I have previously posted about the writing team of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. I have been enjoying their long-running Aloysius X.L. Pendergast series, and the more recent Gideon Crew series. Now they have new novels out in both series.
So let’s start with Pendergast. I thought it was interesting that they had group of novels that had “color” titles. In the last of them, The Obsidian Chamber, we got a finale on his brother Diogenes, Constance Greene had left him, and we learned more about Pendergast and how he seems to have gotten away with so much as an FBI agent. But that may no longer be the case, as due to recent events he is in trouble with his long-time mentor, whom we finally “meet.”
In City of Endless Light, ending the “color” titles, Pendergast teams up with Vincent D’Agosta to hunt down a dangerous killer who likes to decapitate his (or her?) victims. Almost sounds like a throwback to some of the past adventures, and this makes it interesting. Adding to the complications, as noted Pendergast is in trouble with his FBI mentor, and sadly at the end he loses this mentor. But he does get Constance to return with him.
This theme continues in the next work, Verses for the Dead. Pendergast, now saddled with a new FBI assistant, is after a new serial killer. This one likes to leave the hearts of their victims on gravestones. Who is doing this and why? Complicating things, Pendergast’s assistant is there for another purpose, to get dirt on Pendergast such that the FBI can get rid of him. Without the protection of his mentor, some want to find a way to push him out. Wonder how that works out? You’ll have to read it to find out.
Before I move on, I guess I should touch on news of a Pendergast TV series. They had done a movie version of Relic, but had left out Pendergast. Since he was more of a minor character, leaving him out didn’t affect the story. And since he is such a unique character, they would probably have messed him up anyway. So when I heard they were working on a TV series, my main worry was would it be able to capture the uniqueness of Pendergast and not turn him into a poor caricature or a joke. However, the effort has been canceled. I have mixed feeling on that. With new shows now appearing on non-traditional sources such as Netflix, Amazon, etc, there were various place this could appear. But there was always the issue of could they do the character justice.
Now, on to Gideon Crew.
This has always been a strange character, as he was set up from the start as having a terminal illness that would kill him. Would they find a cure? And if not, how long would he last as a character? We are told about a year. You seldom have authors set out with such a finale in mind for a character, though often there will be a planned end to a character’s story. The novel The Lost Island gave a possible cure, but it didn’t work for Gideon. But we now have the fifth and final Crew novel, The Pharaoh Key. And it starts off strange. Eli Glenn has disappeared and shut down his Effective Engineering Solutions. Before it’s all gone, Manuel Garza, Eli’s right-hand man, and Crew grab info on a new matter to go after. A computer at EES has been working on a translation of an ancient text (the Phaistos Disk, which really exists), and just completed it. So off they go looking for the results in Egypt, soon joined by another in a sort of H. Rider Haggard style of adventure.
So we get a new and different adventure for both Garza and Gideon. I have to admit I was a bit disappointed by how this turned out, as well as the overall series. It’s hard for me to put my finger on my issues with the series, as there has been some interesting stuff, like the resolution of the “Ice Limit” story-line.
I do wonder if we’ll ever see Eli show up again, maybe in the Pendergast series? EES is shutdown, but he is still around. But I somehow doubt it. Which is too bad.
I’m not sure what is in store for Pendergast, but I look forward to it. We seem to be entering a different period for the character. He has lost several important people in his life. He has gotten closer to Constance Green, and their relationship is changing. The only constant is Proctor and D’Agosta. So what is next for him? We’ll have to see.
