Welcome to Wednesday, book friends. I hope you are reading something that perhaps can warm you up a bit as we seem to be fully into winter’s clutches.
Eighteen books and still going strong in this series. That’s quite something and our authors never seem to run out of things to keep FBI special agent A.X.L. Pendergast busy and on his game.
As a reader of this series, one knows full well that Pendergast is a loner when it comes to solving a case. However, in this book, our intrepid mysterious agent acquires a partner, Coldmoon, and as you can imagine, he is none to happy about that.
The two are assigned to a case where some grisly instances are happening. A part of the human anatomy is found on graves that belonged to suicide victims, buried in Miami, along with notes that quote well known literature, attached to them. Pedergast with his sixth sense for the mysterious, the cunning, and the nuances of a case, along with Coldmoon are on the trail of who they believe might be a serial killer.
They travel to various parts of the country where the original suicides have occurred in search for clues, all the time getting to know one another and perhaps fostering a camaraderie. Could it be that Agent Pendergast will be a loner no more?
As the agents find more and more clues, the case seems to become murkier and more sinister then they originally suspected. Will Pendergast and Coldmoom find the killer? Will more women die as our killer needs a part of their anatomy to quell his guilt?
As usual, Preston and Child have created a well done story that takes the reader into the twisted mind and heart of killers. They succeed in making this a tense thriller with twists and turns aplenty. Recommended for those who love Agent Aloysius Pendergast and his seventeen previous adventures.
and here’s the authors:
Douglas Jerome Preston (born May 31, 1956) is an American journalist and author. Although he is best known for his thrillers in collaboration with Lincoln Child (including the Agent Pendergast series and Gideon Crew series), he has also written six solo novels, including the Wyman Ford series and a novel entitled Jennie, which was made into a movie by Disney. He has authored a half-dozen non-fiction books on science and exploration and writes occasionally for The New Yorker, Smithsonian, and other magazines. (wikipedia)
Lincoln Child (October 13, 1957) is an American author of techno-thriller and horror novels. Though he is most well known for his collaborations with Douglas Preston (including the Agent Pendergast series and the Gideon Crew series, among others), he has also written seven solo novels, including the Jeremy Logan series. Over twenty of the collaborative novels and most of his solo novels have become New York Times bestsellers, some reaching the #1 position. Their first novel together, Relic, was adapted into a feature film. Child and Preston’s books are notable for their thorough research and scientific accuracy. (wikipedia)
yaya_reads (Marialyce) 
I’ve not read any from this series, Marialyce, but now I want to. It sounds like I am missing out! Wonderful review, as always.
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I hope you get a chance to, Jennifer. I just started their very first Pendergast book. I read it back in the nineties when it first came out so definitely a time to revisit it.
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I read their first book and enjoyed it and am not sure why I never read the others. I think I need to revisit the series! Great review!
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I am rereading their first book now. I read it in the nineties and it was time for a revisit.
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I think it was in the late nineties when I read their first book but then I headed to graduate school, had my first two kids, and got busy-I didn’t read as much as I do now even though I feel busier now for some reason, lol. It’s always nice to reread a series that you love, and I’m definitely going to read them again (when I have time).
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I know that time of life well and yes, their first book in this series came out in 1995. You are right though. I was raising four children, going to school, keeping the house, and teaching too, but yes I, too, think I am busier now than then. Not much time left for reading at all back then.
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That was the year I graduated high school and started college, so I definitely would have read it around the late nineties then or maybe very early 2000’s since my oldest son was born in late 1997 and his brother in 1999 while I was still finishing my BA degree…both were preemies and I was on bedrest with both, so I had a lot of reading time during my pregnancies! That was a crazy time when I look back now with two under two and then going on to grad school, lol. With the exception of four kids, you sound like your describing my life back then (I have three children now, but she’s only 8). I didn’t know you were a teacher too! Do you still teach, Marialyce? I guess the most reading I did back then was for classes and always for work to make sure I wasn’t always teaching the same literature semester after semester.
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No, I retired a five years ago. I was a middle school math and literature teacher in New York. We moved from NY to Virginia five years ago right after I left teaching.
I did some volunteer work in the local schools here for a time, but as you well know, everything was centered on “the test.” I just became so frustrated as learning was no fun anymore for these students. I do volunteer work now in the local food pantry. More rewarding and certainly less frustrating.
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It sounds like you do very rewarding and important work now. I technically have 20 plus years till retirement, but I cut down the number of classes that I teach to online only in 2017 when I was diagnosed with Lupus. Thankfully, so many universities offer online classes that I was able to completely transition from teaching seated classes to online only classes, which I’ve found that I enjoy tremendously, and I’m teaching less this semester than I was before because of my health. Online just gives a flexibility that the classroom didn’t, so I’m very thankful. Math I could never have taught, so I admire you greatly! I did well at math, but I was never good at explaining it to other people because I got frustrated too easily. Thankfully, the univerity level isn’t centered on testing like the school system, but we see the result of the testing mentality since a lot of the students have no idea how to critically think anymore and that wasn’t the case when I started teaching. As a parent, I feel your frustration with the testing focus, and I pulled my daughter out of the public school system this year and decided to homeschool her for 3rd grade. She was entirely too stressed in 2nd grade and having terrible anxiety at school manifesting physically and emotionally that it just wasn’t worth it. She’s blossomed this school year and is doing wonderfully, so I’m going to continue as long as I can-and avoid Common Core and testing while at it. It’s a shame that learning is no fun anymore when there’s just so many wonderful things to teach and for children to learn.
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Such a true statement reading a good series is like coming home! I’ve read a few in this one, I really should go back to it!
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Eighteen books and still going. They are amazingly resilient.
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