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Aloysius Pendergast #9
Cemetery Dance
Pendergast-the world's most enigmatic FBI Special Agent-returns to New York City to investigate a murderous cult.
William Smithback Jr., a prominent New York Times reporter, was killed in a brutal attack in his Upper West Side apartment. His wife, Nora Kelly, an archeologist at the Museum of Natural History, was injured as well. Multiple eyewitness identified the assailant as a neighbor n the building, Colin Fearing: a man who, by all reports, dead and buried ten days ago.
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 voodoo which no outsiders have ever survived.
William Smithback Jr., a prominent New York Times reporter, was killed in a brutal attack in his Upper West Side apartment. His wife, Nora Kelly, an archeologist at the Museum of Natural History, was injured as well. Multiple eyewitness identified the assailant as a neighbor n the building, Colin Fearing: a man who, by all reports, dead and buried ten days ago.
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 voodoo which no outsiders have ever survived.
435 pages, Hardcover
First published May 12, 2009
1231 people are currently reading
7250 people want to read
About the author
Douglas Preston
216 books13.3k followersDouglas Preston was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1956, and grew up in the deadly boring suburb of Wellesley. Following a distinguished career at a private nursery school--he was almost immediately expelled--he attended public schools and the Cambridge School of Weston. Notable events in his early life included the loss of a fingertip at the age of three to a bicycle; the loss of his two front teeth to his brother Richard's fist; and various broken bones, also incurred in dust-ups with Richard. (Richard went on to write The Hot Zone and The Cobra Event, which tells you all you need to know about what it was like to grow up with him as a brother.)
As they grew up, Doug, Richard, and their little brother David roamed the quiet suburbs of Wellesley, terrorizing the natives with home-made rockets and incendiary devices mail-ordered from the backs of comic books or concocted from chemistry sets. With a friend they once attempted to fly a rocket into Wellesley Square; the rocket malfunctioned and nearly killed a man mowing his lawn. They were local celebrities, often appearing in the "Police Notes" section of The Wellesley Townsman. It is a miracle they survived childhood intact.
After unaccountably being rejected by Stanford University (a pox on it), Preston attended Pomona College in Claremont, California, where he studied mathematics, biology, physics, anthropology, chemistry, geology, and astronomy before settling down to English literature. After graduating, Preston began his career at the American Museum of Natural History in New York as an editor, writer, and eventually manager of publications. (Preston also taught writing at Princeton University and was managing editor of Curator.) His eight-year stint at the Museum resulted in the non-fiction book, Dinosaurs in the Attic, edited by a rising young star at St. Martin's Press, a polymath by the name of Lincoln Child. During this period, Preston gave Child a midnight tour of the museum, and in the darkened Hall of Late Dinosaurs, under a looming T. Rex, Child turned to Preston and said: "This would make the perfect setting for a thriller!" That thriller would, of course, be Relic.
In 1986, Douglas Preston piled everything he owned into the back of a Subaru and moved from New York City to Santa Fe to write full time, following the advice of S. J. Perelman that "the dubious privilege of a freelance writer is he's given the freedom to starve anywhere." After the requisite period of penury, Preston achieved a small success with the publication of Cities of Gold, a non-fiction book about Coronado's search for the legendary Seven Cities of Cibola. To research the book, Preston and a friend retraced on horseback 1,000 miles of Coronado's route across Arizona and New Mexico, packing their supplies and sleeping under the stars--nearly killing themselves in the process. Since then he has published several more non-fiction books on the history of the American Southwest, Talking to the Ground and The Royal Road, as well as a novel entitled Jennie. In the early 1990s Preston and Child teamed up to write suspense novels; Relic was the first, followed by several others, including Riptide and Thunderhead. Relic was released as a motion picture by Paramount in 1997. Other films are under development at Hollywood studios. Preston and Child live 500 miles apart and write their books together via telephone, fax, and the Internet.
Preston and his brother Richard are currently producing a television miniseries for ABC and Mandalay Entertainment, to be aired in the spring of 2000, if all goes well, which in Hollywood is rarely the case.
Preston continues a magazine writing career by contributing regularly to The New Yorker magazine. He has also written for National Geographic, Natural History, Smithsonisan, Harper's,and Travel & Leisure,among others.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/dougla...
As they grew up, Doug, Richard, and their little brother David roamed the quiet suburbs of Wellesley, terrorizing the natives with home-made rockets and incendiary devices mail-ordered from the backs of comic books or concocted from chemistry sets. With a friend they once attempted to fly a rocket into Wellesley Square; the rocket malfunctioned and nearly killed a man mowing his lawn. They were local celebrities, often appearing in the "Police Notes" section of The Wellesley Townsman. It is a miracle they survived childhood intact.
After unaccountably being rejected by Stanford University (a pox on it), Preston attended Pomona College in Claremont, California, where he studied mathematics, biology, physics, anthropology, chemistry, geology, and astronomy before settling down to English literature. After graduating, Preston began his career at the American Museum of Natural History in New York as an editor, writer, and eventually manager of publications. (Preston also taught writing at Princeton University and was managing editor of Curator.) His eight-year stint at the Museum resulted in the non-fiction book, Dinosaurs in the Attic, edited by a rising young star at St. Martin's Press, a polymath by the name of Lincoln Child. During this period, Preston gave Child a midnight tour of the museum, and in the darkened Hall of Late Dinosaurs, under a looming T. Rex, Child turned to Preston and said: "This would make the perfect setting for a thriller!" That thriller would, of course, be Relic.
In 1986, Douglas Preston piled everything he owned into the back of a Subaru and moved from New York City to Santa Fe to write full time, following the advice of S. J. Perelman that "the dubious privilege of a freelance writer is he's given the freedom to starve anywhere." After the requisite period of penury, Preston achieved a small success with the publication of Cities of Gold, a non-fiction book about Coronado's search for the legendary Seven Cities of Cibola. To research the book, Preston and a friend retraced on horseback 1,000 miles of Coronado's route across Arizona and New Mexico, packing their supplies and sleeping under the stars--nearly killing themselves in the process. Since then he has published several more non-fiction books on the history of the American Southwest, Talking to the Ground and The Royal Road, as well as a novel entitled Jennie. In the early 1990s Preston and Child teamed up to write suspense novels; Relic was the first, followed by several others, including Riptide and Thunderhead. Relic was released as a motion picture by Paramount in 1997. Other films are under development at Hollywood studios. Preston and Child live 500 miles apart and write their books together via telephone, fax, and the Internet.
Preston and his brother Richard are currently producing a television miniseries for ABC and Mandalay Entertainment, to be aired in the spring of 2000, if all goes well, which in Hollywood is rarely the case.
Preston continues a magazine writing career by contributing regularly to The New Yorker magazine. He has also written for National Geographic, Natural History, Smithsonisan, Harper's,and Travel & Leisure,among others.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/dougla...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,584 reviews
April 3, 2019
It’s time for another food metaphor, my friends. That’s right—the unfortunate tradition that began waaaay back with my review of Relic continues, because how else would you describe books in a series that highlights the gory activities of serial killers and psychopaths other than by comparing them to delicious comestibles?
After a somewhat lackluster outing last time around with The Wheel of Darkness, Preston and Child (and Pendergast) return to form with this delicious Slurpee of an outing. Why a Slurpee? I’m glad you asked.
(You didn’t ask? Well, too bad—you made the terrible decision to click on this review, and now you’re stuck, unless your browser has one of those fancy back buttons on it.)
(Wait, what? ALL browsers have fancy back buttons on them? Crap. I had no idea. I’ve been assuming that I usually have a captive audience. Guess I need to go back to duct tape and toothpicks for the eyes…)
Cemetery of the Dead is a Slurpee because it goes down easy and you just want to keep slurping it down, even though you know it’s kind of terrible for you. Look, I don’t really subscribe to the notion of “guilty pleasures” when it comes to reading because, in my book (pun intended), all reading is worthwhile. (Well, with the possible exception of Water for Alien Were-Dinos; that’s just a blight on humanity.) So, I won’t call this book that, but there’s definitely an element of a mystery/thriller that features zombies (or “zombiis” as Lincoln/Child choose to style them)—or ARE they actually zombies??—that feels a little bit indulgent, and like you’re having something that isn’t good for you even if it’s delightful.
A shocking death early on—and not one of those annoying fake deaths wherein the character inexplicably returns to life later in the book—sets the tone and signposts that the authors are ready to shake things up in the Penderverse. (Side note: the old bait-and-switch on character deaths is a little bit like when you get a Coke Slurpee that the idiotic proprietor of that particular 7-Eleven has chosen to place into the same dispensary that previously held banana-flavored Slurpees; no matter how much you clean it, and I’m not convinced that 7-Eleven operators are paragons of immaculate and thorough scrubbery, the taste of banana lingers for weeks, and there's nothing worse than sucking up a huge mouthful of something that you think is going to be sweet, refreshing, and Cokey, but turns out to taste like monkey urine. First off, banana-flavored Slurpees should really be outlawed; it’s a terrible flavor consumed only by terrible people who then go on to do terrible things, such as commit murder, embezzle money, and clip their nails on public transportation. Barring that extreme (albeit extremely correct) legislation, however, it should be a rule that nothing other than complementary fruit flavors can ever be used in that Slurpee dispenser ever again. Frankly, I find it inconceivable that the Slurpee governing body has never consulted me on this subject. Please write to your local representatives and encourage them to retain me to make everyone’s lives better. But, I don’t come cheap.)
The overlay of supernatural chicanery is in the grand tradition of the granddaddy of all detective stories featuring the suggestion of a fantastical element, The Hound of the Baskervilles. If the story doesn’t quite rise to those lofty heights, it certainly does an impressive job of tearing through a juicy plot like zombie claws rending vulnerable (and delicious) human flesh. This is Pendergast and partner-in-(solving)-crime Vinnie D’Agosta operating without the emotional baggage or absurdity of the past few books, and it’s liberating to see them in action focused on solving a crime to which their only emotional connection is that people they know are getting hurt (and KILLED).
Having slurped down every delicious drop of this one, I’m looking forward to the next. Though I might need to get in a workout first; empty calories, you know—a moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips…
After a somewhat lackluster outing last time around with The Wheel of Darkness, Preston and Child (and Pendergast) return to form with this delicious Slurpee of an outing. Why a Slurpee? I’m glad you asked.
(You didn’t ask? Well, too bad—you made the terrible decision to click on this review, and now you’re stuck, unless your browser has one of those fancy back buttons on it.)
(Wait, what? ALL browsers have fancy back buttons on them? Crap. I had no idea. I’ve been assuming that I usually have a captive audience. Guess I need to go back to duct tape and toothpicks for the eyes…)
Cemetery of the Dead is a Slurpee because it goes down easy and you just want to keep slurping it down, even though you know it’s kind of terrible for you. Look, I don’t really subscribe to the notion of “guilty pleasures” when it comes to reading because, in my book (pun intended), all reading is worthwhile. (Well, with the possible exception of Water for Alien Were-Dinos; that’s just a blight on humanity.) So, I won’t call this book that, but there’s definitely an element of a mystery/thriller that features zombies (or “zombiis” as Lincoln/Child choose to style them)—or ARE they actually zombies??—that feels a little bit indulgent, and like you’re having something that isn’t good for you even if it’s delightful.
A shocking death early on—and not one of those annoying fake deaths wherein the character inexplicably returns to life later in the book—sets the tone and signposts that the authors are ready to shake things up in the Penderverse. (Side note: the old bait-and-switch on character deaths is a little bit like when you get a Coke Slurpee that the idiotic proprietor of that particular 7-Eleven has chosen to place into the same dispensary that previously held banana-flavored Slurpees; no matter how much you clean it, and I’m not convinced that 7-Eleven operators are paragons of immaculate and thorough scrubbery, the taste of banana lingers for weeks, and there's nothing worse than sucking up a huge mouthful of something that you think is going to be sweet, refreshing, and Cokey, but turns out to taste like monkey urine. First off, banana-flavored Slurpees should really be outlawed; it’s a terrible flavor consumed only by terrible people who then go on to do terrible things, such as commit murder, embezzle money, and clip their nails on public transportation. Barring that extreme (albeit extremely correct) legislation, however, it should be a rule that nothing other than complementary fruit flavors can ever be used in that Slurpee dispenser ever again. Frankly, I find it inconceivable that the Slurpee governing body has never consulted me on this subject. Please write to your local representatives and encourage them to retain me to make everyone’s lives better. But, I don’t come cheap.)
The overlay of supernatural chicanery is in the grand tradition of the granddaddy of all detective stories featuring the suggestion of a fantastical element, The Hound of the Baskervilles. If the story doesn’t quite rise to those lofty heights, it certainly does an impressive job of tearing through a juicy plot like zombie claws rending vulnerable (and delicious) human flesh. This is Pendergast and partner-in-(solving)-crime Vinnie D’Agosta operating without the emotional baggage or absurdity of the past few books, and it’s liberating to see them in action focused on solving a crime to which their only emotional connection is that people they know are getting hurt (and KILLED).
Having slurped down every delicious drop of this one, I’m looking forward to the next. Though I might need to get in a workout first; empty calories, you know—a moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips…
April 6, 2018
5 STARS!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
What a great book and the plot was fantastic!
I was on the edge of my seat with this whole book. The shocks and plot twists just kept coming at me. I ended up binge reading the last 150 pages of this book because I could not put it down!
The Pendergast books are a perfect combination of suspense, action and thrills.
Cemetery Dance is set in NYC and involves all of our favorite characters.
Pendergast, D'Agosta, Hayward, Smithback and Nora Kelly. I've enjoyed reading about all of their adventures and cases over the years. I love how Preston & Child have made me care about and cheer for all of these characters!
This book involves a murderous religious group practicing the voodoo religion of Obeah.
Yeah, it's awesome! I love plots with dark, scary and shock worthy topics!
The whole plot of this book is just flippin' fantastic. I really can't say much in this review due to spoilers. There is so many plot twists and action, even from the beginning! I don't want to ruin the shock factor for the reader.
Like I've said before in other Pendergast books, start from the beginning of the series.
You won't be disappointed!!
This is one of my favorite series out there!
What a great book and the plot was fantastic!
I was on the edge of my seat with this whole book. The shocks and plot twists just kept coming at me. I ended up binge reading the last 150 pages of this book because I could not put it down!
The Pendergast books are a perfect combination of suspense, action and thrills.
Cemetery Dance is set in NYC and involves all of our favorite characters.
Pendergast, D'Agosta, Hayward, Smithback and Nora Kelly. I've enjoyed reading about all of their adventures and cases over the years. I love how Preston & Child have made me care about and cheer for all of these characters!
This book involves a murderous religious group practicing the voodoo religion of Obeah.
Yeah, it's awesome! I love plots with dark, scary and shock worthy topics!
