Still Life with Crows
by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 943)
Read in October, 2007
I think I'm in love with Special Agent Pendergast! Haha! This guy is amazing. He appears to be unflappable. Now, I've only read two of his adventures, so far, but he's just incredible.
Set in Medicine Creek, KS (interesting as I just moved to KS), this story starts off with a particularly gruesome murder and takes off from there. Having spent time in small towns growing up, the local flavor of small-town America is pretty accurate. The overall atmosphere set out in the books during various st...more
Set in Medicine Creek, KS (interesting as I just moved to KS), this story starts off with a particularly gruesome murder and takes off from there. Having spent time in small towns growing up, the local flavor of small-town America is pretty accurate. The overall atmosphere set out in the books during various st...more
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Read in May, 2008
You can't beat Preston and Child for macabre mystery genre. In this book we find Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast arriving mysteriously in Medicine Creek, Kansas. A nowhere town headed nowhere, until the Kansas State University takes an interest in the town as a site to test genetically altered corn.
Unfortunately a series of bizarre murders threatens that plan from ever becoming a reality. Agent Pendergast is in a race to prevent more murders while trying to keep from being run out of town b...more
Unfortunately a series of bizarre murders threatens that plan from ever becoming a reality. Agent Pendergast is in a race to prevent more murders while trying to keep from being run out of town b...more
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Read in February, 2006
I have a little crush on Aloysius Pendergast, I do believe. He's a great character; very Sherlock Holmes-esque, but rather more bizarre -- he makes Sherlock Holmes seem like a normal guy.
Anyhoo, I really enjoyed this; I thought it was a lot better than Brimstone, which is the other Pendergast novel I've read (yes, I know I'm reading them all out of order); the secondary characters were fleshed out nicely, and there was a lot of good humor as the natives of a tiny Kansas town try to fi...more
Anyhoo, I really enjoyed this; I thought it was a lot better than Brimstone, which is the other Pendergast novel I've read (yes, I know I'm reading them all out of order); the secondary characters were fleshed out nicely, and there was a lot of good humor as the natives of a tiny Kansas town try to fi...more
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Read in November, 2006
"Still Life With Crows" brings FBI Special Agent Pendergast to a quaint town that bares the soul of Americana. Here, Lincold Child and Douglas Preston unravels a mother's love challenging modern society's wrestling with notions of right or wrong. the suspense and mystery of Preston and Child's earlier novel "The Relic" is there as well as the nudge of anthropological twist only both novelists can apply. readers looking for the colors in Caleb Carr's earlier novels on 18th cen...more
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Read in March, 2008
I'm a big fan of horror novels, but there are so many cheesy ones out there that it is sometimes a turn-off. There are also a lot of over-rated horror novels by mega authors who people read for the name alone (the more recent works of Stephen King are the best example of this)
Still Life with Crows renewed my faith that there can still be horror novels that are well-written. Its an exciting tale of horrible murders that are occuring in a town that has never experienced anything so tragic.
As ...more
Still Life with Crows renewed my faith that there can still be horror novels that are well-written. Its an exciting tale of horrible murders that are occuring in a town that has never experienced anything so tragic.
As ...more
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Read in January, 2007
A Preston/Child novel featuring Pendergast but...get this...NOT in nyc. This one actually made me sleep with the light on a couple nights. Serial killer in the cornfields, abandoned mines, introduction to cory. Its all in here and its all good.
Incidentally I also decided to start playing a little game with myself with this book...from this one all, for all Preston/Child novels I try my damndest to figure out the mystery before pendergast. He also has that one final twist over me, but sometim...more
Incidentally I also decided to start playing a little game with myself with this book...from this one all, for all Preston/Child novels I try my damndest to figure out the mystery before pendergast. He also has that one final twist over me, but sometim...more
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Read in May, 2008
Special agent Pendergast is powerful character with whom you can't help but fall in love. I've read some of the other novels out of sequence, however I did read "Brimstone", "Dance of Death: and the "Book of the Dead" in order, and recommend this. Preston & Child are very good together and keep you wanting more. Evil happens in a small Kansas town, and although you want it to be corrupt officials who are trying to get the University of Kansas to come to their town,...more
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Read in March, 2008
One of my favorite Pendergast books so far, Still Life finds our antihero on vacation in Kansas as he investigates (what else?) a string of bizarre murders. The genius of this book is not in the procedural details, but in the prose that paints the strange figure in the dark suit into a Wyeth painting. Seeing the strange wonder of the FBI interact with the regular folks of the FBI gives this book the dark, twisted sense of humor that makes the darker points a little brighter, and the li...more
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This by far was the best Pendergast novel since Relic. A page turning thriller that only Aloysius can be involved in. Just like in Relic you have know idea who or what the killer is but only that bizzare crimes keep happening in a small Kansas town. Police are baffeled at the way the killer leaves his victims only Pendergast can solve it in the only way he knows how.......... Great read you don't really have to read the other novels to keep up with whats going on. Read Relic if you have not.
