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    Two Graves
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    Two Graves
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    Two Graves
    Audiobook16 hours

    Two Graves

    Written by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

    Narrated by Rene Auberjonois

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    After his wife, Helen, is brazenly abducted before his eyes, Special Agent Pendergast furiously pursues the kidnappers, chasing them across the country and into Mexico. But then, things go terribly, tragically wrong; the kidnappers escape; and a shattered Pendergast retreats to his New York apartment and shuts out the world.

    But when a string of bizarre murders erupts across several Manhattan hotels-perpetrated by a boy who seems to have an almost psychic ability to elude capture-NYPD Lieutenant D'Agosta asks his friend Pendergast for help. Reluctant at first, Pendergast soon discovers that the killings are a message from his wife's kidnappers. But why a message? And what does it mean?

    When the kidnappers strike again at those closest to Pendergast, the FBI agent, filled anew with vengeful fury, sets out to track down and destroy those responsible. His journey takes him deep into the trackless forests of South America, where he ultimately finds himself face to face with an old evil that-rather than having been eradicated-is stirring anew... and with potentially world-altering consequences.

    Confucius once said: "Before you embark on a journey of revenge, first dig two graves." Pendergast is about to learn the hard way just how true those words still ring.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHachette Audio
    Release dateDec 11, 2012
    ISBN9781611134230
    Unavailable
    Two Graves
    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.

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    Reviews for Two Graves

    4/5

    421 ratings33 reviews

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    • 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.
    • 2/5
      I am so happy to be finished with this. I have never read any of the Pendergast series before and, from what I can tell from this one, you really don't need to in order to understand which ever one you pick up. It doesn't seem to build much on previous characters. Let me put it this way, I was never in the dark on anything except in the very beginning when they referred to the main character by two different names, but never really let you know that it was the same person. You figure it out later, and it all makes sense after that, but still. That bugged me.

      All in all, I was not a fan of this in any way shape or form. There were too many sub-stories that took away from the main plot and really had very little to do with the main story to begin with. In my opinion, this is the epitome of a serial novel. By that, I mean a series that should have wrapped up long ago, but continues on because it has such a loyal fan base. The best compliment I could give this would be that the characters are well developed for the most part and are less than interesting, but far from boring.

      Overall, I would not recommend this unless you desperately need a distraction on a long plane ride or a mindless novel to bring to the beach. It is your stereotypical, post WWII (modern era), Nazis are bad guys still trying to create their perfect race, novel.
    • 3/5
      I think the authors are trying to pack in too many stories. I miss the supernatural stuff. I gave it 3 stars because it was still a fast action-packed read, but the Pendergast books are starting to lose their fascination.
    • 3/5
      A few real twists here in the Pendergast arc but the other storylines are shallow and so obvious to the point of being moronic.

      Yes, I still liked it but I'm missing my old Pendergast and still not liking the direction he is going. I'm hoping with this that the old Pendergast will emerge again.
    • 5/5
      Agent Pendergast has been the main subject of all these books and over the years he has dealt with his very dysfunctional family; an aunt who was an insane murderer, a brother that also was insane and and a murder, a 130 year old adopted daughter - so you can see insanity and murder is something he understands very well. In this installment he finds his dead wife to be not so dead and then finds she is very dead plus a couple of other real surprises. Through it all, Preston/Child once again brings a very interesting and suspenseful story to their fans. Great book!
    • 3/5
      The 12th in the Pendergast series. Sadly, the series is declining in interest. The Heleniad, his wife's history, is more rote genre with the action and plot details less interesting than earlier books. I think the character and the series is becoming sterile and a bit predictable. Pendergast no longer has the depth and unpredictability that made him interesting in previous books.
    • 4/5
      Agent Pendergast desperately tracks the shadowy group that has kidnapped his wife, long thought dead. The chase culminates in an outcome that leaves Pendergast bleakly devastated to the point of suicide. A mysterious and strangely adept serial killer in New York City draws his attention, though, and launches him on a pursuit that leads to South America and the hidden denizens of Hitler's eugenics program that have been secretly linked to his wife and her family since WWII. This is the darkest, grittiest book in the Pendergast series yet, and is a welcome change for the vulnerability we now see in a man whose one drawback has been that he is too competent, too elegantly unflappable to be true.
    • 5/5
      Two GravesBy Douglas Preston & Lincoln ChildMy " in a nutshell" summary...Aloysius Pendergast works to solve another immensely complicated crime!My thoughts after reading this book...Oh me oh my this book was delightful! This was my first book by these authors. I can't believe that I haven't read them before. And even though I have read and thoroughly loved the book...I wish I would have read the books that came before this one...there is even a little note from the authors stating that it old be nice if the two books written just before this one would be read before this one...does that make sense? Aloysius Pendergast is the main character...he is a special agent, amazingly wealthy, and amazingly cunning and brilliant. He discovers that his wife is not dead as was believed for the past 12 years...he has sons...and his life is constantly under threat. There are other recurring characters...D'Agosta is one...and everyone is involved with this operation...even Nazis.What I loved about this book...For me it was discovering Aloysius Pendergast...what an amazing character he is! Everything he does is so cool and calculated...sort of like a James Bond or Sherlock Holmes.What I did not love...I should have read the two books just before this one but I had no clue I should have. This book does ok as a stand lone but I had to get clarification on some of the relationships from my sister...who is an expert on all things Aloysius Pendergast. Final thoughts...An awesome thriller, a complicated plot and totally unbelievable characters make this book a must read...especially for those addicted to this series!
    • 3/5
      I found this to be disappointing. There were too many disparate storylines - the main one with Pendergast's wife dying and then searching for a killer who appears to be his son, a second unrelated storyline about Cory trying to figure out who framed her father, a third one about Constance and Dr. Felder, and finally Vinny fretting about asking his girlfriend to marry him. I was glad when it was over.
    • 1/5
      I love Preston and Child. I love Pendergast; or at least I did. I fought my way through the last several confusing, increasingly pointless books hoping for something to change, for literary redemption; for the books to get their groove back. Sadly, although he can go 700 miles in 6 hours in a rental car, even Pendergast cant convince me that these books will rebound to their former glory. He is a caricature of his former self, a pale ninja who borders on magical--and mental. There is no longer a method to the madness. Information is no longer withheld as intellectual exercise but because much of what happens has no genesis and no explanation. Random, unconnected, and often unexplained things just happen. The plots have become ridiculous, and worse, BORING. