Preston & Child revisited

I have previously posted about the writing team of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. They have a couple of very good series: the long-running Pendergast series, and the more recent Gideon Cross, plus a small number of stand-alone novels that actually tie into both of these series. As they have new novels out, best to cover them.  Plus I need to review Gideon Cross.

There have been two new Pendergast novels:

• “White Fire” (2013)
• “Blue Labyrinth” (2014)

In “White Fire,” the focus of the novel is Corrie Swanson, who had assisted Pendergast in “Still Life With Crows.” She has been studying criminology at college, thanks to the support of Pendergast, but as not been involved with the series since then. This novel focuses on her, with Pendergast more of a secondary character (though still a strong presence).

For her senior thesis, she sets out to a former mining town in Colorado, now a tony ski resort, to do a forensics analysis of a 19th century miner recently exhumed. But she gets more then she bargained for when by doing so she unveils the truth about a crime that occurred over a hundred years ago, and to issues still affecting the town today.

“Blue Labyrinth” has Pendergast on the trail of a new enemy, one who has left the dead body of a dangerous foe on his doorstep (no, I won’t say who, though it’s one I though might plague Pendergast over time before there might be a conclusion). This enemy is tied to one of Pendergast’s ancestors who had built the family fortune on “patient medicine” that actually made people worse. So we close the door on one foe, we learn more about Pendergast’s family history, and we get to see Pendergast back in action. What fun!

Their new hero is Gideon Crew. He is an unusual character who is in the same “universe” as Pendergast, et al. This is because Eli Glinn, head of Effective Engineering Solutions, who has helped Pendergast, is the man who recruits Crew for his tasks.

• “Gideon’s Sword” (2011)
• “Gideon’s Corpse” (2012)
• “The Lost Island” (2014)

We meet Gideon in the first novel. He is a scientist at Los Alamos who is also an art thief and master of disguise. We learn that his mathematician father was murdered when he tried to warn his boss that an encryption algorithm he had created was flawed. Gideon exacts revenge on the murderers. (Some think that this could have been a novel in itself, and I kind of agree.)

After this, he is recruited by Glinn to do special and dangerous missions for him. Something that makes it unusual is that Gideon has a rare and incurable disease that will kill him within a year. You wonder how this might affect a thriller series like this, when you have the hero that may only be around a short time.

In the first novel, Gideon mission is to retrieve the plans for a superweapon before the Chinese gets them. The second novel has him dealing with a co-worker who has gone crazy and is killed in a hostage situation. Evidence points to this employee having built a dirty bomb, and Gideon needs to discover the plot behind it all, as he is himself framed as a terrorist.

“The Lost Island” deals with Gideon finding a treasure map hidden on the back of a page of the “Book of Kells” (a real book). This leads to an important discovery for mankind (and maybe a cure for Gideon). This is hidden on a lost island off the coast of Central America that ties in with Greek legends. Gideon is then off to find this “treasure.” Will he succeed and will it be the cure he needs?

Another Gideon novel is planned, which will be a sequel to “The Ice Limit.” Not surprising, as anyone who has read the series saw that this was looming in the background. (if you’ve not read that book, best do it before getting into the Gideon Crew books. Will help in understanding Glinn). Whether there will be more remands to be seen.

If you’ve enjoyed their other novels, check these out as well. We should be seeing another Pendergast book later in 2015.