thrillers

After reading several of the reviews, I feel compelled to join the fray. Firstly, if you haven't enjoyed Agent Pendergast before, then don't read this book. Secondly, if you're going to write a bad review, be sure you read the book first. Kansas State University is named more than 20 times and is not the same as Kansas University. Perhaps attention to detail is required to enjoy this novel.

This book was excellent, complete with full-fledged Pendergast charisma. The character of Corrie Swanson is intriguing and complex, another intelligent woman (young woman) to add to Preston and Child's previous works. Although I found the ending to be less sparkling than that of Cabinet of Curiosities, it was very interesting.

I grew up in Kansas, and I really enjoyed the description of the topography, attitude, and weather.

There are several teases about the goings-on at the house on Riverside in New York, as well as brief appearances by Wren. I actually hope his character stays in the shadows; it is very appealing and mysterious that way.

Preston and Child's greatest strenght is character development, and this piece is a showcase. In addition to Corrie and Pendergast, Preston and Child create the Sheriff. He is annoying and yet he has integrity. Even before the change-of-heart climax, note his reaction to his son's treatment of the jailed Corrie.

I highly recommend this book, especially if you are a Pendergast junkie!

This book, the new one by the brilliant duo of Douglas Preston and Licoln Child who've collaborated on such hits as "Reliquary", "Relic", and "The Cabinet of Curiosities", have done it again with the bestselling "Still Life With Crows".
"Still Life With Crows" is a thriller that pulls no stops. You will find yourself having a white-knuckled grip on the book while holding it (that is if you can stop reading long enough for your right brain to make this little discovery).

FBI Special Agent Pendergast makes another show in this novel, however without the sometimes dubious help of Bill Smithback. Pendergast mysteriously appears in Medicine Creek, Kansas (like he appears everywhere). There have been a series of grisly murders going on in this, small, dusty town. The victims are mutilated and arranged in nauseating tableaus in the cornfields of which Medicine Creek seems to be full. Pendergast is almost immediately cold-shouldered by the small town's constable, Sheriff Hazen. But, as always, Pendergast prevails, hiring a teenage misfit as an escort whom you grow to love throughout the novel's spine-snapping pace. The denouement, like always in the Douglas/Child novels is made up of near tediousness and maddening suspense deep under the town of Medicine Creek. Buy this book and do yourself a favor.

Ok I was thrilled when after 4 months of searching for the latest in the series by Preston and Child. I have read all the other books by them that feature the protagonist Pendergast and was looking forward to what they were going to do with him this time.

Quite honestly, I was disappointed. The book started out so well, with such a creepy and surreal setting. And despite what many other readers said, the plot moved along very well, and was not boring in the least bit.

The problem lies in that the authors seemed to have run out of ideas for good antagonists. They go through such pains to show how he is of superhuman strength, but never explain why he kills. The books leaves too many things unexplained.

While still a decent book, I would recomend Cabinet of Curiosities as an introduction to these authors.