Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Cemetery Dance
    Unavailable
    Cemetery Dance
    Unavailable
    Cemetery Dance
    Audiobook (abridged)7 hours

    Cemetery Dance

    Written by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

    Narrated by Rene Auberjonois

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Pendergast--the world's most enigmatic FBI Special Agent--returns to New York City to investigate a murderous cult.

    William Smithback, a New York Times reporter, and his wife Nora Kelly, a Museum of Natural History archaeologist, are brutally attacked in their apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Eyewitnesses claim, and the security camera confirms, that the assailant was their strange, sinister neighbor--a man who, by all reports, was already dead and buried weeks earlier. While Captain Laura Hayward leads the official investigation, Pendergast and Lieutenant Vincent D'Agosta undertake their own private--and decidedly unorthodox--quest for the truth. Their serpentine journey takes them to an enclave of Manhattan they never imagined could exist: a secretive, reclusive cult of Obeah and vodou which no outsiders have ever survived.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHachette Audio
    Release dateMay 12, 2009
    ISBN9781600242649
    Unavailable
    Cemetery Dance
    Author

    Douglas Preston

    DOUGLAS PRESTON has published forty books of both nonfiction and fiction, of which over thirty have been New York Times bestsellers, a half-dozen reaching the #1 position. He is the co-author, with Lincoln Child, of the Pendergast series of thrillers. He also writes nonfiction pieces for the New Yorker Magazine. He worked as an editor at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and taught nonfiction writing at Princeton University. He is president emeritus of the Authors Guild and serves on the Advisory Board of the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe.

    More audiobooks from Douglas Preston

    Related to Cemetery Dance

    Related audiobooks

    Suspense For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    Reviews for Cemetery Dance

    4/5

    649 ratings51 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Another great read in the Pendergast series. While some of these books aren't always a 5-star read, they're still incredibly enjoyable and I always find myself looking to grab the next one of the series at Barnes & Noble when it gets released each year. Hats off to Pendergast and all of his investigations.
    • 3/5
      Six-word review: Yet another monster-chasing underground romp.Extended review:I'm becoming impressed with how many ways Preston and Child have found to bring a plot around to monsters and good guys chasing each other in dank, dark subterranean tunnels. The Jung and Vogler volumes on their bookshelves must be well-thumbed.Like most of the others so far in the Pendergast series, book 9 has a slap-dash feel to it. How would you like to get paid for writing a sentence like this? "His mind reeled as yet again he tried to orient himself amid the endless props, his mind reeling from the pain." (page 544) (I often wonder how the division of labor works between coauthors. Who's nodding off while on duty when lines like that sneak by?)Yet there's much to be said for attainable goals. The Pendergast stories don't promise much more than this: a mystery-thriller pairing a preternaturally gifted FBI agent with a down-to-earth human foil, both of them hot on the trail of some nefarious evildoer. There's usually a supernatural or seemingly supernatural element, and the plot will incorporate a throbbing social issue that adds a touch of gravitas, but nowhere is there a pretense of being lit'rachure. Unabashed, unapologetic page-turners don't get much better than this.So I'm satisfied that I got my money's worth, which was $0.01 plus $3.99 shipping from Amazon Marketplace. By my measure, it was a bargain.
    • 4/5
      Cemetery Dance by Preston and Child was a terrific read. This is my second Prendergast book and is once again filled with interesting characters and a plot that stands as something you would expect out of a paranormal or horror rather than a crime thriller. These quirks make Preston and Child's books offbeat and enjoyable.
    • 4/5
      another entertaining book in the Pendergast series. Cults, zombies, and animal rights activists obscure the real crime.
    • 2/5
      Agt. Pendergast is back and wondering who do that voodoo so well. This series has really lost its zip. The plots feel tenuous and silly. They killed off one of the more interesting characters. It just doesn't feel like their heart is in it as they crank the handle of this money-making machine. Too bad.

      Another disappointment: At this point they're just moving characters around like Action Figures. They don't seem to be growing or developing.
    • 4/5
      First book I read about FBI inspector Pendergast was "The Relic". Great novel, much better than the movie adaptation (as it should be the case :))

      I like the story's pace, it's fast and something is going on all the time. When it comes to thrillers this is something I truly look for and enjoy.

      Story begins with a bizarre murder of a journalist (introduced in yet another Douglas/Child novel "Thunderhead"). As the mystery unfolds all supernatural elements are disclosed and truth is finally revealed (I won't say anything more - it would only ruin the experience). Pendergast is his usual self. On the other hand I got serious worried for D'Agosta, man gets upset really fast.

