Dance of Death by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child, and Rene Auberjonois

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Dance of Death
Available from Amazon
Price: $12.13
Updated on 12-28-2008.

Features

Audio CD

Publisher: Hachette Audio; Abridged edition (August 28, 2007)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 159483959X

ISBN-13: 978-1594839597

Product Dimensions: 6 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches

Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces ()

From Publishers Weekly
The always reliable team of Preston and Child revisit Special FBI Agent Aloysius Pendergast, last seen in 2004's Brimstone, and others from past bestsellers (Relic; The Cabinet of Curiosities) in this intriguing thriller set in and around New York City and the halls of the Museum of Natural History. Born a misanthropic loner but driven insane by seeing his parents burned alive when he was a teen, Aloysius's madman brother, Diogenes, has begun murdering Aloysius's friends. Aloysius begs old friend Lt. Vincent D'Agosta to help him defeat his brother, and Vincent does his best while the brothers spar and others die. There are a number of subplots, one involving an ATM robber and flasher known as the Dangler and another focusing on the museum's exhibition of sacred masks, but these fade away as the deadly duel between the brothers takes center stage. Think Sherlock Holmes locked in a death struggle with his smarter brother, Mycroft. Like Brimstone, this novel doesn't end so much as simply pause while the authors work on the next installment. While it's not as good as some of their earlier efforts, it's still pretty darn good.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist
Picking up two months after the events chronicled in Brimstone (2004), which saw the untimely demise of popular series hero FBI Special Agent Pendergast, this new novel by the Preston-Child team brings together characters from previous novels. The people closest to Pendergast are dying in horrible ways, and only one man can be responsible: Diogenes, Pendergast's long-lost brother, who has supposedly been dead for years. Meanwhile, at the New York Museum of Natural History, an internal battle rages over the rightful ownership of some ancient relics. Will these two stories link up? Well, of course, no surprise there. It's how they link up that packs the surprises. This is an ambitious novel with a gimmicky plot that could have landed with a resounding thud. Instead, the story soars; the cast of familiar characters--researcher Margo Green, journalist Bill Smithback, curator Nora Kelly--is given a chance to stretch, and the authors deliver an exhilarating finale. Good stuff, and there's more to come, as the novel's last lines make clear. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Reader Reviews
This review is from: Dance of Death (Pendergast, Book 6) (Hardcover) In "Dance of Death" authors Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child have taken the logical step of something that has been occurring casually in their writing over the last three novels, they have pulled together all of their joint works (save "Riptide" which can be neither included nor excluded) into one cohesive universe. The primary characters, Bill Smithback, Nora Kelly, Margo Green, Laura Hayward, Vincent D'Agosta and of course Aloysius Pendergast, have all been featured prominently in past works, and while I haven't been much of a fan of this inbreeding of plot lines, I have to admit that it is carried of with a great deal of panache. "Dance of Death" is a sequel to the previous "Brimstone", and likewise represents the latest in an arc concerning Pendergast that began with "The Cabinet of Curiosities" and continued in "Still Life With Crows". As such, this isn't the best book to start with these authors, as some sections will border on the incomprehensible to new readers. Dealing with a deadly grudge match between Pendergast and his brother Diogenes, "Dance of Death" cleverly sets up all of the previous Lincoln and Child novels as a training ground for the penultimate showdown between these two enigmatic geniuses, which will, at least as of this writing, find its denouement in next summer's book. Thus be forewarned, that "Dance of Death" ends in a cliffhanger. However, since it is obvious within the context of the book, and since the authors have been more than forthcoming about that fact, this is hardly a criticism. It is worth noting that as with other recent Preston and Child novels, "Dance of Death" drifts away from the early science and story driven novels, and derives more of its tension from character development. While this may disappoint some, it actually works quite well as the authors are now drawing on eight previous books, and as such they are capturing the themes and drama found in those prior works. There's a little bit of "Relic", a dash of "Thunderhead", a portion of "The Ice Limit", so on and so forth. As Pendergast and his faithful Lieutenant D'Agosta are pulled ever deeper into Diogenes murderous plan, more than a few pieces snap satisfyingly into place. At the same time the characters are used in unpredictable ways, so each new plot twist feels just a little more puzzling because of that. Literally up to the last page Preston and Child throw one change-up after another at the reader. In fact, the ending is one of the high points of the book, and speaks to a strong element that pervades the text, namely the fallibility of Pendergast. "In Dance of Death" he is plainly surpassed by his brother, and his need to rely on friends makes him a much more compelling and human character than the polymath superman he has often become; a character which sadly verged on self caricature. How this relates to the conclusion, and without offering any spoilers, is basically this: if you are going to end a book with a cliffhanger, make it a really good, really unexpected one that opens up avenues that were hinted at, but that are only plain in retrospect. My one complaint is that the same tying together of different novels that makes "Dance of Death" so successful has also made the authors too clever for their own good. It is one thing to use a neat bit of story-telling to link seemingly unrelated events, but quite another to riddle the book with self-referential tidbits and mundane inside jokes. In fact, some of the jokes step on their own toes as they reference the sequel to a book they wrote whose characters appear in this novel. It's unnecessary, really distracting, and I frankly wish they would cut it out. That complaint aside, "Dance of Death" is a brisk thriller that so nicely ties together what one might call the Preston/Child Mythos, it's almost impossible not to enjoy. While definitely not for a newcomer, fans will be impressed by the quality of the writing (which improves with each book, the authors clearly take their craft seriously) and the numerous twists and turns. I also appreciate the signal that this novel sends: that once the Pendergast arc is completed, the authors will branch back out into new stories; something which is necessitated by the engaging confluence of characters and stories. As such, it feels like both the end and the beginning, which is certainly appropriate for the second book in a trilogy. Jake Mohlman

Dance of Death
List Price: $14.98
Available from Amazon
Price: $12.13
Updated on 12-28-2008.