Old Bones

by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
369 pgs  (Nora Kelly series #1)

In Old Bones, Preston and Child bring back an old familiar character from the early Pendergast books, Nora Kelly, to launch a new series. Nora, now working as a curator at the Santa Fe Institute of Archaeology, is approached by a man named Clive Benton, who possesses the journal of Tamzene Donner, a member of the infamous Donner Party. Benton wants to recruit Nora to lead an expedition to find a lost camp used by the ill-fated group of pioneers, a camp which he believes is not only historically significant, but he has good reason to believe there is a large cache of gold coins buried somewhere near it.

Benton, Nora, and a small group sets out to find the camp, which they're quickly able to do, but shortly after they begin excavating the old bones it contains, they discover much more than they were anticipating.

Around the same time Nora is approached by Benton, FBI agent Corrie Swanson, a supporting character from the more recent Pendergast books, is assigned to investigate a series of grave robberies and killings, all involving a family with ties to a member of the Donner Party who survived.

These two story arcs eventually meet and combine to form a story that is both entertaining and interesting. I haven't been the biggest fan of several of the more recent books by Preston and Child, and I'm hoping this new series will infuse some new life into their books, including the ones featuring Aloysius Pendergast.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Verses for the Dead

by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
337 pgs  (Pendergast series #18)

Verses for the Dead is the 18th book in the Pendergast series, and while it's not a bad book, it, along with some of the more recent books in the series, makes me question how well the series is aging. It seems to have lost a step or two along the way, and I'm starting to wonder whether Preston and Child are struggling to come up with unique and seemingly bizarre cases for Pendergast to investigate. The fact that their next collaboration, Old Bones, which will be published in August, is a departure from the series and begins a new one featuring Nora Kelly, makes me that much more certain that they have.

The story begins with the discovery of a human heart left on a gravestone in a Miami Beach cemetery. The heart is accompanied by a literary note signed by "Mister Brokenhearts" and is left on the grave of a woman who committed suicide a decade ago by hanging herself. The case is assigned to Pendergast and his new partner, who has been assigned to him as a result of the Bureaus' efforts to keep Pendergast, and his unorthodox methods, in check. It's soon discovered that Mister Brokenhearts killed the heart's owner by slitting her throat and splitting her breastbone, and his work is only beginning. Soon other women are killed in similar fashion, their hearts also being left on the grave markers of other cases of women who committed suicide by hanging.

As Pendergast and his partner Coldmoon race to discover the true identity of Mister Brokenhearts and stop him, they realize the clue to discovering who he is and why he's doing what he's doing, lies in the suicides that took place so many years ago.

Verses for the Dead is an interesting enough story. But ultimately it didn't live up to my expectations. Like the last few books in the series have been, it was good enough to keep me reading, and I'm sure I'll pick up the next book in the series as soon as it comes out. But it's a disappointment when compared to the great books from earlier in the series.

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

City of Endless Night

By Lincoln Child & Douglas Preston
358 pgs  (Pendergast series #17)

I looked back at my reviews of the last several Preston & Child books and noticed I've been pretty lukewarm about them for quite a while. In fact, I haven't given a book more than three stars since 2013. City of Endless Night finally snapped that streak of mediocrity.

This time around FBI Special Agent Pendergast and NYPD Lieutenant D'Agosta are up against "The Decapitator," a man preying on members of the 1% and taking their heads as trophies. The first victim is Grace Ozmian,the socialite daughter of one of the wealthiest men in New York, whose headless body is discovered in an abandoned warehouse in Queens. But Grace is only the first. Soon headless bodies of other wealthy people begin showing up. The killer possesses a remarkable ability to get through any layer of security his victims have, and to separate them from their head without raising any alarms.

In the press he's given the moniker "The Decapitator" and the accounts of his crimes quickly put the wealthy on high alert. As Pendergast and D'Agosta try to discover who The Decapitator is and stop him, it becomes apparent that Pendergast is also on his list of targets.

As I mentioned before, it's been a long time since Preston and Child have written a book that really delivers. They don't quite hit it out of the park with this one--like they used to so regularly early in the series--but they managed to get in scoring position. Hopefully their best books haven't already been written.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

The Obsidian Chamber

by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
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.

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

The Forgotten Room

by Lincoln Child

290 pgs  (Jeremy Logan series #4)

Will Strachey was a respected researcher at Lux, the nation’s oldest and most renowned think tank located along the coast of Rhode Island. He was until he ended his life, unexpectedly and in a particularly gruesome fashion. Immediately after attacking his assistant, screaming incoherently about voices that “taste like poison,” Strachey decapitates himself using one of the facility’s heavy glass windows.  

Jeremy Logan, an enigmalogist who used to work at the Lux himself, and the protagonist of three of Child’s previous stand-alone novels, is summoned by Lux’s director, Dr. Olafson, to investigate Strachey’s inexplicable behavior and death.

As Logan begins to look into Strachey’s death, he learns that there are other researchers at Lux who have been exhibiting uncharacteristic behavior as well. He learns that Strachey had been overseeing the renovation of the West Wing of the facility, which hadn’t been used for the last several years, and it’s there that he discovers a hidden room. It’s been walled up recently, is dust free, and contains an assortment of odd laboratory equipment, including an old electromagnetic field generator used historically to detect paranormal events.

Typically, I enjoy the books Child coauthors with Douglas Preston more than I do his stand-alone books, but he has managed to keep his series featuring Jeremy Logan entertaining and worthwhile. I enjoy the way he incorporates elements of the supernatural while remaining believable enough to keep me from rolling my eyes. The Forgotten Room is a quick and fun read that will make you feel a little unsettled at times, unsure of how much you can trust your own senses. 

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Beyond the Ice Limit

by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
375 pgs  (The Ice Limit series #2)

It's been 16 years since Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child published The Ice Limit, which told the story of how the world's largest meteorite ended up on the ocean floor near Antarctica. Approximately 180 people died when it and The Rolvaag, the ship which was transporting it went down. According to the authors, when they wrote it, they didn't intend to write a sequel to the story, but given the consistent level of requests from their readers for one, they reconsidered and here it is. Interestingly, Beyond the Ice Limit is not only a sequel to The Ice Limit, it's also an installment in their Gideon Crew series, as they made him a major character in the story.

Beyond the Ice Limit picks up five years after The Rolvaag went down. Gideon now works for Eli Glinn, the man who chartered the ship, and the only man to survive its sinking. Eli has learned that something is growing from the ocean floor where the meteorite settled, and that what they thought was a meteorite was in fact a giant alien seed pod.

When Gideon, Glinn, and the crew they've assembled arrive at the site, they begin observing the plant-like entity using small submarines and learn that it's growing at an incredible rate. They also learn that it's some sort of parasite and has begun to form multiple seed pods. Not surprisingly, they also learn that if it's not destroyed (and it doesn't want to be), it will destroy the entire planet.

Okay, I'll admit, things got a little far-fetched here. Preston and Child went a direction with this sequel that I never would have imagined when I read the first book so many years ago. Nevertheless, I found myself entertained throughout the story. It was a fun book and I got the impression while reading it that it was intended as a gift to their readers.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Crimson Shore

by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
337 pgs  (Pendergast series #15)

Agent Pendergast and his enigmatic "ward" Constance Green are summoned to a small coastal Massachusetts town by sculptor Percival Lake to investigate the theft of his valuable wine collection. While investigating, Pendergast  and Constance discover the skeleton of a man who had been walled up in Percival's wine cellar alive more than 150 years ago. They learn that the man had been a crew member aboard a ship carrying the Pride of Africa, a collection of flawless rubies. Back in the 1880s the townspeople had extinguished the lighthouse, confusing the ships crew, and causing it to wreck along the rocky shore. They then stole the rubies and committed atrocities that have shadowed the town ever since.

Pendergast's investigation into both crimes takes a disturbing turn when the bodies of two fresh murder victims turn up, with strange symbols carved into the skin of each body.