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recommends it for:
Mystery readers?
Many others have liked this book, but I just couldn't get into it (a first for these authors). It seemed excessively and unredeemably violent (beyond anything I usually expect from these guys). I just couldn't get into the characters (not even the "standards" who appear from book to book).
And, about a third of the way through, I gave it away to someone else (who also didn't like it, but I don't know what she did with it). Too bad!
And, about a third of the way through, I gave it away to someone else (who also didn't like it, but I don't know what she did with it). Too bad!
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Read in August, 2007
Just finished this one by Preston and Child. I'd read Relic years ago and decided to give these guys another shot while I wait for the next F. Paul Wilson Repairman Jack installment. Needless to say, I LOVED it. Nothing better than creepy corn fields in Kansas and deranged and creepy cave dwellers. Plus, agent Pendergast is a fantastic character. I've now decided to try some of the others in this series.
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Read in April, 2008
SELCO
I decided to read this book thinking it would uncover some mysterious information about Constance Green. It didn't but was glad I read it as it was by far the best Preston/Childs book I've read thus far. The race was on to find the cave-dwelling killer responsible for killing members of a small town in Kansas. Pendergast, as usual, comes to the rescue of a teenager shunned by the community.
I decided to read this book thinking it would uncover some mysterious information about Constance Green. It didn't but was glad I read it as it was by far the best Preston/Childs book I've read thus far. The race was on to find the cave-dwelling killer responsible for killing members of a small town in Kansas. Pendergast, as usual, comes to the rescue of a teenager shunned by the community.
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Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
mystery lovers
The FBI agent in the story is better than James Bond ever thought about being in character. I enjoyed the character's personality in this book because the author's were able to make you visualize him so well throughout the book. I was a little frightened reading this story because they made it seem so real. This is my current next to best read without saying too much to spoil the story.
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I thought this book was well written and I really got the chills reading it. Maybe two people writing a book is better than just one! The writing is engaging and descriptive without being overbearing and the plot is very interesting. The protagonist, Pendergast, really caught my attention so I'll be reading more books about him in the future (Cabinet of Curiosities, The Relic).
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Best Final Chapter Ever.
The rest of the book is kinda weird, it's really rather random sometimes but the end is the most chilling thing I've read in a long time. Easily my favorite ending to a thriller/mystery. Well, at least one of my favorite endings.
Summery: There's a weird murder in a small town in Kansas. Special Agent Pendergast arrives to investigate. Awesomeness ensues.
The rest of the book is kinda weird, it's really rather random sometimes but the end is the most chilling thing I've read in a long time. Easily my favorite ending to a thriller/mystery. Well, at least one of my favorite endings.
Summery: There's a weird murder in a small town in Kansas. Special Agent Pendergast arrives to investigate. Awesomeness ensues.
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Read in August, 2003
When this book was released, I actually was reading every single Preston & Child book the second (okay, fine, within the week) it was released. I don't know if I just got burnt out on them, but I found this one to be a bit dull. D: Hoping to try it out again at a later date and get back in the Preston&Child swing of things, because I heard great things about their current books.
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Read in July, 2008
This one is a continuation of their series of Agent Pendergast novels, and certainly was not disappointing. There are some references in the book to their previous novel, "Cabinet of Curiosities", which I found interesting. Overall, a very entertaining read, though I found the ending fairly predictable (got it about 100-150 pages before the mystery actually unfolds).
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Read in June, 2008
recommended to Owen by:
Patricia Sparrow
Nothing much new here, but as far as race-to-catch-the-psycho-killer stories go, this is about the best I've ever read. It goes by blazingly fast and keeps up the frantic intensity and plot twists right up to the last page. Why they haven't started making all of the agent Pendergast books into a series of summer blockbuster movies yet is beyond me...
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Read in January, 2003
This book involves Pedergast investigating some odd murders in the Midwest. Contains no other characters from any of there previous books, so can be read at any point. I'd recommend at least reading Relic and Reliquary first just to be introduced to the character. In my opinion, it’s one of their weaker novels, but is still enjoyable.
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Read in January, 2005
I first found this book with my Audible.com subscription. The version I listened to was abridged and read by Rene Auberjonois. I think I fell hard for his version of Agent Pendergast, the soft southern lilt of a gentleman, his odd demeanor, his precise, logical mind. Knowing there were more books to come made me ridiculously happy.
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