The whole plot of this book is just flippin' fantastic. I really can't say much in this review due to spoilers. There is so many plot twists and action, even from the beginning! I don't want to ruin the shock factor for the reader.
Like I've said before in other Pendergast books, start from the beginning of the series.
You won't be disappointed!!
This is one of my favorite series out there!
March 9, 2022
Cemetery Dance is the 9th book in the Pendergast crime series written by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. These suspense thrillers follow a semi-rogue FBI agent who's full of surprises and charm as he solves bizarre cases generally in and around the New York City area. Some are mini arcs, but this is a stand-alone one, and it focuses on the death of a good friend, a character from the books whom I will sorely miss. The novel opens with his gory death, and it's shocking and unsettling, leaving readers to realize no one is safe anymore.
I buddy read this book at the same time as a good friend who also enjoys the series. We text back and forth, checking which points the other has reached, sharing thoughts and highlights. The plot of this book revolved around animal sacrifice, an ancient voodoo curse, a minimally inhabited wooded area of Manhattan, and the desire to collect something that one lost a long time ago. Brutal murders and attacks continue to happen, and I thought we'd almost lost another beloved character several times. In the end, the collateral damage was high, and readers were left saddened by many of the implications.
Although I enjoyed the book, it was missing something for me. I suspect because the plot wasn't connected to the other novels in the series, I didn't feel the overarching immersive setting. Learning about New York City history was great, but missing Constance and other characters we've come to know was not. It also seemed odd that Pendergast would be involved... only because he knew the deceased rather than it being a crime where he was specifically being targeted (as in the past). I will definitely keep reading them, especially since the next few are a mini-arc that sound quite convoluted and intriguing.
I buddy read this book at the same time as a good friend who also enjoys the series. We text back and forth, checking which points the other has reached, sharing thoughts and highlights. The plot of this book revolved around animal sacrifice, an ancient voodoo curse, a minimally inhabited wooded area of Manhattan, and the desire to collect something that one lost a long time ago. Brutal murders and attacks continue to happen, and I thought we'd almost lost another beloved character several times. In the end, the collateral damage was high, and readers were left saddened by many of the implications.
Although I enjoyed the book, it was missing something for me. I suspect because the plot wasn't connected to the other novels in the series, I didn't feel the overarching immersive setting. Learning about New York City history was great, but missing Constance and other characters we've come to know was not. It also seemed odd that Pendergast would be involved... only because he knew the deceased rather than it being a crime where he was specifically being targeted (as in the past). I will definitely keep reading them, especially since the next few are a mini-arc that sound quite convoluted and intriguing.
September 14, 2024
I just cannot get enough of Pendergast. His methodology entrances my interest. This writing is right up there with the best that Preston and Child have written. There is never a slow moment. There were so many different plots evolving throughout this book I got dizzy trying to keep up.
The Ville is a place of strange happenings. There is a religious cult there that practices voodoo and has become the prime suspect in the zombie like murders of several extremely prominent people, including Nora Kelly’s husband. Tragedy, fear, anger, deception all run rampant through these pages. Mix in vigilantism, politics and incompetency and you have a cauldron full of page turning action.
The ending appears to be quite elusive to the sleuth reader and will surprise even the most astute. I look forward to continuing down the reading path with Preston and Child.
The Ville is a place of strange happenings. There is a religious cult there that practices voodoo and has become the prime suspect in the zombie like murders of several extremely prominent people, including Nora Kelly’s husband. Tragedy, fear, anger, deception all run rampant through these pages. Mix in vigilantism, politics and incompetency and you have a cauldron full of page turning action.
The ending appears to be quite elusive to the sleuth reader and will surprise even the most astute. I look forward to continuing down the reading path with Preston and Child.
July 9, 2017
Action packed mystery and suspense! Another great Pendergast novel. This one will have you guessing and second guessing the whole time.
While this is a standalone story, it does have its place in the series (after the Diogenes trilogy) and enough references to the previous actions of the characters (especially Thunderhead), that it would behoove you to read it in order.
At first, I was not feeling this book as much as I was the others. The plot felt forced and some of the characters felt like they were acting a bit uncharacteristically. But, this soon passed and the last 3rd of the book has an explosive and twisty climax/resolution that should satisfy all Pendergast fans.
So, I highly recommend you get out your boogie shoes and do the Cemetery Dance!
While this is a standalone story, it does have its place in the series (after the Diogenes trilogy) and enough references to the previous actions of the characters (especially Thunderhead), that it would behoove you to read it in order.
At first, I was not feeling this book as much as I was the others. The plot felt forced and some of the characters felt like they were acting a bit uncharacteristically. But, this soon passed and the last 3rd of the book has an explosive and twisty climax/resolution that should satisfy all Pendergast fans.
So, I highly recommend you get out your boogie shoes and do the Cemetery Dance!
November 29, 2017
Zombies. VooDoo. Animal sacrifices. A violent cult. Cemetery Dance, book #9 in the Agent Pendergast series, has a little bit of everything. And once again it is a brilliantly creepy tale.
Two of Agent Pendergast's cohorts -- William Smithback and Nora Kelly -- are celebrating their anniversary when they are brutally attacked in their New York apartment. Witnesses are able to identify the assailant. The only problem is the suspect died three weeks before the attack. Soon Pendergast and Lieutenant Vincent D'Agosta are investigating a cult operating in an old abandoned church, amid rumors of murderous zombies. Then a dead man kills a woman in a room crowded with reporters and local media. Are the dead coming back to life to stalk the living? And is the cult behind it all?
I listened to an audiobook version of this novel, narrated by Scott Brick. He reads at a nice pace, and was easily understood. I have some hearing loss, but was easily able to hear and understand him easily.
I enjoyed the voodoo (or Vodou, as Pendergast points out in the book) and zombie killer cult slant of this story. Zombies are about as trope-y as vampires....but I enjoyed the use of re-animated corpses as murderers. A little bit different from most zombie tales. The story has lots of action, some grisly moments and lots of twists & turns. The ending was action-packed and thrilling as usual. Very enjoyable thriller. I love this series & I'm happily moving on to the next book. :)
To find out more about the authors and their books, check out their website: https://www.prestonchild.com/
If you watched the two movies based on early books in this series.....try the books instead. The movies didn't to the characters justice at all. Too many changes to the stories too. The books are much better -- as usual. :)
Two of Agent Pendergast's cohorts -- William Smithback and Nora Kelly -- are celebrating their anniversary when they are brutally attacked in their New York apartment. Witnesses are able to identify the assailant. The only problem is the suspect died three weeks before the attack. Soon Pendergast and Lieutenant Vincent D'Agosta are investigating a cult operating in an old abandoned church, amid rumors of murderous zombies. Then a dead man kills a woman in a room crowded with reporters and local media. Are the dead coming back to life to stalk the living? And is the cult behind it all?
I listened to an audiobook version of this novel, narrated by Scott Brick. He reads at a nice pace, and was easily understood. I have some hearing loss, but was easily able to hear and understand him easily.
I enjoyed the voodoo (or Vodou, as Pendergast points out in the book) and zombie killer cult slant of this story. Zombies are about as trope-y as vampires....but I enjoyed the use of re-animated corpses as murderers. A little bit different from most zombie tales. The story has lots of action, some grisly moments and lots of twists & turns. The ending was action-packed and thrilling as usual. Very enjoyable thriller. I love this series & I'm happily moving on to the next book. :)
To find out more about the authors and their books, check out their website: https://www.prestonchild.com/
If you watched the two movies based on early books in this series.....try the books instead. The movies didn't to the characters justice at all. Too many changes to the stories too. The books are much better -- as usual. :)
July 20, 2023
More horror than suspense thriller!