From there the story takes several bizarre and, unfortunately, ridiculous twists and turns. I think Preston and Child have lost sense of how much reason their readers want to suspend. I like a good thriller with a supernatural element, and Preston and Child have definitely written some good ones, but this one felt like they lost a bet to someone. There were elements to the story that had me shaking my head and rolling my eyes, and I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt with that surprise ending. Hopefully they thought that through completely and they haven't "jumped the shark." Otherwise, I'm afraid they've lost their way.

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

Blue Labyrinth

by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
403 pgs  (Pendergast series #14)

Blue Labyrinth is Preston and Child's 14th book featuring FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast. I'll admit that some of their more recent books hadn't been living up to the expectations I had for the series, but they righted the ship nicely with the most recent one: White Fire, and Blue Labyrinth keeps the series on track.

The book begins with the death of Pendergast's son. Alban, who was a psychopathic serial killer, was killed himself and left on the front porch of Pendergast's Manhattan residence. A one-of-a-kind turquoise was discovered in Alban's stomach that leads Pendergast on a hunt for Alban's killer. Pendergast soon learns that Alban's killer has a personal vendetta against Pendergast and his family, and that killing Alban was a way of drawing Pendergast into a trap. The trap leaves Pendergast poisoned and fighting for his life, relying on Constance and Margo Green to discover the antidote before his time runs out.

The rest of the book involves one man being strangled with a shoelace, and another man committing suicide by biting off his big toe and chocking on it. I mentioned before that the series is back on track, and both these deaths should sufficiently justify my opinion.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

The Lost Island

by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
368 pgs  (Gideon Crew series #3)

Let me first say that Preston & Child's series featuring Gideon Crew is not my favorite. It pales in comparison to their Pendergast series. But, the series has its moments, so I continue reading it. The Lost Island is the third book in the series and while I enjoyed the book, it definitely had its eye-rolling moments.

The book starts off strong, with Gideon, once again in the employ of Eli Glinn, given the job of stealing a priceless book, a seemingly impossible task. The ingenuity with which he accomplishes the heist constitutes one of those "moments" that justify reading the series. From there things quickly become outlandish and a little too absurd. The book contains a map to an island somewhere off the coast of Central America, which legend says contains the fountain of youth.

As Gideon and his companion search for the lost island and its promise of both longevity and riches for his employer, they begin to realize that they are following the same route as another ancient traveler, the tale of whom the world has always considered fictitious--Odysseus. To say much more would require a spoiler alert, so I'll just say that if you recall some of the more memorable parts of The Odyssey, you have an idea of the direction Preston and Child went with this one.

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

White Fire

by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
368 pgs  (Pendergast series #13)

This is the type of Pendergast book I've been wishing for for quite some time. The past several books by Preston and Child have revolved around the enigmatic FBI special agent, and in my opinion, while he's an interesting character, the books that have been about him have been less entertaining than those that are about an intriguing case he's investigating. White Fire is a return to form for Preston and Child and it's a welcome return in my opinion.

Corrie Swanson was introduced into the series a few books back as a side character whom Pendergast had taken under his wing and was mentoring. This time she takes center stage as she travels to the mountainous town of Roaring Fork, Colorado to work on her thesis. She's studying criminal justice and has learned that the remains of several miners reportedly killed and eaten by a bear back in the 1870's, have been exhumed from a cemetery which is being replaced by a multi-million dollar development. A study of periomortem trauma on human bones by a large carnivore has never been conducted before and Corrie sees this as a chance to make a name for herself.

Corrie is initially given access to the miners' remains and a quick examination of them reveals some disturbing evidence that contradicts the claim that the miners were eaten by a bear, but her access is quickly rescinded as the developers surprisingly step in and start throwing their weight around and Corrie ultimately ends up in jail. Pendergast travels to Roaring Fork to save her and realizes that there's a connection between the deaths of the miners and a rumored lost Sherlock Holmes story written by A. Conan Doyle.

Pendergast and Corrie soon find that Corrie's investigation threatens to uncover a long-buried secret that powerful individuals would rather keep hidden. It's a secret that Doyle was told of in 1889 and one that disturbed him so much that he eventually incorporated it into a case for his famous detective to solve. Pendergast has to find that story in order to unearth the truth behind what's been happening in Roaring Fork while trying to protect Corrie from those who would like to bury her along with their secret.

