with a couple of side trips to the California desert, upstate New York, Brazil, and Switzerland.  There are three murders to investigate: a.) Pendergast’s son, b.) a technician at the Natural History Museum, and c.) the wife of a doctor from way back in the 1890’s.  They seem unrelated, but if you're a veteran reader of this series, you know that three threads are intertwined, and will inevitably merge down the line.

    As usual, the action starts immediately (Alban’s body appears on page 5), and the pacing is lightning-fast.  At long last, a lot more about the dark, dirty secrets of the Pendergast family tree are revealed, and about the enigmatic Constance Greene as well.  We are introduced to one of Aloysius’s forefathers, Hezekiah Pendergast, and he's  quite the character.

    There are a lot of references to earlier books in the series, including my favorite baddie, Diogenes, although if this is your first Agent Pendergast book, you won’t be lost.  I enjoyed learning some more phrases in French and Portuguese, the latter of which included, if I'm not mistaken, a couple handy cuss phrases.  I loved the quote from Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, as well as the nod to Caravaggio, who’s probably my favorite painter this side of Salvador Dali.  I had my doubts about the uber-powerful “Triflic Acid”, which figures into the storyline, but Wikipedia confirmed its existence.  I’m embarrassed to say that as a chemist, I’d never heard of it.

    As always, there's a lot of violence and a fair amount of cussing in the book.  Blue Labyrinth is a standalone novel, despite being part of a series.  The chapters are Pattersonian in length, 78 of them covering 520 pages.  All the main threads are resolved, and I look forward to learning even more about the many skeletons in Aloysius’s closet.

Kewlest New Word ...

Diener (n.) : a morgue worker responsible for handling, moving, and cleaning a corpse.

Others : Wicking (a verb).

Excerpts...

    “I’ve decided I want that ticket, Goodman Lickspittle.  I am going to contest that ticket, in court.  And if I’m not mistaken, that means you will have to appear in court, as well.  And at such a time I will take the greatest pleasure in pointing out to the judge, the lawyers, and everyone else assembled what a disgraceful shadow of a man you are.  A  shadow?  Perhaps I exaggerate.  A shadow, at least, can prove to be tall – tall indeed.  But you, you’re a homunculus, a dried neat’s tongue, a carbuncle on the posterior of humanity.”  (pg. 289)

    “I’ve … been having a nightmare.  It seems never to end.”

    His voice was dry and light, like a faint breeze over dead leaves, and she had to lean in closer to catch the words.

    “You were quoting the libretto of Don Giovanni,” she said.

    “Yes.  I … fancied myself at the Commendatore.”

    “Dreaming of Mozart doesn’t sound like a nightmare to me.”

    I …”  The mouth worked silently for a moment before continuing.  “I dislike opera.”  (pg. 301)

“You just put your boot so far up his ass, he’ll have to eat his dinner with a shoehorn.”  (pg. 78)

    The quibbles are minor.  One thing that hasn’t returned for a long time is the “is it natural or supernatural?” mysteries that made the early books in the series so captivating.  Of course, there’s still the matter of Constance Greene seemingly recalling her life in the 1800’s while not looking a day over 25 years old, and I can’t see that not having a this-worldly cause.

    The ending, while certainly action-packed and filled with tension, felt over-the-top to me.  I like unexpected turns as much as the next reader, but really now, a pair of civilians taking out a whole squad of highly-trained mercenary goons?  Good help is apparently hard to find these days, especially “bad good help”.

   It was too easy to figure out who would live and who would die, even among the minor characters.  If you're rotten to the core, don’t like Aloysius or Vinnie or Margo, or are just plain naturally obnoxious, you’re unlikely to be breathing by the end of the book. 

     Finally, and sinking even deeper into the depths of nitpicking, I have no idea what the book’s title refers to.  I don’t recall any labyrinth, blue or otherwise.

    8½ Stars.  Pay no attention to my quibbles.  Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child are a top-notch writing team, and my expectations for their Agent Pendergast books are sky high.  I found Blue Labyrinth to be a page-turner, and the next book in the series, Crimson Shore, is already loaded and waiting on my Kindle.

White Fire - Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

   2013; 470 pages.  New Author? : No, and no.  Book 13 (out of 17) in the Agent Pendergast Series.  Genre : Thriller; Murder-Mystery.  Overall Rating : 8*/10.

    It was the opportunity of a lifetime.  Okay, the opportunity of a deathtime, if you want to get technical about it.  Corrie Swanson’s looking for a topic for her Forensic Criminology thesis at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, so this is a godsend.

    It seems that, way back in the 1870’s, a man-eating bear went crazy around the Colorado town of Roaring Fork, killing 11 miners, and even eating some of them, before the rampage finally stopped.  Of course, that was more than a century ago, the victims have been buried for a long time, and no one would dream of allowing them to be dug up so some forensics analysis could be run on them for a thesis.