William Smithback, investigative reporter from the New York Times, and Nora Kelly, an anthropologist from the New York Museum of Natural History are celebrating their first anniversary in their Manhattan apartment when Smithback is attacked, brutally stabbed and murdered. The open and shut evidence - multiple eyewitness accounts, including several neighbours, the apartment doorman and even Nora Kelly, a survivor of the attack, plus unequivocal video tape evidence from the apartment's security cameras - make the conviction of Colin Fearing, an out of work British actor, a slum dunk done deal as soon as he is captured by Laura Hayward, the homicide investigator in charge of the case. Unfortunately, FBI Special Agent Pendergast and his NYPD sidekick, Lt Vincent D'Agosta, working somewhat outside of the normal investigative procedures, soon discover that all is not quite as it seems. Fearing is dead and buried, having drowned in the Hudson River two weeks earlier.
In order to verify his death, Pendergast and D'Agosta immediately apply for an exhumation order for Fearing's body. Not only do they discover that Fearing's body is missing but it has been replaced by a bizarre fetish that seems to have its origins in Obeah, a shamanistic religion with similarities to Voodoo or Santeria frequently associated with both benign and, sometimes, much darker malign magic. With the NYPD's hopes for a quick conclusion having disappeared with the morning mist on the Hudson River, Pendergast's investigations lead down much darker avenues. The CEO of a software database firm who had sent threatening letters to Smithback as a result of a disturbing article that he wrote for the Times, comes under investigation. D'Agosta is shocked to discover that the CEO is also the owner of a priceless collection of West African art that has its origins in West African Obeah. Further investigations lead Hayward, D'Agosta and Pendergast to a secretive cult hidden in a deeply forested, almost forgotten corner of Manhattan that dates back to the origins of New England.
When one considers the chronology of these two authors and examines their most recent novels, TERMINAL FREEZE and BLASPHEMY, readers will begin to imagine that Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child are moving away from the pure suspense thriller genre and are now much closer to the domain of pure horror and the paranormal. As D'Agosta and Pendergast fought their way through a veritable maze of zombies, animal sacrifices and cult high priests in CEMETERY DANCE, I raised my eyebrows on any number of occasions thinking that the story was definitely going over the top and the melodrama was perhaps beyond what I was willing to bear.
I'll give them credit. They closed the story and tied it all up with explanations that were at least possible in a real world that didn't bring back bodies from the dead to murder the living. Plausibility, on the other hand, is an entirely different question that Preston and Child didn't seem to consider it necessary to even pay lip service to. Four stars for the continuing ability to write in such an exciting way that I still feel compelled to finish the darn novel! Two stars for the lapse into unbearably overwritten melodrama! We'll average it out at three stars and add the proviso that another one like CEMETERY DANCE will probably put paid to my desire to read continuing titles in the Preston and Child canon. At least I can reminisce about the glory days of RELIC and THE CABINET OF CURIOSITIES.
A lukewarm recommendation (for the time being).
Paul Weiss
William Smithback, investigative reporter from the New York Times, and Nora Kelly, an anthropologist from the New York Museum of Natural History are celebrating their first anniversary in their Manhattan apartment when Smithback is attacked, brutally stabbed and murdered. The open and shut evidence - multiple eyewitness accounts, including several neighbours, the apartment doorman and even Nora Kelly, a survivor of the attack, plus unequivocal video tape evidence from the apartment's security cameras - make the conviction of Colin Fearing, an out of work British actor, a slum dunk done deal as soon as he is captured by Laura Hayward, the homicide investigator in charge of the case. Unfortunately, FBI Special Agent Pendergast and his NYPD sidekick, Lt Vincent D'Agosta, working somewhat outside of the normal investigative procedures, soon discover that all is not quite as it seems. Fearing is dead and buried, having drowned in the Hudson River two weeks earlier.
In order to verify his death, Pendergast and D'Agosta immediately apply for an exhumation order for Fearing's body. Not only do they discover that Fearing's body is missing but it has been replaced by a bizarre fetish that seems to have its origins in Obeah, a shamanistic religion with similarities to Voodoo or Santeria frequently associated with both benign and, sometimes, much darker malign magic. With the NYPD's hopes for a quick conclusion having disappeared with the morning mist on the Hudson River, Pendergast's investigations lead down much darker avenues. The CEO of a software database firm who had sent threatening letters to Smithback as a result of a disturbing article that he wrote for the Times, comes under investigation. D'Agosta is shocked to discover that the CEO is also the owner of a priceless collection of West African art that has its origins in West African Obeah. Further investigations lead Hayward, D'Agosta and Pendergast to a secretive cult hidden in a deeply forested, almost forgotten corner of Manhattan that dates back to the origins of New England.
When one considers the chronology of these two authors and examines their most recent novels, TERMINAL FREEZE and BLASPHEMY, readers will begin to imagine that Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child are moving away from the pure suspense thriller genre and are now much closer to the domain of pure horror and the paranormal. As D'Agosta and Pendergast fought their way through a veritable maze of zombies, animal sacrifices and cult high priests in CEMETERY DANCE, I raised my eyebrows on any number of occasions thinking that the story was definitely going over the top and the melodrama was perhaps beyond what I was willing to bear.
I'll give them credit. They closed the story and tied it all up with explanations that were at least possible in a real world that didn't bring back bodies from the dead to murder the living. Plausibility, on the other hand, is an entirely different question that Preston and Child didn't seem to consider it necessary to even pay lip service to. Four stars for the continuing ability to write in such an exciting way that I still feel compelled to finish the darn novel! Two stars for the lapse into unbearably overwritten melodrama! We'll average it out at three stars and add the proviso that another one like CEMETERY DANCE will probably put paid to my desire to read continuing titles in the Preston and Child canon. At least I can reminisce about the glory days of RELIC and THE CABINET OF CURIOSITIES.
A lukewarm recommendation (for the time being).
Paul Weiss
April 15, 2018
This next installment in the Pendergast series by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child really ramps up the action. While all of the books have been good, this one was exceptional, both for the mystery and the action. Our favorite characters are there and they lived up to my expectations as to who they are supposed to be, while at the same time, growing to become more. I continue to be impressed with these authors and this series. While all of these books in this series have their moments of horror thrown in with the action, I felt this book had the most so far, which added to the excitement and anxiety very well. I cannot recommend this series enough for those that like action books, thrillers and mysteries, entertwined with some real elements of horror. On to the next in the series, and more great fun! Btw, on the ending and the big event that happens in this book,
December 5, 2017
Fantastic! Really enjoyed this one. It seemed to me a return to the form of the pre-Diogenes books. Great story, action almost from the very first page, a fascinating look at a different part of New York. It was pretty creepy too. Such a great series. Join me on my campaign: #Pendergast for President...
August 8, 2022
I'm done with Cemetery Dance: Another book that is well written and enjoyable.....but I am not that invested in the storyline even with the death of a character that I have enjoyed. I find this to be the case with good writing. I keep reading it even if it wanders along a trail that is not leading me anywhere interesting. I just keep going hoping to come a wonderful conclusion. I was satisfied with how the story was wrapped up and the explanations given. Why a character that had been part of earlier stories had to be killed....I don't know. Several books in the series I thought were a bit overlong and had filler added and this is one of them. The reader of the audio version did a great job. I notice they change, and I do not become attached. I rate the book 3.5*
June 25, 2019
4.5 stars.