White Fire is a return to form for Preston and Child. For me it reinvigorated the series and hopefully is an indication of the direction it will be going in the future.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Two Graves

by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
484 pgs  (Pendergast series #12)

Two Graves completes the trilogy of books focusing on Helen, Special Agent Pendergast's wife. For twelve years he thought she had been killed in an African hunting accident, then his investigations into her death led him to believe that her death had not been accidental, then they led him to the realization that her death had been staged. And finally, as Cold Vengeance came to an end and he was reunited with her, she was quickly ripped away from him once again. 

With no question about her fate this time, Pendergast spirals into a state of extreme depression, to the point that his long-time associate with the New York Police department, Vincent D'Agosta is concerned that Pendergast may take his own life. In a last-ditch effort to bring Pendergast out of his depression, D'Agosta asks for his help in solving a string of brazen murders that have begun taking place in New York City hotels. Not only does the the case file intrigue him, but Pendergast discovers that the killer is taunting him specifically. Someone wants Pendergast to chase him and Pendergast is quick to oblige.

Pendergast's investigation into the murders takes him to Brazil, where he uncovers a fortress housing a group of doctors, who for decades have been conducting medical experiments on human subjects. At that point in the story my level of enjoyment for the book changed. It became a disappointment. I'll avoid any significant spoilers, but will reveal that these doctors are Nazis who fled to South America after the war, where they resumed their plans to perfect the human race. Not very original, and as I said, disappointing coming from two authors whom I've enjoyed reading for so long. I'm hopeful that eventually the Pendergast books will return to the glory days of Relic and Cabinet of Curiosities instead of what they've become recently--a slow-moving investigation into uninteresting aspects of Pendergast's life.

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ 

Cold Vengeance

Cold Vengeance by Lincoln Child & Douglas Preston\
(Pendergast series #11)


I'll begin by mentioning that Cold Vengeance is a continuation of Preston and Child's last book Fever Dream. And that a third book Two Graves, which comes out next month, will complete a trilogy telling the story of the death of FBI Special Agent Pendergast's wife Helen.

Twelve years ago, while Pendergast was hunting with Helen in Africa, she was mauled to death by a lion. For years Pendergast had believed that the attack had been just an unfortunate accident,until he discovered in Fever Dream that someone had sabotaged her rifle. As he continues to dig deeper into her death in this book, he continues to find more and more layers of mystery. Is it possible that Helen's family members were involved in her death? Or is it possible that she's still alive and was involved in a rouse to make everyone, including Pendergast believe she was killed? And if so, why?

I enjoyed Cold Vengeance. The last few books featuring Pendergast had been kind of hit or miss for me. But these last two have renewed my enjoyment for the series and I'm looking forward seeing how things finally wrap up with next month's book.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

The Third Gate

by Lincoln Child
(Jeremy Logan series #2)

In northern Sudan the Nile river gets lost amid the notorious Sudd, a constantly growing swampland, where mud and rotting vegetation have accumulated over the centuries to make it impassable. It's also the possible location for the hidden tomb of one of ancient Egypt's most influential Pharaohs--King Narmer. An archaeological team, led by the famous explorer Peter Stone, has secretly begun searching for Narmer's tomb under the mud and detritus, and they're running out of time to find it before the building of a dam down river floods the area and ends their search for it and its treasures.

As the team has gotten closer to finding the tomb, inexplicable setbacks have been occurring, giving credence to the rumors of a curse associated with it. Jeremy Logan, a professor of history, who specializes in paranormal activity, has recently been enlisted to join the team and investigate the occurrences.

I'm a big fan of the books Lincoln Child has coauthored with Douglas Preston. I've also enjoyed each of his solo novels. Unfortunately The Third Gate never took off for me. It's got a promising premise, but it never delivers on the promise. I never felt any type of fondness for any of the characters and occasionally had to reread a page or two because I found my mind had wandered off. It wasn't the type of book that I regret having wasted my time reading when I finish. But it wasn't what I've come to expect and what I'm looking forward from him going forward. It's the type of book to read on vacation, or while on a plane.

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

Gideon's Corpse

Gideon's Corpse by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

In this second book in their new series, Preston & Child continue their fast-paced series featuring Gideon Crow, a man with a unique set of skills, and less than a year to live.

This time around the organization that recruited Gideon in Gideon's Sword enlist his help in assisting with a hostage negotiation. A former colleague of his, a nuclear scientist named Reed Chalker has gone delusional and taken a family hostage in their apartment. He's threatening to kill them all and claims that he himself was kidnapped and experimented on by government agents recently. When the standoff ends, it is quickly discovered that Chalker was suffering from radiation poisoning as a result of assembling a nuclear weapon somewhere in New York City.

As he tries to locate the nuclear weapon, Gideon learns that those behind it intend to use it in ten days somewhere in the United States.

The good news on this one is that I think it's a better book than Gideon's Sword. They were both fun, but Preston and Child seemed to gain a little better momentum with this one. Gideon and most of the other characters were better developed and the pace of the story rarely lets up.

The bad news is that the story loses plausibility at times. I'm okay with suspending my sense of reality when I read thrillers, but I still prefer and get more involved in reading a story when I feel like there's at least a remote chance that it could really happen.

Overall, it's a worthwhile book to read. I like that they're alternating publishing books in the Pendergast series and this one. I think it'll keep both of them more endearing to me for longer. Although if Gideon only has a year left to live, I don't know how many more books with him it's reasonable to expect.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Gideon's Sword

Gideon's Sword by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

I'm sure this doesn't come as a shock to those who know me, but I'm not the type of person who likes to chat with the person sitting next to me on a plane. I pull out a book and expect the person next to me to understand what that means - not interested in getting to know you nor do I want to see any pictures of your children/cats. Recently I made an exception to that rule. I got on a plane and the guy sitting next to me was reading Gideon's Sword. I've read all of the the Preston & Child books and was intending to read this one as well. So I asked him if it was a good book. He shook his head and said it wasn't very good. I then noticed how far into the book he had read. He was on page 4. This man was obviously an idiot. How can you decide by page 4 whether a book is good or not? Further evidence for the soundness of my small-talk policy.

So I finally got around to reading Gideon's Crew. Page 4 came and went and I resisted the urge to determine how many stars the book was going to receive. Overall it was as good as the coauthors' other books. I enjoyed the departure from the Pendergast books. I understand it's the beginning of another series the will feature Gideon Crew and based on this first book, I'll follow that series as well.

Gideon Crew witnessed his father's murder at the age of twelve. He spent the next twenty years of his life acquiring the skills he would need to avenge his father's death and clear his family's name. Now in his thirties, having taken down those behind the murder and having fulfilled his life-long goal, his unique skills set has brought him to the attention of a covert U.S. agency who present him with a job offer he can't refuse.

Gideon finds himself tasked with intercepting a Chinese national who is scheduled to enter the country that night possessing a technology that will revolutionize the world and will ultimately elevate China's position in it to the indisputable leader going forward. Gideon must find that technology, steal it, and turn it over to his handlers. But when the man is run off the road and killed as he departs the airport, Gideon realizes that his job is going to be much harder than he planned.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Fever Dream

Fever Dream by Preston & Child
(Pendergast series #10)

Twelve years ago FBI Special Agent Pendergast's wife was killed by a lion while on a hunt in Africa. Pendergast has always believed that her death was an accident until the day he happens to take a closer look at the gun she had been using and discovers evidence that it had been loaded with blanks. Now, convinced that she was murdered, he enlists the help of Lt. Vincent D'Agosta of the NYPD to hunt down those responsible.

In this, the 10th book featuring Pendergrast, Preston & Child have made a turn in the right direction with the series. The last two books were a little far-fetched and were slight disappoints for me. While I'd like to see them write some more stand-alone novels sometime, this book was a welcome addition to the series that further reveals more of Pendergast's enigmatic history.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