If you’ve read some of my past blog posts you probably know that I am a fan of mystery and thriller series. Some of those series I have been reading religiously for 20 or more years. Others I have read several books, stopped a lost track of the series. The Agent Pendergast series from Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child is one of the later.

I read the first two books in the series Relic and Reliquary, which were terrific. Then I read several more books in the series. I also enjoyed those books. However, through the years other books always were read instead of Pendergast novels.

Over the last few years, I have picked up several overstock copies of books in the series and I have not read them! Shame on me! A week or so ago, I saw Crooked River book #19 in the series, at the library. Instead of saying, I’ll just wait until I’ve read the books that come before it, I checked it out,  I’m glad I did.

About Pendergast and Crooked River

Aloysius Xingu Leng Pendergast is a special agent for the FBI from Wikipedia…

He once worked out of the New Orleans Field Office of the FBI, but resides in New York City and works out of the New York Field Office; he frequently travels out of state to investigate cases which interest him, often those appearing to be the work of serial killers. More at Wikipedia

In Crooked River Pendergast is presented an intriguing case on Captiva and Sanibel islands off the coast of southern Florida. Hundreds of shoes have been found in the Gulf of Mexico and washed up on the island beaches. The aspect of the case that makes it super intriguing is that a severed foot is still in each shoe!

Soon Pendergast recruits his former partner Agent Coldmoon to provide assistance. While the Coast Guard and the local police search for the simple answer. Pendergast knows the case is far more complex. Can they find the answers before the trail goes cold!!

Agent Pendergast is one of the most interesting characters in the mystery fiction genre and shame on me for not reading more of these books!

Crooked River is fast-paced and well developed you never even have a chance to lose interest in the  story. And ultimately the solution contains aspects of current events!!

About Preston & Child

Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child are a dynamic writing duo, but they also have solo careers. I have read several of Preston’s solo novels like The Codex and enjoyed them. Lincoln Child has a 5 book series featuring Jeremy Logan. Logan is an “enigmologist” an investigator who studies phenomena that have no plausible explanation. I have read one of the Jeremy Logan books no 5 The Forgotten Room.

Douglas Preston is also the author of a really great nonfiction book The Monster of Florence. His personal murder mystery where he ends up as a suspect!  Highly recommended!!

Reading On….

After reading Crooked River I am going to try and read more books from the series. I probably should start with The Book of the Dead which is book 7 of the Pendergast series and the end of the trilogy featuring his brother Diogenes. The easy thing it’s already on my bookshelf. The hard thing will be to fit it in amongst the eleven books I have checked out of the library! I think a few of those books which were just impulse checkouts will go back unread! Lol

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Brimstone – Preston & Child – Pendergrast and D’Agosta chase down the Devil?

Preston & Child’s FBI Agent Pendergrast investigates those curious cases, so when Brimstone opens with art critic Jeremy Grove found burnt to a crisp in a locked and barricaded room in the attic of his mansion in the Hamptons, you knew Pendergrast would be there soon. Grove is found burnt to death from the inside out, amid the smell of brimstone. And next to him is the devil’s hoof print burnt into the floor! Soon the question arises: Had Grove really made a Faustian pack with the devil and he came to collect???

In the hours before his death, Grove called three names. One of those names turns up dead in the same manner as Grove, with the devil’s likeness burnt into his NYC apartment. Then the case really gets exciting!
Soon Pendergrast is out to determine the earthly cause for these murders, before the killer can collect the souls of the last two names on the list! Aiding Pendergrast in his quest, and he is going to need all the help he can get, are Vincent D’Agosta and Laura Hayward ,who have helped Pendergrast on past cases..(Relic and Reliquary) Vincent is now a Sargent in the Southampton police department, while Laura is a Captain in the NYPD.

The quest will take Pendergrast and D’Agosta from the mansions of Southampton, to the townhouses of New York and ultimately to the city of Florence, Italy and the Italian countryside,where four young men may have made that pact with the devil!! While Laura faces a preacher and a newspaper man. And they have NYC residents believing that the end of days are here!

Oh No! – I Read Books Out of Order

Brimstone book five in the Agent Pendergrast I series and the first book to feature Pendergrast’s brother Diogenes. I read this book after I reading Dance of Death, Book 6 in the series. I mistakenly thought that Dance of Death was the first book of three that featured Diogenes.
Anyway,I would recommend that Brimstone be read before reading Death of Dance and The Book of the Dead. As Brimstone does provide background for the various relationships in the books!

Bottom Line: Brimstone was another terrific read from Preston & Child. Easily four plus stars out of 5. Once again I enjoyed all of the wonderful characters especially Pendergast. I think is one of the most interesting and unique characters in the genre. The storyline kept the pages flying by, the suspense mounting, and the authors provided an ending that would have left me starting Dance of Death immediately had I not screwed up!! As it is I can’t wait to start  The Book of the Dead!!

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