Oh wow, what an exhilarating and thrilling ride!
Cemetery Dance is a return to form indeed. While the Diogenes trilogy started most promisingly, that story became quite incredulous as it progressed towards its denouement. The preceding book, The Wheel of Darkness, felt inconsistent with the rest of the series as it veered too heavily on mysticism. Having said that, these books were still page-turners and sleep-burners.
This book has all the components of the Pendergast series which I loved so much, and a distinct lack of those which I didn't. The plot always carries a supernatural slant, which I absolutely adore, that has a reasonable explanation that does not tread far into the realm of the inexplicable. This is not to say that I don't fancy unexplained phenomena, but there is a time and place for it, and a crime thriller series that is not marketed as an urban fantasy is not one of them.
Also, not having read the blurb at all - I usually try to avoid that when I go deeper into a series - I was in shock with the early death and brutal murder of well-loved character in the earlier books. As such, the emotional connection that our main characters carried into the investigation made it feel more raw and gritty.
Love these books - yes, even the ones which I claimed were not as good.
Oh wow, what an exhilarating and thrilling ride!
Cemetery Dance is a return to form indeed. While the Diogenes trilogy started most promisingly, that story became quite incredulous as it progressed towards its denouement. The preceding book, The Wheel of Darkness, felt inconsistent with the rest of the series as it veered too heavily on mysticism. Having said that, these books were still page-turners and sleep-burners.
This book has all the components of the Pendergast series which I loved so much, and a distinct lack of those which I didn't. The plot always carries a supernatural slant, which I absolutely adore, that has a reasonable explanation that does not tread far into the realm of the inexplicable. This is not to say that I don't fancy unexplained phenomena, but there is a time and place for it, and a crime thriller series that is not marketed as an urban fantasy is not one of them.
Also, not having read the blurb at all - I usually try to avoid that when I go deeper into a series - I was in shock with the early death and brutal murder of well-loved character in the earlier books. As such, the emotional connection that our main characters carried into the investigation made it feel more raw and gritty.
Love these books - yes, even the ones which I claimed were not as good.
September 6, 2020
“Excuse me, Pendergast, but I have to ask: you don’t actually believe that stuff about oanga and zombiis?”
“My dear Vincent, I don’t believe anything. I am not a priest. I deal with evidence and probabilities, not beliefs.”
“Yeah, I know. But I mean, Night of the Living Dead? No way.”
“That is a rather categorical statement.”
For some strange reason that isn't really clear even to me, I have omitted this book in the series. I have read all the books preceding this one in right order and all the books after, of course also in order. But somehow I haven't read this one. Well, I don't think it is a problem, especially that I remember the next books in this series rather sketchily. Although it came the time to finally deal with this negligence.
Why, I'm asking you Messrs. Preston and Child, why do you have to kill Bill? (I know this rhyme sounds cheep but it wasn't intentional) Okay, so he has never been my favourite character, for most of the time I didn't really care about him. But to kill him, just like that? That's an overkill! You just don't kill a character that is your main hero in one of your other books. Who stars in some of your other books. That you allowed the readers to get attached to. I quite like Nora Kelly and wish her well. And killing her husband is just cruel. Who will be next? D'Agosta? Pendergast himself?
Fortunately, the whole story keeps your interest. The chapters are short, the characters familiar and the action is fast. The whole voodoo / zombii thing is really interesting. It is also used masterly to make the whole story really different from thousands of other books out there. These all makes the book an easy read. Again I'm not sure why I waited that long.
The explanation of the whole affair is much better than I expected. The authors could have use an easy solution but they went for something more complicated and sophisticated. That's a big plus.
It was nice to come back to the well-known characters again. I'm glad I read this story. But killing Bill, I won't forgive you that.
January 25, 2018
Painfully awful. Preston and Child's ploy, I believe in every single novel, is to create some paranormal thing - a monster, demon, apparition, homeschooled child - and then at the end of the novel pretend it was not really paranormal. There is a scientific explanation for everything, and at the end of each tome it unspools from Agent Pendergast's mouth.
Here, it's zombies. Although they aren't satisfied with that spelling, it has to be zombiis. Note, although this seems to be a book about voodoo, the authors pretend it's not voodoo. Nor is it Vôdou. It's Obeah. I hate zombies. I hate voodoo. Every American mystery series author seems to feel it a requirement to devote one book in their series to voodoo and I plow through these books with gritted teeth. There's also a lot of animal sacrifice going on, plus the reanimated corpse of Bill Smithback, yes that Bill, a recurring character for P&C, and only recently married to his wife Nora. Bill is in fact butchered on their one-year anniversary and then, bloody rags still stuck to his body and long ropes of saliva dripping from his gaping maw (all the zombies have long ropy saliva), goes after Nora. If you believe this could never happen in real life, well, you just don't understand science.
In a previous review I complained about P&C's use and abuse of such words as "palsied", "purchase", "scrabbled", and worst, "susurrus." They show up again here: The steel loops on a curtain rod rattle "with a cold, palsied cadence." Nora's hands are "grabbing for purchase on bushes" as she climbs a "defile" (I had better not see this word again). A reporter "scrabbled against the chain link, finding a purchase". Someone's hand "scrabbled on the wetness." D'Agosta "couldn't get a purchase" on slippery walls. After a zombii chomps down a freshly sacrificed colt, "the susurrus rose in volume".
March 28, 2025
Always great reads. I love the Pentagrast books. This one does not disappoint. The writers are eloquent in their descriptive wording.
This addition has an alluring action-packed adventure. As always, the story is a different twist from the previous ones. Where do the zombiis come from? What is the cult's true purpose, and who is the real mastermind behind it all?
No spoilers, but a character who has been throughout this series is murdered unexpectedly, and it made me really sad. Until the very end, I had no idea how diabolical the mastermind was. Hope to read some other opinions on this book.
This addition has an alluring action-packed adventure. As always, the story is a different twist from the previous ones. Where do the zombiis come from? What is the cult's true purpose, and who is the real mastermind behind it all?
No spoilers, but a character who has been throughout this series is murdered unexpectedly, and it made me really sad. Until the very end, I had no idea how diabolical the mastermind was. Hope to read some other opinions on this book.
February 23, 2018
Cemetery Dance is a return to form for Agent Pendergast. It has an intriguing mystery, hints of the macabre and the return of some familiar characters. Surprisingly, for a story set in New York, it is not focused on the Museum of Natural History. And there is no Constance.
The trademark subtle humour returns intertwined with a pretty serious plot. The one negative for me were little changes in Pendergast’s character.
The trademark subtle humour returns intertwined with a pretty serious plot. The one negative for me were little changes in Pendergast’s character.
August 23, 2016
Pure 5 stars. As usuall...
June 5, 2009
Wow, I just finished this book and it brought back the feeling I had when I first read Relic and met Agent Pendergast. When I first heard that this book had been released I was a little hesitant as I did not enjoy The Wheel of Darkness as much as some of Preston’s and Childs’ other books. But the first 10 pages will blow your mind! I could not believe how they started off the book and I have to admit I was a little devastated.
That said I felt like after those first few pages you feel like you have a personal interest in seeing the murders solved and the murderers brought to justice. I found myself saying “Ok, I will stop at the end of this chapter” but it was hard to put the book down. I thought D’Agosta’s character was a little annoying and totally irrational, which in the context of the story is totally fitting, but was a bit much. Pendergast is his usual smooth and slightly odd self. I thought it was kind of funny that the book centers around zombies. I guess there is no escaping the craze. You will definitely be left guessing until the last few pages of the book.
