Though it can be read as a separate novel, the storyline begun in FEVER DREAM continues here. In that previous book, Pendergast learned that his beloved wife, Helen, killed twelve years before by a rogue lion when her rifle misfired, had in fact been murdered. The rifle, untouched by him or anyone else since the incident, is taken from the gun case for cleaning. He finds it loaded with blanks.

Pendergast is on a mission to find his wife's killer, a trek that takes him form Scotland to New York to Louisiana. Along the way, he uncovers disturbing things about Helen. English wasn't her native language, but Portuguese instead. She'd never told him that.

He's relentless in his pursuit in a showdown on a yacht at sea. One man against a dozen with his ward, Constance, a prisoner somewhere on board.

And a final battle where some of the answers are about to be revealed gets rudely interrupted.

Preston and Child know how to keep the action flowing. I finished this one in a day and a half and know have to wait a year for the next art of the story.

Darn!