      If you liked Relic you'll love this one. One can see some signs so common to books written as part of the series but authors managed to deliver interesting, action-packed story with enough twists and turns to make everybody happy.

      Recommended.
    • 3/5
      Somewhat tired. It's the same formula with agent Pendergast and D'Agosta, just not that exciting anymore.
    • 3/5
      Good, but not as good as some of the Pendergast novels. Seemed a bit old hat, in fact. How could I say that when I've been loving this series so much? I wanted more Pendergast back story, but he seemed to be rather distant in this one. Maybe a bit too much D'Agosta in this one. Hopefully the next three will be more engaging.
    • 3/5
      When the Zombie Apocalypse comes, actor Rene Auberjonois will survive thanks to his uncanny zombie acting skills. His audio impersonations of apparent zombies in Cemetery Dance are just about worth the price of admission. Once again, the combination of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child bring us a pseudo-supernatural mystery involving the pompous (but increasingly less irritating) Aloysius Pendergast. A New York reporter is murdered while his wife steps out to get some bakery, and the suspect is one who was declared dead two weeks earlier. Turns out the reporter was working on a story that involved a goofy cult that performed animal sacrifices and practiced some forms of voodoo. And then there was a threat on record by a wealthy, talented film maker seemingly making him a prime candidate behind the reporter's murder.The whole mess resolves itself at the end with some ingenious (and implausible) sleuthing by Special Agent Pendergast. I'll continue to look for these book at discount prices in audio format -- they're fun to listen to while running. Two in the past month is probably a little overkill though and could lead to brain rot.
    • 5/5
      The best yet! Still Life With Crows used to be my favorite but this one beats it! Highly recommended
    • 4/5
      When I was about ten years old, I remember starting a Nancy Drew book right before bed. Every time I finished a chapter, I told myself I would read just one more. By the time I finished reading, the sky was starting to brighten. While I no longer have quite the stamina to pull an all-nighter with a book, I can testify that this one kept me up way past my "bedtime" for two nights in a row--and for the same reason. I kept telling myself I'd read just one more chapter. I don't think Preston and Childs are writing great literature, but they sure can write an effective page turner. I'm a fairly slow reader, and any book that makes me average over 100 pages a day is gripping, even if nothing greater can be said of it. A tremendously enjoyable, fast-paced, escapist read. If you're still mourning the loss of Michael Crichton, you should definitely pick up one of Preston and Childs' thrillers. You won't be disappointed.
    • 5/5
      Homicide Detective D'Agosta and FBI Agent Pendergast delve deep into the world of voodou and obeah, to the realm of the zombii in search of a killer, or killers, on the loose in upper Manhattan. A world where animal, and perhaps human, sacrifice, are well known.Or is what appears to be reality, the real truth?The twists and turns of fantasy and imagination keep this novel hopping from one foot to th other as you try to outguess the pro's in what will happen next!Even the most die-hard of "who-dunnit" fans will find this one hard to solve!I give this book......five stars and my......thumbs up award!Not suitable for children under the age of 13.***DISCLOSURE: This book was a private purchase and I was uder no obligation to review it.
    • 4/5
      Another great Pendergast installation.
    • 5/5
      A suspenseful quirky story that's over the top in places. It's a compelling read that kept me up late finishing the last 100 pages. This is the first one of the series that I've read and I'm reminded of the May & Bryant Peculiar Crimes Unit series by Christopher Fowler.
    • 4/5
      I went backwards to read this book after "Fever Dream" and this book was equally well done. The Co-Authors do an excellent job with the two main characters working together and the story is both thrilling and fun to read
    • 4/5
      Another in the Pendergast series, this one moved away from the halls of the museum and centered around a religious cult with animal sacrifice and voodoo aspects in New York City. I thought the pacing was nice, moved right along and kept me guessing. Suspense, intrigue, mystery -- these books have a little bit of everything.Is there another book after this one to explain the family attorney and the letter? I hope so.
    • 4/5
      Enjoyable mystery featuring the usual supernatural aspects. Pendergast continues to be one of my favorite characters.
    • 5/5
      After NY Times reporter Bill Smithback is murdered and his wife Nora Kelly attacked, FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast investigates claims of zombies, voodoo, and a strange religious sect that lives right in Manhattan. Ninth in a series featuring Pendergast, but can stand alone. A must read for fans of the characters. As always Preston & Child have written an intricately plotted and creepy thriller that keeps you guessing until the end.
    • 4/5
      Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child are each accomplished writers with several successful solo novels, but it is when they collaborate on the best-selling novels featuring the enigmatic Agent Pendergast and his NYPD counterpart, Vincent D'Agosta, that they really shine. With Cemetery Dance, they move away from the overt spiritualistic mysticism of The Wheel of Darkness and back into more familiar dark-thriller territory, albeit with some interesting religious undertones.Never timid, the authors start the book by killing off a popular recurring character familiar to readers from previous novels. When acclaimed journalist William Smithback is brutally stabbed in his apartment and his new wife, Nora Kelly, is injured, Pendergast and D'Agosta team up to investigate. The evidence quickly points to a disturbed tenant of the building. It's an open and shut case, with one problem--the suspect has been dead for over a week. Strange voodoo symbols found at the crime scene, together with suspicious reports of animal sacrifices perpetrated by a cult nestled in a secluded corner of Manhattan Island, leave the duo pondering the reliability of the physical evidence. And when the deceased Smithback himself shows up at an award dinner and knifes a fellow reporter, rumors of zombies (the correct spelling is "zombii," Pendergast asserts) fly.D'Agosta, ever the skeptic, suspects a more human plot, but Pendergast, who possesses some familiarity with voodoo rituals and black magic from his New Orleans childhood, isn't so sure. Now, with animal-rights activists descending upon New York to protest the city's refusal to oust the mysterious cult and fears of supernatural murderers growing, Pendergast and D'Agosta find themselves in a race to uncover the truth before the entire city erupts.With its fast-paced action and horrific crimes tempered by witty dialog and brilliant police work, Cemetery Dance has everything readers have come to expect from these authors. Since each book in the Pendergast series is intended to function as a stand-alone novel, old and new fans alike should be able to enjoy the story with or without having read the previous books. The book does contain a fair amount of violence and some disturbing religious imagery, particularly having to do with animal sacrifice and voodoo-related ceremonies; Preston & Child don't write for the faint-hearted. But dark-thriller fans are in for a treat as these authors deliver yet again.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this book. It reunites Lieutenant D'Agosta and Agent Pendergast, along with Dr. Nora Kelly in a murder and mayhem mystery about New York City and zombies. However, these are not the "I want your braains" zombies of popular culture, but rather the zombies of voudou and folklore. It also shows the real strength of the Preston-Child collaboration - which is presenting New York City as an unexpected and rich character in the book. In this book, like Cabinet of Curiosities (2002), they weave in the history and geography and people of the city into a fascinating characterization that makes you feel as if you were there and part of it all.
    • 3/5
      I still think Still Life with Crows is the best Pendergast novel, but this one was better than the last few. I felt like everything was wrapped up too nicely at the end, but as usual, Preston/Child had you thinking the supernatural goings on might possibly be real.
    • 4/5
      The successful writing duo of Preston and Child is back with the 9th novel in the Pendergast series.Pendergast is an enigmatic FBI agent with a seemingly unending store of knowledge, skills and talents. He ends up investigating (or seeking out) "X-File" types of cases. There is a cadre of recurring characters, including Detective Vinnie D'Agosta, journalist William Smithback, his archaeologist wife Nora and Wren - a researcher who seems to live in the bowels of The New York Public Library.In Cemetery Dance, one of these recurring characters is killed. According to eyewitnesses the killer was someone who was declared dead ten days ago....Preston and Child novels are plot driven, usually involving otherworldly elements. They are great suspense/thriller reads. But it is the character of Pendergast that people talk about the most when you mention this writing duo. His mysterious ways and endless abilities are great fun, reminding me somewhat of Sherlock Holmes. The locales chosen for their novels are fascinating as well. I have especially enjoyed the New York ones - I would love to see The New York Museum of Natural History. (the site of their first collaboration 'Relic' - also made into a movie)I listened to this latest offering in audio format. I was halfway through the first disc by the time I realized who the reader was - Rene Auberjonois. Who? He has numerous film and television credits, but the one I remembered his voice from was his role as Odo on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He has read seven of the Pendergast books and I soon forgot Odo. The different characters are easily identified by voice changes and inflections. The suspense of the book is easily heard and projected through his reading.I have read all the previous books in this series, but I'm really getting hooked on audio books and may just listen to the next one as well.
    • 3/5
      Newest installation of the Agent Pendergast novels by Preston & Child. I eagerly awaited its arrival at our library, and began reading as soon as I got it. The book seems to have been written explicitly for readers of the previous books, though, which I found kind of disappointing. I would hate for someone to have this as their first taste of the Pendergast books, it really lacks the life and spark of the other books. It did not live up to my expectation at all, and I had to drudge through to finish it.
    • 3/5
