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.
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