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.

Blasphemy - Douglas Preston

   2007; 505 pages.  Book 2 (out of 4) in the “Wyman Ford” Series.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Thriller; Action-Intrigue.  Overall Rating : 8*/10.

 

    It cost forty billion dollars, but the United States government has built a world-class particle accelerator.  They’ve named it “Isabella”.  It’s out on a Navajo reservation in Arizona and will out-perform the one called CERN, presently in operation in Switzerland.

 

    Curiously, a lot of people are upset about this.  The President is ticked off because it’s election year and a lot of voters think it’s a waste of money because thus far, Isabella isn’t even up and running.

 

    The Navajos on the reservation are mad because they were promised lots of jobs and lots of scientists spending lots of money there to but food, gasoline, and other necessities.  None of that has happened.

 

    The scientists at Isabella are frazzled because they’re working long hours trying to debug the process, and don’t have a clue as to what the glitches are.

 

    A televangelist claims the whole project is demonic, since particle physics and the Big Bang Theory runs contrary to God’s Word in the Holy Bible.

 

    And a fundamentalist preacher has been personally told by God to gather up an army of believers and destroy Isabella because doing so will usher in the End of Days.

 

    Well, it’s true that Isabella is way behind on getting up and running.  Something’s going wrong out there, the scientists are keeping it secret, and the President wants to know what it is.  Hey, let’s send a federal agent out there, undercover, to nose around and find out what the problem is!

 

What’s To Like...

    Douglas Preston is half of the “Preston & Child” writing team that authors the 22-book Agent Pendergast series.  Blasphemy is from one of Preston’s solo series, featuring Wyman Ford, a widowed, ex-monk anthropologist who’s still trying to come to grips with the death of his wife.

 

    The storyline is first and foremost a Thriller, but it also takes an in-depth look at how God might talk to people of various religious/philosophical beliefs.  The evangelicals, fundamentalists, and Native American theologies are cited above; and the ex-monk Wyman can put forth the Roman Catholic viewpoint.  Most of the rest of the scientists at Isabella are agnostics, the notable exception being their charismatic team leader, Gregory Hazelius, who’s an atheist.

 

    The bulk of the story takes place on the reservation, and I liked the way the author portrays the Navajo nation.  A couple of Navajo phrases are also worked into the text, including chindii, Bilagaana, Diné, and my personal favorite, Ya’at’ eeh’ which I became familiar with many years ago in college.

 

    I chuckled at the thought that God has chosen my home state, Arizona, as the starting point for both Armageddon and the Apocalypse.  Balanced against those doomsday events is the scientific possibility that Isabella will accidentally create black holes, which will immediately start disintegrating Earth, starting with, yep you guessed it, Arizona.

 

    Everything builds to a big climax featuring clashing factions, the resolution of which is suitably exciting, twisty, and open-ended.  At the end of the day, any or all of the disparate groups could claim to be right and everybody else is wrong.  Yet something has changed.  Read the book to find out what.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.2*/5, based on 2,354 ratings and 402 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.73*/5, based on 11,228 ratings and 866 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “What kind of research are you doing over there?  I been hearing weird stories.”

    “Investigating the Big Bang.”

    “What’s that?”

    “That’s the theory that the universe came into existence thirteen billion years ago in an explosion and has been expanding outward ever since.”

    “In other words, you people are shoving your noses into the Creator’s business.”

    “The Creator didn’t give us brains for nothing.”  (pg. 92)

 

    “Everyone will be underground.  When you and your riders arrive, I’ll be the only one there to meet you.”

    “We aren’t doing a meet and greet.”

    “I didn’t want you to think we were being disrespectful.”

    Begay patted his horse and stroked his flank.  “Look, Mr. Ford, we got our own plans.  We’re going to set up a sweat lodge, do some ceremonies, talk to the ground.  We’ll be peaceful.  When the police come to arrest us, we’ll go quietly.”

    “The police aren’t going to come,” said Ford.

    Begay looked disappointed.  “No police?”

    “Should we call them?” Ford asked quietly.  (pg. 253)

 

“He can’t help it.  His doctorate was in horse’s-assery.”  (pg. 74)

    The profanity level is moderate.  There are 16 cusswords in the first 10% of the book, but most of them are eschatological ones.  Later on, a racial slur is used, and there was one adult situation.

 

    In the back of my book, there's a “Note on the Paperback Edition” wherein Douglas Preston recounts the righteous indignation that came out after this book was first released in hardback format.  It is short and well worth taking the time to read.

 

    I have high expectations for any novel by Preston & Child, both as a team or writing solo, and Blasphemy did not disappoint.  Yes, I was trying to deduce which band of religious zealots would be revealed to be the “chosen ones”, but after reading the blowback alluded to in the previous paragraph, I think Douglas Preston opted for the best way to wrap things up.

 

    8 Stars.  One last thing.  At one point, one of the characters decides to prove he’s right by citing a single cryptic name: “Joe Blitz”.  The group of scientists reading this is stymied, and so was I.  Have fun trying to figure it out.

Beyond The Ice Limit - Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

   2016; 371 pages.  Book 4 (out of 5) in the “Gideon Crew” series.  New Authors? : No.  Genres : Thriller; Suspense; Save The World.  Overall Rating : 7½*/10.