One minor point that did bother me was there was almost no reference what so ever to what happened to Pendergast in The Wheel of Darkness. I felt like that book showed a weakness in Pendergast and put him through such a trauma that I was curious to see how his character would adapt. I know at the end of Cemetery Dance it’s mentioned that this is supposed to be a stand alone book but I would have liked to see some explanation of how Pendergast recovered so quickly from the events in The Wheel of Darkness.
That said I felt like after those first few pages you feel like you have a personal interest in seeing the murders solved and the murderers brought to justice. I found myself saying “Ok, I will stop at the end of this chapter” but it was hard to put the book down. I thought D’Agosta’s character was a little annoying and totally irrational, which in the context of the story is totally fitting, but was a bit much. Pendergast is his usual smooth and slightly odd self. I thought it was kind of funny that the book centers around zombies. I guess there is no escaping the craze. You will definitely be left guessing until the last few pages of the book.
One minor point that did bother me was there was almost no reference what so ever to what happened to Pendergast in The Wheel of Darkness. I felt like that book showed a weakness in Pendergast and put him through such a trauma that I was curious to see how his character would adapt. I know at the end of Cemetery Dance it’s mentioned that this is supposed to be a stand alone book but I would have liked to see some explanation of how Pendergast recovered so quickly from the events in The Wheel of Darkness.
July 15, 2009
Zombies in Upper Manhattan. (Hey, it's summer.) A relatively weak entry in the Agent Pendergast series, which is usually distinguished by its weirdly exuberant combination of police-procedural structure and supernatural, The-Thing-That-Lived-In-the-Subways plotting. This one has some interesting historical background on the Inwood neighborhood at the northern tip of Manhattan, an area I don't know at all despite have grown up in New York, but there's something enervated about the story and the writing, as if the authors didn't really have an inspiration this time around and dredged the book up from the bottom of endless cups of coffee to fulfill their obligation to the publisher. Even the eccentric and brilliant Pendergast, one of the more original and compelling detective characters going, seems colorless and sort of exhausted. Part of the problem may be that for the first time that I can remember in this series Preston & Child don't stand by their supernatural premise, a curious decision since its one of the things that sets the series apart in its overcrowded field. A disappointment.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 20, 2012
Let me preface this that I picked up a copy and had it signed by Preston and Child themsevles at the very first stop of their book signing tour at a local Barnes and Noble. If you have an opportunity to go see them, do so! Very personable, open to questions and had a great time talking to the fans, signing the books and answering the questions! They are working on another book and I did ask them if we'll ever see a sequel to Ice Limit (which if you'll recall was mentioned in Still Life with Crowes) and when I asked Lincoln Child he said 'yes there will be and sooner than you think!'
Now, on to the review.
Simply put, I loved it. Pendergast, D'agosta, Hayward, Kelly, Smithback, they're all here. This is simply yet another great mystery/whodunit penned by Preston and Child featuring characters that we fans have been reading for years now and if you're anything like me, have grown rather attached to.
I'm not giving anything away in saying that Smithback is murdered in this book. It's very sad to say the least which shows just how engaging these characters have become to me as a long time fan. Who did it? A man named Colin Fearing. But is he just a man? The majority of this book covers Voodoo and Zombis. Sound a little far fetched? Perhaps at first glance but as with Preston and Child novels, the Pendergast books in particular, the far fetched doesn't always seem as unbeleivable after you start to turn the pages. I haven't encountered other authors than can go out on a limb with the supernatural and mystical and be able to land on their feet like Preston and Child.
At the center of this mystery is a cult like village referred to as the Ville which is situated in one of the most remote forests of Manhattan (and this is a real live place, not made up). Talk of animal sacrifice, murder and voodoo rituals coupled with the murder of Smithback by a zombi makes the public outcry immense against the Ville.
Pendergast, D'agosta and Nora Kelly are hell bent on finding out who would be after and want to murder their fallen friend/husband and what is really at the bottom of this zombi mystery. Let me say that it's definetly more complicated than it seems at first glance.
It took me a little while to read this book. Not because it was incredibly long, not because it was boring or difficult to read or hard to follow. It's simply because when a Preston and Child novel comes out I tend to read them slower because I enjoy them so much I find myself not wanting them to end, even though I'm eager to see how everything plays out.
Cemetery Dance doesn't disappoint and any fans of Preston and Child novels and their repeating characters should get their hands on this one.
Now, on to the review.
Simply put, I loved it. Pendergast, D'agosta, Hayward, Kelly, Smithback, they're all here. This is simply yet another great mystery/whodunit penned by Preston and Child featuring characters that we fans have been reading for years now and if you're anything like me, have grown rather attached to.
I'm not giving anything away in saying that Smithback is murdered in this book. It's very sad to say the least which shows just how engaging these characters have become to me as a long time fan. Who did it? A man named Colin Fearing. But is he just a man? The majority of this book covers Voodoo and Zombis. Sound a little far fetched? Perhaps at first glance but as with Preston and Child novels, the Pendergast books in particular, the far fetched doesn't always seem as unbeleivable after you start to turn the pages. I haven't encountered other authors than can go out on a limb with the supernatural and mystical and be able to land on their feet like Preston and Child.
At the center of this mystery is a cult like village referred to as the Ville which is situated in one of the most remote forests of Manhattan (and this is a real live place, not made up). Talk of animal sacrifice, murder and voodoo rituals coupled with the murder of Smithback by a zombi makes the public outcry immense against the Ville.
Pendergast, D'agosta and Nora Kelly are hell bent on finding out who would be after and want to murder their fallen friend/husband and what is really at the bottom of this zombi mystery. Let me say that it's definetly more complicated than it seems at first glance.
It took me a little while to read this book. Not because it was incredibly long, not because it was boring or difficult to read or hard to follow. It's simply because when a Preston and Child novel comes out I tend to read them slower because I enjoy them so much I find myself not wanting them to end, even though I'm eager to see how everything plays out.
Cemetery Dance doesn't disappoint and any fans of Preston and Child novels and their repeating characters should get their hands on this one.
February 13, 2020
Ah, a return to the layered majesty of a good Pendergast novel. A childhood in New Orleans, and his murdered friend, draws Aloysius deep into the voodoo aspects of Lt. D’Agosta’s latest case.
I enjoy that the characters are faulted, that they work hard, that they bleed, and that I know I will have a good ending.
The weak point of the book was Aloysius’ teacher, the voodoo expert. You would think anyone Agent Pendergast calls in as backup would be as knowledgeable as they were deadly. Nope.
November 18, 2018
I do, to date, have loved the books of Lincoln and Child. And especially love the Special Agent Pendergast. But the story line was too much for me: voodoo and zombies.
May 29, 2020
RIP, Bill Smithback.
The feels.
The feels.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 9, 2020
4/5
El más triste de la saga, de momento
El más triste de la saga, de momento
February 23, 2019
Hay que decir que la capacidad que tienen estos dos autores para escribir novelas de aventuras combinadas con el thriller bastante singulares y podría decir incluso, diferentes.
Van del thriller y la aventura, a lo místico, el terror, la fantasía, siempre tienen historias llenas de situaciones increíbles pero que de algún modo casi mágico terminan por tener explicaciones “científicas”
Pendergast es un personaje que me encanta, tiene la fuerza de querer seguir sus pasos, seguir encontrándome con él, no perderle de vista, saber que nueva aventura se trae entre manos, seguir conociendo su pasado, su extraña familia, es un personaje del que cuando crees que sabes lo suficiente te encuentras que todavía hay mucho para escarbar.
