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DANCE OF DEATH by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child Warner Books, June 2005 464 pages $25.95 ISBN: 0446576972 Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Preston and Child have produced another action-packed thriller mixing museum culture, police procedural, and psychopathic games, starring all their favorite characters -- Nora the museum employee, Smithback the investigative reporter, D'Agosta the cop, and most importantly, Special Agent Pendergast. Although Pendergast appeared to be dead at the end of BRIMSTONE, he has been resurrected to sleuth once more.

And this time Pendergast has the hardest case of his life; his insane brother is slowly and inventively killing off everyone he knows, duplicating bizarre deaths from the history of their family and planting evidence that points to Pendergast himself as the murderer.

D'Agosta helps in the investigation, knowing that he may have ruined his career and love life to help his friend. Smithback is sidelined into a mental asylum, attempting to convince the doctors that his stories of being a married reporter aren't fantasies. Nora, in the meantime, is dealing with a controversy inside the museum; her newest exhibit is based around a set of rare, valuable Indian masks and the tribe wants them back. The new editor of the museum's magazine has sided with the tribe -- and she is murdered before the exhibit opens.

The story is well-written, action-packed, and has loads of atmosphere, so I'm not really sure why it didn't engage me. Perhaps it was because the narrator changed with every chapter, and I got distracted between the ongoing stories of the large cast and the once-and-forgotten points of view of outside observers.

Perhaps it was because this is not the best book to begin the series with; while I could grasp who the people were, they kept alluding to events in previous books. One or more of the characters also appear in BRIMSTONE, RELIC, THE CABINET OF CURIOSITIES, RELIQUARY, STILL LIFE WITH CROWS, THUNDERHEAD and more.

But this doesn't mean that it's a flawed book. Pendergast, an equal mix of Sherlock Holmes, James Bond, and Batman, will appeal to fans of all three, and the story is masterfully paced and plotted. If you're in the mood for a horror thriller, this is the book for you.

Reviewed by Linnea Dodson, July 2005

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)

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