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.

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

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.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

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.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

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.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