403 pgs (Pendergast series #16)
At the end of Crimson Shore, FBI Special agent Pendergast is
presumed dead, drowned off the coast of Massachusetts. I feel okay mentioning
that without a spoiler warning, because I don’t think there’s a single reader
of Preston and Child’s series who believed him to actually be dead when it
happened. And as soon as this book was announced, his survival was a foregone
conclusion. So, bringing him back was no big deal. What was a more surprising,
and not a pleasant surprise, was the return of Pendergast’s brother, Diogenes.
Diogenes was killed at the end of The Book of the Dead (10 years ago) by falling into a volcano. I’m
certain when they killed him off at the end of that book, that Preston and
Child had no intentions of ever bringing him back. In fact, I was at a book
signing with Douglas Preston for a subsequent book, in which he made the
statement that Diogenes was “truly dead.” I feel bad about accusing them of
this, after reading the series for so long, but they “jumped the shark” by
having him return, which is never a good sign.
Pendergast returns “from the dead” to find that Constance
has been kidnapped and their bodyguard Proctor is nowhere to be found. As Pendergast
begins to unravel the clues and follow the trail, he begins to suspect, and
then discovers, that his brother is still alive.
The book isn’t bad. In fact, the story itself is quite good.
But my irritation with Diogenes’s return killed any chance I had of enjoying
the story. I’m hoping the shark jumping doesn’t mean Preston and Child are
running out of ideas to keep the series alive. I’ve followed the series too
long to want to give up on it.
★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
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