    Ah, but Roaring Fork was just a mining town back then; it’s now a posh ski resort, where people look down their noses at you if you’re “only” a millionaire.  All the caskets in the old graveyard have been unearthed to make way for a new housing development.  Money trumps dignity every time.

    The coffins presently repose in a warehouse, awaiting reburial in a new, still-to-be-determined location.  Surely no one would object to Corrie looking at the aftereffects of a man-mauling, man-eating bear.

    Yet for reasons unknown, some of the residents of Roaring Fork do object.  Even to the point of threatening Corrie’s life.

    Now why would someone do that?

What’s To Like...

    There are three main threads in White Fire, namely: a.) Who killed those miners way back when, b.) Who’s trying to kill Corrie nowadays, and c.) Who’s setting fire to various mansions in Roaring Fork and why?  That makes for a busy storyline, but as usual, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child are up to the task.

    The settings are limited, with most of the story taking place in and around Roaring Fork.  The book opens briefly in New York City, and later on Pendergast makes a brief trip to London.  That's it.  Despite this, there are a bunch of people to meet and suspect of assorted skullduggery.

    Reading a tale with Aloysius Pendergast in it is a plus, and here we also have a backstory featuring Arthur Conan Doyle and Oscar Wilde.  The highlight of the book is a 40-page “missing Sherlock Holmes story” penned by Preston & Child, and it’s the only one I’ve read thus far that does a great job imitating an Arthur Conan Doyle tale.

    I enjoyed the nod to Watership Down, also to The Hound of the Baskervilles.  I also liked the info-dump about mining chemistry.  Here it was in regard to extracting silver from ore.  The company I work for sells chemicals into the mining industry, albeit mostly to copper and gold mines, but the chemistry is quite similar, and it was fun to read about a process I'm familiar with.

    Proctor, Constance Greene, and Lt. Vincent D’Agosta are all absent from White Fire, and to be honest, I’ve never found Corrie  to be an exciting character.  The storyline therefore dragged a bit for me for about 80 pages while Corrie once again gets herself into trouble.  But Pendergast shows up, saves the day, and everything zips along just fine thereafter.

    The ending is both exciting and twisty, with a great, albeit contrived, chase scene thrown in.  All threads are tied up, although the resolution of the arson crime spree seemed a bit rushed.  There’s lots of cussing, and some gruesome ways to die, but that’s true of any book in this series.  This is a standalone story, as well as part of the series.

Kewlest New Word ...

Titubating (v.) : reeling or stumbling, as if tipsy; staggering

Others : redounded (v.) bolus (n.) descant (n.).

Excerpts...

    “It took them rather longer than I’d hoped to complete the paperwork,” said Pendergast, perusing the list.  “Fortunately, the Sebastian’s dining room is open late.  I think the Chateau Pichon-Longueville 2000 will do nicely – don’t you?”

    “I don’t know jack about wine, sorry.”

    “You should learn.  It is one of the true and ancient pleasures that make human existence tolerable.”  (pg. 98)

    “I beg your pardon, Mr. Wilde.  Do you mean to say that these men were … cannibals?”

    “Indeed I do.  American cannibals.”

    Doyle shook his head.  “Monstrous.  Monstrous.”

    “Quite so,” Wilde said.  “They have none of the good manners of your English cannibals.”  (pg. 374)

“Effing?  I see your penchant for charming euphemisms has not abated.”  (pg. 99)

    There are some quibbles, which was surprising since I’m an avid fan of this series.

     First of all, most of the characters seemed black-or-white to me; I prefer “gray” ones.  The lone exception to this was Capt. Stacy Bowdree, who hopefully will be developed into a recurring character.

    Second, while Corrie’s impulsiveness getting her once again into needless trouble can be tolerated (it’s part of her character), here some of her actions border on being just plain stupid.  For instance, at one point, she knows she’s being followed, yet instead of hightailing it to safety, she deliberately heads for a mine, knowing full well that entering it is a dead-end.

    Third, one of the earlier traits of an Agent Pendergast tale – “Is the evil natural or supernatural?” – isn’t utilized here.   Nor is there anything even remotely “epic” about the storyline.  Corrie gets into a fix, Pendergast uses his position (working for the FBI has its perks) and Holmesian sleuthing skills to bail her out, and a century-old cold case is put to rest.  The world will little note what was accomplished here.

    8 Stars.  I don’t think that White Fire will ever be anyone’s favorite Agent Pendergast book, but that doesn’t mean it’s a dud.  This was still a page-turner for me, and the Sherlock Holmes story alone makes it a worthwhile read.  And a so-so Preston & Child book is still a better read than most of the other thrillers out there on the market.