 

    Eli Glinn has a score to settle.  With a meteorite.

 

    Five years ago the two of them crossed paths and the meteorite won.  It sank Eli’s boat, and more than a hundred people perished.  Eli was one of the survivors.

 

    You probably visualize a big blazing rock falling from the sky and slamming into the boat, but that’s not the way it happened.  Eli had hauled it up from the bottom of the ocean and stowed it in his ship.  When it slipped from its cradle, it caused an explosion and sank again to the bottom of the sea.

 

    Eli is going back to destroy it.  He’s not leaving anything to chance—he’s going to blow it up with a nuclear bomb he’s acquired.  He just needs to find someone who knows how to set up, and set off, an atomic bomb when it’s two miles deep in salt water.

 

    Hello, Gideon Crew.

 

What’s To Like...

    Beyond The Ice Limit is the penultimate book in Preston & Child’s Gideon Crew series, as well as the sequel to one of their other standalone thrillers, The Ice Limit.  As they mention in a short section titled “A Note to Our Readers”, they wrote this as a standalone story, which is important, since I hadn’t read The Ice Limit..

 

    The main storyline is whether Glinn, aided by Gideon, will carry out his mission to destroy the meteorite.  Sounds straightforward and easy, right?  Nope.  Things rapidly get more complicated.  In the five years that have passed since Encounter #1, the alien rock seems to have taken root and grown into a huge, treelike monstrosity.  Is it alive?  Is it sentient?  Is it a plant, an animal, or a machine?  Is it capable of communicating?  And perhaps most importantly, can it defend itself?

 

    The “human” plot threads are equally complex.  When crew members start dying, there is understandably more than a little discontent among their ranks., especially when Glinn seems determined to continue on regardless of how many of the rank-and-file members perish.  And since the whole excursion is a hush-hush affair, national navies cannot be called upon for support.

 

    I liked the “whale-speak” angle; it is a fascinating take on communicating with them.  There was also an “Alien” moment, if you remember that flick, and it scared me just as much this time around as it did when I watched the movie.  The titular “Ice Limit” is explained early on.  And Gideon will remember the phrase “let me touch your face” for the rest of his life.

 

    The ending is over-the-top, which is okay in a Thriller-genre tale.  It wasn’t particularly twisty, but the world is saved, thanks to Gideon’s valor, and he survives despite his computer simulation predicting his demise.  I don’t think a sequel will be penned, but there’s already an additional book in Gideon’s own series after this.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

    Stochastic (adj.) : randomly determined.

    Others: Rugose (adj.).

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.5*/5 based on 6,244 ratings and 1,024 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.37*/5 based on 1,743 ratings and 183 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “Four months ago, back when Garza first walked up to my fishing spot on Chihuahueños Creek and offered me a hundred thousand dollars for a week’s work, stealing the plans for some new kind of weapon off a defecting Chinese scientist—it was really this moment, this job, that you had in mind.”

    Glinn nodded.

    “And you want to use the nuke to kill a gigantic alien plant that is supposedly growing on the bottom of the ocean.”

    “In a nutshell.”

    “Forget it.”

    “Gideon,” said Glinn, “we’ve been through this tiresome dance several times before: your heated refusals, your storming out, and then your eventual return once you’ve thought it through.  Can we please skip all that?”  (pg. 19)

 

    “If there was no glitch, then obviously there was some sort of delay in the transmission, some kind of time lag.”

    “No delay.”

    “Come on.  What are you saying?”

    “What your hydrophone picked up was a direct acoustic sound coming through the water, at that moment.”

    “Impossible.”

    A shrug from Prothero, some scratching of his arm.

    “So you’re saying a dead person spoke,” Gideon pressed on.

    “All I’m saying is, there was no glitch.”

    “Jesus Christ, of course there was a glitch!”

    “Ignorance combined with vehemence doesn’t make it so.”  (pg. 132)

 

“Dr. McFarlane . . . is going to be our very own Cassandra.”  (pg. 213)

    I counted 13 cusswords in the first 20% of the book, which is reasonable for a Thriller novel, plus one roll-in-the-hay.  Amphetamines have a minor impact on the story, but drug-prudes will be happy to know they’re presented in a negative light.  That’s about it for R-rated stuff.

 

    I only saw two typos: image/imagine and Hcl/HCl.  That second one will only bug readers who are also chemists by trade, which includes me.

 

    My biggest issue was the pacing, which is a rare quibble for a Preston-&-Child novel.  The first quarter of the book, roughly 100 pages, just plods along as Gideon gets extensive training in properly manipulating a DSV (Deep Submergence Vehicle).  It got tiresome, but once that gets out of the way, the pace picks up nicely, and action abounds.

 

    Beyond The Ice Limit had lots of thrills to keep your interest, lots of scientific issues to contemplate, and even a bit of romance for the ladies.  I wouldn’t call it one of Preston & Child’s top novels, but it did meet my expectations for a Gideon Crew tale.

 

    7½ Stars.  Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child collaborate on at least three Thriller series: Agent Pendergast, Nora Kelly, and Gideon Crew.  Of those, the latter one is the only one that doesn’t blow me away.  Its most recent book, The Pharaoh Key, was published in 2018, six years ago.  Maybe Gideon Crew doesn’t blow Preston and Child away either.

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.