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Summary
Summary
Pendergast, the world's most mysterious FBI Special Agent, investigates a murderous cult in New York City that no one has ever survived.
William Smithback, a New York Times reporter, and his wife Nora Kelly, a Museum of Natural History archaeologist, are brutally attacked in their apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Eyewitnesses claim, and the security camera confirms, that the assailant was their strange, sinister neighbor--a man who, by all reports, was already dead and buried weeks earlier.
While Captain Laura Hayward leads the official investigation, Pendergast and Lieutenant Vincent D'Agosta undertake their own private--and decidedly unorthodox--quest for the truth. Their serpentine journey takes them to an enclave of Manhattan they never imagined could exist: a secretive, reclusive cult of Obeah and vodou which no outsiders have ever survived.
Author Notes
Douglas Jerome Preston was born on May 20, 1956 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He received a B.A. in English literature from Pomona College in 1978. His career began at the American Museum of Natural History, where he worked as an editor and writer from 1978 to 1985. He also was a lecturer in English at Princeton University.
He became a full-time writer of both fiction and nonfiction books in 1986. Many of his fiction works are co-written with Lincoln Child including Relic, Riptide, Thunderhead, The Wheel of Darkness, Cemetery Dance, and Gideon's Corpse. His nonfiction works include Dinosaurs in the Attic; Cities of Gold: A Journey Across the American Southwest in Pursuit of Coronado; Talking to the Ground; and The Royal Road. He has written for numerous magazines including The New Yorker; Natural History; Harper's; Smithsonian; National Geographic; and Travel and Leisure. He became a New York Times Best Selling author with his titles Two Graves and Crimson Shores which he co-wrote with Lincoln Child, and his titles White Fire, The Lost Island Blue Labyrinth and The Lost City of the Monkey God.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Bestsellers Preston and Child kill off a regular supporting character at the outset of this suspenseful tale of urban terror, their ninth to feature FBI special agent Aloysius Pendergast (after The Wheel of Darkness). William Smithback, a New York Times reporter, and his wife, Nora Kelly, an anthropologist with the New York Museum of Natural History, are celebrating their first anniversary when Smithback is fatally stabbed in their Manhattan apartment, apparently by a creepy neighbor, Colin Fearing, an out-of-work British actor. Given eyewitness descriptions of the killer, including one from Kelly herself, as well as surveillance footage showing a blood-stained Fearing emerging from the apartment building right after the crime, the case appears to be open and shut-until Pendergast and his NYPD ally, Lt. Vincent D'Agosta, learn that Fearing died almost two weeks earlier. This taut page-turner can only add to the authors' growing fan base. 8-city author tour. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
It takes a certain amount of guts to start a novel by killing off a popular recurring character, but no one has ever accused this writing team of lacking guts. The latest Pendergast thriller begins with a murder that is apparently committed by a man who, 10 days earlier, was pronounced dead and then buried. But the eyewitness is sure it's the same man, and footage from a security camera appears to confirm it. How does a dead man commit murder? And why this particular victim? Pendergast, the FBI special agent who frequently takes on personal assignments on a freelance basis, teams up once again with New York police lieutenant Vincent D'Agosta to solve a crime that has ties to the supernatural. Individually, these two writers turn out books that are solid, competent, workmanlike. Together, they manage to kick it up several notches, producing novels that are elegantly written and feature unique characters and eerie, compelling stories. For fans of the Pendergast series, this is a must-read.--Pitt, David Copyright 2009 Booklist
Library Journal Review
In his latest outing, Agent Pendergast (The Wheel of Darkness) and partner Lieutenant D'Agosta probe the murder of a reporter they both admired and considered a friend. The evidence appears to be a slam dunk because the perpetrator was seen by several people who knew him and appears on security camera footage holding a bloody knife right after the crime. The only problem-the man they are looking for was found floating in the Hudson River days before. When Pendergast heads to the morgue to examine the corpse, he discovers the body has disappeared. Blend in a secretive cult that believes in animal sacrifices and the possible reanimation of the dead, and the result is another winner from thriller masters Preston and Child, who specialize in a compelling story, intriguing characters, and the implausible becoming terrifyingly real. Even though Pendergast is prominent here, D'Agosta has a chance to shine as well. Another guaranteed hit that is highly recommended for all libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 1/09; see also the Q&A with Child in the Feb. 5 edition of LJ's BookSmack! e-newsletter at tinyurl.com/co4ng5.-Ed.]-Jeff Ayers, Seattle P.L. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