Por otro lado tengo que decir que de todas las entregas que he leído de esta serie, este ha sido el que menos me ha gustado, no me malinterpreten, el libro es bueno, ha sido entretenido y si fuera un libro independiente a leer y no tuviera contra que medirlo seguramente lo calificaría mucho mejor, pero resulta que tengo 9 libros leídos relacionados a esta serie detrás y al comparar este se queda por debajo de los demás, me ha resultado por un lado una historia bastante poco creíble, creo que el tema principal que han utilizado en esta ocasión ha sido ir un poco más allá de lo que estos autores se habían permitido, si tuviera que compararlo con alguno de la serie sería con el primero, tiene más esa línea de ciencia ficción que todos los demás.
Además tengo que sumarle a eso que el libro comienza asesinando a uno de mis personajes favoritos, me cuesta trabajo pensar en esta serie más adelante sin este personaje en particular, le había tomado cariño y me sorprende que cuando le han dado un papel tan importante en la serie, me lo maten así como así, si esto fuera un guion de televisión pensaría que el actor se enojó con los escritores y le han buscado matarlo para sacarlo de la serie, no me gustó eso, nada puedo hacer al respecto, creo que de alguna manera esperaba que lo resucitarán al final, pero pues no.
Por supuesto pienso seguir esta serie, me faltan muchos libros por delante y estoy bastante enganchada a Pendergast para dejarlo solo porque me han matado a uno de mis personajes favoritos
Van del thriller y la aventura, a lo místico, el terror, la fantasía, siempre tienen historias llenas de situaciones increíbles pero que de algún modo casi mágico terminan por tener explicaciones “científicas”
Pendergast es un personaje que me encanta, tiene la fuerza de querer seguir sus pasos, seguir encontrándome con él, no perderle de vista, saber que nueva aventura se trae entre manos, seguir conociendo su pasado, su extraña familia, es un personaje del que cuando crees que sabes lo suficiente te encuentras que todavía hay mucho para escarbar.
Por otro lado tengo que decir que de todas las entregas que he leído de esta serie, este ha sido el que menos me ha gustado, no me malinterpreten, el libro es bueno, ha sido entretenido y si fuera un libro independiente a leer y no tuviera contra que medirlo seguramente lo calificaría mucho mejor, pero resulta que tengo 9 libros leídos relacionados a esta serie detrás y al comparar este se queda por debajo de los demás, me ha resultado por un lado una historia bastante poco creíble, creo que el tema principal que han utilizado en esta ocasión ha sido ir un poco más allá de lo que estos autores se habían permitido, si tuviera que compararlo con alguno de la serie sería con el primero, tiene más esa línea de ciencia ficción que todos los demás.
Además tengo que sumarle a eso que el libro comienza asesinando a uno de mis personajes favoritos, me cuesta trabajo pensar en esta serie más adelante sin este personaje en particular, le había tomado cariño y me sorprende que cuando le han dado un papel tan importante en la serie, me lo maten así como así, si esto fuera un guion de televisión pensaría que el actor se enojó con los escritores y le han buscado matarlo para sacarlo de la serie, no me gustó eso, nada puedo hacer al respecto, creo que de alguna manera esperaba que lo resucitarán al final, pero pues no.
Por supuesto pienso seguir esta serie, me faltan muchos libros por delante y estoy bastante enganchada a Pendergast para dejarlo solo porque me han matado a uno de mis personajes favoritos
July 8, 2022
Well the series is back on track with this one! 😀 After The Wheel of Darkness (Pendergast #8) I was a bit leery. I suspected they would course correct though (Like Primus says... They can't all be zingers). I felt early on that this might have a Scooby-Doo ending because things were so bizarre and I couldn't see where it was going (“And I would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for that Aloysius and his pals…”. ? 🧟♂️), but it actually made sense.
Breaking from the Eastern mysticism from the last book – which even I had a hard time suspending belief in lots of parts (and I'm easy to please) -- this one delves into zombies! As usual with P&C stories I spent time googling little bits of information from the book seeing if the elements were true. (the internet never lies... right?) I learned a lot about the variations of voodoo... as well as some of the scientific theories behind some of it. I also found that the Inwood Hill park in NYC was a real place. Furthermore, the Straus family did indeed live there . I love the way they inject historical bits into the stories – that's very refreshing.
The story starts out with quite an unexpected twist... As I mentioned in the intro... it really goes through some crazy gyrations early on... typical of Preston/Child stories. I liked the the flow of the story though – and although it wasn't as suspenseful as some of the previous books – I wound up giving it five stars . This one features several recurring characters from earlier books – including D'Agosta, Nora Kelly, and Laura Hayward. It's nice that the Pender-verse has expanded sufficiently to mix/match characters in and out to keep the stories fresh and fun.
I didn't think Pendergast had quite as many moments of Sherlock-ian brilliance as he did in earlier installments. He did have several great sections though... I loved the interaction with the NYPD on the boat – that was great. Also, and similar to some earlier books... he had a deep personal interest in the case that pulled him in.
A fun read overall and I look forward to future installments 😀
Personal aside: I was on vacation when I finished this story so my (short) review was delayed a bit. I went to Portland for a week. My first vacation stop was Powell’s bookstore. This is quite the amazing place and they claim anyway to be largest used/new bookstore in the world. I'm not sure how they measure this (square footage/number of books/other), but this is quite the place. Any GR member that visits Portland should make a point to check it out.
Breaking from the Eastern mysticism from the last book – which even I had a hard time suspending belief in lots of parts (and I'm easy to please) -- this one delves into zombies! As usual with P&C stories I spent time googling little bits of information from the book seeing if the elements were true. (the internet never lies... right?) I learned a lot about the variations of voodoo... as well as some of the scientific theories behind some of it. I also found that the Inwood Hill park in NYC was a real place. Furthermore, the Straus family did indeed live there . I love the way they inject historical bits into the stories – that's very refreshing.
The story starts out with quite an unexpected twist... As I mentioned in the intro... it really goes through some crazy gyrations early on... typical of Preston/Child stories. I liked the the flow of the story though – and although it wasn't as suspenseful as some of the previous books – I wound up giving it five stars . This one features several recurring characters from earlier books – including D'Agosta, Nora Kelly, and Laura Hayward. It's nice that the Pender-verse has expanded sufficiently to mix/match characters in and out to keep the stories fresh and fun.
I didn't think Pendergast had quite as many moments of Sherlock-ian brilliance as he did in earlier installments. He did have several great sections though... I loved the interaction with the NYPD on the boat – that was great. Also, and similar to some earlier books... he had a deep personal interest in the case that pulled him in.
A fun read overall and I look forward to future installments 😀
Personal aside: I was on vacation when I finished this story so my (short) review was delayed a bit. I went to Portland for a week. My first vacation stop was Powell’s bookstore. This is quite the amazing place and they claim anyway to be largest used/new bookstore in the world. I'm not sure how they measure this (square footage/number of books/other), but this is quite the place. Any GR member that visits Portland should make a point to check it out.
March 21, 2010
It seems that the longer many of my favorite series go, the more tiresome they become. I'm afraid that Preston and Child's Pendergast series is doing just that.
The plot of this one revolves around a hybrid form of voodoo and a secret town hidden inside a park in the middle of NYC. I won't go into the plot details here because it is irrelevant to my main beef with the work.
