MORE GREAT CHRISTMAS READS FOR
DECEMBER 2013
White
Fire, by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
As patient readers of this
little blog will know, I have long been a fan of Preston and Child’s fearless
protagonist FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast, along with millions of other
dedicated followers of his hair-raising adventures as he deploys his
considerable intellectual and physical powers to defeat all manner of dastardly
villains. (see October 2010 review of ‘Cold Vengeance’ below) Sadly, ‘Two Graves’ the white-knuckle
adventure preceding this latest title was so absurd, so defying of all
credulity that I couldn’t in all conscience write my usual ecstatic review – I
mean, come ON: a nest of evil NeoNazis in the South American Jungle
conducting eugenic experiments so that they can breed another Master Race, and
who should be involved but Pendergast’s great love Helen, mother of twins he
didn’t know he’d fathered (gasp!), one of whom is bred specially for great
things, and the other (double gasp!!) for slavery.
Our hero destroys the nest
of evil Nazi vipers, but at great personal cost (Helen really does die this
time), causing Pendergast to sink into a slough of despond from which he has
great difficulty extricating himself, BUT!
His creators need to bring
him back from his hell of substance abuse and depression for this latest
adventure, and I am happy to say that ‘White Fire’ is a complete success, with
only limited reference to ward Constance Green ( meditating in a monastery in
the Himalayas) and his good and evil twins (of the nasty one no trace; the good one is getting an education at an
exclusive Swiss Academy). Instead this
adventure centres on Corrie Swanson, Pendergast’s sponsored protégé and student
at the prestigious John Jay College of Criminal Justice who decides to base her
thesis on the supposed slaughter by a bear of eleven miners 150 years ago in a
remote area mined for silver in Colorado.
By great coincidence the rough mining camp of Roaring Fork has now
become the exclusive ski resort and winter vacation wonderland of the megarich
and famous – and others who find Corrie’s desire for information and request to
examine the exhumed bodies of some of the miners intrusive and unhelpful: she must be discouraged permanently from her
investigations, and with a ruthlessness that takes Corrie’s breath away she
suddenly finds herself in prison facing a ten-year sentence for ‘desecration of
a corpse’ and various other lesser charges.
Her devastation is absolute – until Pendergast, finally roused from his
torpor by her desperate situation arrives in Roaring Fork complete with the
necessary evidence to refute the charges and send a message to the villains
that their nefarious plans are not going to succeed. Oh, it’s great stuff, and as an added bonus
Oscar Wilde, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his great hero Sherlock Holmes are
connected to Pendergast’s modern day sleuthing in an entirely credible subplot,
forming the basis of his ultimately successful solving of The Mystery – but not
before Corrie undergoes some truly death-defying experiences (she has her
little finger shot off and nearly goes up in smoke for being unwittingly lippy
to a madman), as required in any suspense novel worth its salt. It is a pleasure to welcome Pendergast back
to the land of the living –at least as portrayed by Preston and Child: his
mourning period is now thankfully over and he can attend to his usual business
of conquering evil, striking fear into the black hearts of villains everywhere
with his pale eyes, pale hair and an inexhaustible supply of money and black
designer suits. Lincoln and Child are
back to their best: sound scholarship,
good research and a great plot. Who
could ask for more? This is the ideal
holiday read.
Cold Vengeance, by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
:
Guess who’s back! Messrs. Lincoln and Child have been working
their little tails off to provide fans with the next instalment of the intrepid
adventures of FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast, that peerless paragon of
perfection in all things, arbiter of funereal fashion excellence – he always
wears black designer suits, giving him ‘the look of a wealthy undertaker’
- and lethal weapon in the perpetual
battle against the forces of evil. As
always, the reader is transported to places near and far, starting in the
Scottish Highlands where Pendergast has been shot and left for dead in a bog by
his wicked brother-in-law. He cannot
possibly survive shooting and drowning – can he? Mere mortals would long be contributing to
the swamp gases, but not our Aloysius :
he manages to haul himself out of the muck and crawl 12 miles (truly!)
to shelter and the devoted nursing of a reclusive auld biddie who lives on the
wild moors (this is Scotland, remember), gradually returning to good health, thanks to his cast-iron
constitution, burning desire for revenge, and the new-found knowledge that his
beloved wife Helen, killed twelve years before by a lion (!) is actually still
alive. And as the ultimate plot device,
Lincoln and Child have brought in the Neo-Nazis in the shape of a diabolical
organization called The Covenant. What
CAN one say? Except that you’ll just
have to keep on reading all this glorious silliness to find out WHAT HAPPENS
NEXT. These books are seriously good fun
and I can’t wait for the next one: will
Aloysius be reunited with his wife, captured by said evil Neo- Nazis? Will Aloysius be able to sustain yet another
gunshot wound? (He is now more ventilated than a Swiss Cheese.) Will his ward
Constance Green reveal where she has hidden her baby, the son of his mad
brother Diogenes? Oh, the questions are
endless and had better be answered soon, otherwise the enormous cult following
of Agent Pendergast - he has his own webpage – will suffer terminal withdrawal
symptoms. Funeral garb has never been
more cool, and the FBI”s reputation has been burnished quite undeservedly.
Trashy escapism of the very highest quality, and entertainment par excellence.
No comments:
Post a Comment