      I am addicted to the Pendergast novels, and I'm unable to resist reading each new one as it comes out. I'm beginning to feel, however, that the series might be starting to get kind of tapped out. This was not as enjoyable as some of the earlier installments. Some of this may be because there was much less of an emphasis on Pendergast being an odd duck and doing extremely clever things, and part of it might just be that it's getting really hard for these books to be anything other than fairly predictable. Still, it's hard to argue with zombies, so this was good popcorn despite everything feeling a bit tired.
    • 3/5
      I am a big fan of the Lincoln/Child Penderast novels. They are always fun, full of action, and of course, they feature Agent Pendergast, who happens to be a favorite character of mine. You can learn more about Agent Pendergast here. All that being said, I did enjoy this novel, but not as much as previous offerings from the authors.Cemetary Dance begins with an attack on a pair of familiar characters (one of my favorite things about these guys, they are never afraid to do away with someone for the sake of the story), William Smithback and Nora Kelly, which leaves Smithback dead. This isn't much of a spoiler as it happens in the first ten pages of the novel. D'Agosta and Pendergast quickly find themselves investigating the case in an effort to protect the bereaved Nora, and to find justice for their murdered friend. Their investigation will lead them to a mysterious religious community located in the forgotten and isolated wilderness of a New York city park; a community which seems to have ties to the mystic beliefs of Obeah. They also find themselves forced to confront the notion of modern day zombiis as the body count mounts.Personally, I didn't find the mystery as compelling in this novel, as compared to previous story lines. Still, the authors did do a great job of keeping me turning pages. Pendergast was certainly in fine form, and there were plenty of his trademark antics to keep me smiling and anxious for more. The book ended with the promise of more to come, and it is safe to say I'll be running to the bookstore for their next Pendergast novel when it arrives.If you haven't read a Lincoln/Child novel previously, I'd recommend The Cabinet of Curiosities, which in my opinion is their best.
    • 4/5
      I've decided that I'm going to designate this book as a "ripping good yarn" because, by golly, that's what it is. This is one of those books where you just have to say to yourself, okay, this is totally escape reading and it's so far-fetched that it can't possibly ever be true. Once you get past that hurdle, then you can do what the authors intended for you to do: sit back, relax, and have fun with it. If you can't do that, then move along, because this book is definitely not for you. Literary snobs need not apply.I enjoy "ripping good yarns" (aka escape fiction) once in a while, especially from these two authors both together and independently. I especially enjoy the Agent Pendergast series, which I've been following since he first came out of Preston and Child's collective imaginations. He's an enigma and I like enigmas. I've read all of these stories; I've pre-ordered or bought each one as soon as I heard of its release, and I happen to like them. I am a Pendergast junkie. I absolutely cannot tell you much, because of the plot twists in this book. To tell is to ruin. The book opens with the murder of an old friend from other books in the series (whose name I will not divulge here -- but if you're a Preston and Child follower, you'll be a bit sad). The identity of the murderer is not in doubt -- it was one Colin Fearing, who lived in the same building, and was caught on tape at the building at the time of the murder. Several people recognized him. The only problem is that Colin Fearing was dead at the time the murder was committed -- his body had been even been identified by a relative. So...enter Agent Pendergast, who was a very good friend to the murder victim, and another recurring character, Lt. Vince D'Agosta of the NYPD. What begins as a bizarre case of murder gets even more bizarre as the investigation takes our heroes into the bizarro world of religious animal sacrifice and voodoo. But when a second killing occurs at the hand of another dead person, it just gets very weird, and their efforts to find the killer puts Pendergast and his pals in a very dangerous situation where their very lives are at stake. This book has it all...the supernatural, mystery, suspense...that is the hallmark of the writing of Preston and Child. There are plot twists that you won't see coming (or at least I didn't), and it's generally a very fun novel with quite a bit of action. Yes, it's a bit unbelievable, and it's a bit over the top in some spots, but the authors managed to grab me from the start and I didn't stop until I was finished. I think you'd want to read the other Pendergast novels rather than making this your first foray into the minds of these two authors. This book was much better than the last one -- Wheel of Darkness -- and I hope there are many more Pendergast novels in their futures. I'd recommend this book to people who enjoy fun escape fiction or to those who like a supernatural cast to their mysteries. These two authors are very good at their craft and now I'll just wait patiently until the next installment arrives.
    • 4/5
      More fantastic writing from these 2 authors!! Great stuff. Recommented to all
    • 5/5
      The twist and turns.... exciting! Great story telling!
    • 4/5
      Does that mean Estaban would have become the king of bankruptcy and shady deals?
    • 4/5
      Cemetery Dance is a book about zombies, murders, and greed. It is a good Agent Pendergast story. The story is very entertaining, scary and just good. One asks oneself how do Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child even come up with such consistently good stories? The book is not quite perfect so it only received four stars in this review.