Over the years I have enjoyed Pendergast. He always seemed to be something of a modern age Sherlock Holmes. He was at once mysterious and unusual while also brilliant and almost prescient.
For the first time in this work, I noticed chinks in Pendergast's armor. The tipping point was a common philosophical mistake: Pascal's Wager. This classical conundrum has been used for 300 years to show that it is better to believe in religion. It's the classic "hedge your bets" strategy.
Unfortunately, Preston and Child don't seem to know much about it. They use it in the work incorrectly stating it as follows: A lifelong atheist is about to die. He calls a priest to confess his sins and profess his belief in God. Does he act logically? Preston and Child have Pendergast assert he does act completely logically. Alas, they have Pendergast falling into an amateurs trap in the faulty logic of Pascal's Wager.
Simply put, Pascal's Wager itself is illogical because it requires a number of unsubstantiated assumptions such as a "god" who is incapable of discerning false statements or beliefs, a "god" who prefers falsehood to honesty, and a "god" who will punish honest inquiry and questioning while rewarding lies and mendacity. If any of these are true then the "god" would not fit the criteria of a "god" at all. Thus, Pascal's Wager is ridiculous.
The Pendergast that I have always considered brilliant and quite logical should have spotted those amateur traps. Unfortunately, even a great detective is only as good as his author. Thus, we find Pendergast stumbling over such a simple thing.
This may not seem like a big deal, but for me it was big enough to blow the illusion of Pendergast and demote him, for me, from the pantheon of great fictional detectives.
Otherwise, the book is somewhat uninspired. The action follows a fairly standard formula of murder, kidnapping, plot twist, and resolution.
Honestly, this did not seem up to some of their earlier works which were much creepier and well laid out.
The plot of this one revolves around a hybrid form of voodoo and a secret town hidden inside a park in the middle of NYC. I won't go into the plot details here because it is irrelevant to my main beef with the work.
Over the years I have enjoyed Pendergast. He always seemed to be something of a modern age Sherlock Holmes. He was at once mysterious and unusual while also brilliant and almost prescient.
For the first time in this work, I noticed chinks in Pendergast's armor. The tipping point was a common philosophical mistake: Pascal's Wager. This classical conundrum has been used for 300 years to show that it is better to believe in religion. It's the classic "hedge your bets" strategy.
Unfortunately, Preston and Child don't seem to know much about it. They use it in the work incorrectly stating it as follows: A lifelong atheist is about to die. He calls a priest to confess his sins and profess his belief in God. Does he act logically? Preston and Child have Pendergast assert he does act completely logically. Alas, they have Pendergast falling into an amateurs trap in the faulty logic of Pascal's Wager.
Simply put, Pascal's Wager itself is illogical because it requires a number of unsubstantiated assumptions such as a "god" who is incapable of discerning false statements or beliefs, a "god" who prefers falsehood to honesty, and a "god" who will punish honest inquiry and questioning while rewarding lies and mendacity. If any of these are true then the "god" would not fit the criteria of a "god" at all. Thus, Pascal's Wager is ridiculous.
The Pendergast that I have always considered brilliant and quite logical should have spotted those amateur traps. Unfortunately, even a great detective is only as good as his author. Thus, we find Pendergast stumbling over such a simple thing.
This may not seem like a big deal, but for me it was big enough to blow the illusion of Pendergast and demote him, for me, from the pantheon of great fictional detectives.
Otherwise, the book is somewhat uninspired. The action follows a fairly standard formula of murder, kidnapping, plot twist, and resolution.
Honestly, this did not seem up to some of their earlier works which were much creepier and well laid out.
May 23, 2009
Although most, if not all, of the other GR reviews for this book contain a certain plot element without including a spoiler warning, I'm a little uncertain about doing so. I understand their likely reasoning - it's revealed in the inner flap of the book and occurs in the first few pages, but the shock I felt when opening up the cover and reading the newspaper clipping printed there, "William Smithback Jr., a prominent New York Time reporter, was killed in a brutal attack last night in his Upper West Side apartment," was so startling that I'd hate to take that away from other readers.
My first response was denial - no way did Preston and Child kill off Smithback. He's one of their original characters, introduced in Relic along with D'Agosta and Pendergast. No way did they do it and then reveal it in the book's synopsis without some sort of twist. It's a misdirection! At least twice they've given the illusion that someone was dead, only to find out that we'd been tricked. I was quite confident Smithback would be just fine.
By the time I got to the autopsy scene, where his organs were displayed around his opened corpse, I realized that no, our dear journalist has really left us.
#$@!
One reason I love the Preston/Child books so much is that they've crafted unique characters that I end up really attached to. This is the opposite of so many other thrillers (including, puzzlingly, their solo books). In the end, the reason for Smithback's death was so mundane that it was disappointing. We lost him so some rich dude can get richer? The rich dude's full plan, when finally revealed, seems too crazily far-fetched - too many things had to happen just right for it to have worked out. Being a fictional story, obviously everything DID happen right, but it required quite a bit of suspension of disbelief (go ahead and laugh - after everything that's happened in the Preston/Child books, THIS is what trips me up? I know, I know.)
I'm just lukewarm on this one, which is sad since, to me, new Preston/Child releases are akin to new Harry Potters. There are threads dropped within that are reasonably expected to lead to new ones (Nora's new expedition and the mysterious envelope Pendergast receives), so hopefully I'll go back to being a drooling fangirl in a year's time.
My first response was denial - no way did Preston and Child kill off Smithback. He's one of their original characters, introduced in Relic along with D'Agosta and Pendergast. No way did they do it and then reveal it in the book's synopsis without some sort of twist. It's a misdirection! At least twice they've given the illusion that someone was dead, only to find out that we'd been tricked. I was quite confident Smithback would be just fine.
By the time I got to the autopsy scene, where his organs were displayed around his opened corpse, I realized that no, our dear journalist has really left us.
#$@!
One reason I love the Preston/Child books so much is that they've crafted unique characters that I end up really attached to. This is the opposite of so many other thrillers (including, puzzlingly, their solo books). In the end, the reason for Smithback's death was so mundane that it was disappointing. We lost him so some rich dude can get richer? The rich dude's full plan, when finally revealed, seems too crazily far-fetched - too many things had to happen just right for it to have worked out. Being a fictional story, obviously everything DID happen right, but it required quite a bit of suspension of disbelief (go ahead and laugh - after everything that's happened in the Preston/Child books, THIS is what trips me up? I know, I know.)
I'm just lukewarm on this one, which is sad since, to me, new Preston/Child releases are akin to new Harry Potters. There are threads dropped within that are reasonably expected to lead to new ones (Nora's new expedition and the mysterious envelope Pendergast receives), so hopefully I'll go back to being a drooling fangirl in a year's time.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 11, 2022
Wow. This was bad. Talk about a series filler. The premise had promise but execution fell flat. Pinning murders on a weird cult seemed ok. But the focus on non-essential characters was unnecessary. And I don't get the obsession with man-like creatures in their novels. Lobotomy induced "zombies" was one of the big reveals. Shocking. Im also not a fan of the final chapter wrap up where everything is explained from a hospital bed. I'm determined to finish the series but can't wait for it to end.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 26, 2018
Wow. one heck of a comeback. Very glad that the writers decided to stick to the tried and tested formula of awesomeness. I can't wait to find out what was in that letter that was being delivered to the special agent. Off to the next one...
August 6, 2016
This story was nutso crazy balls but I loved it!
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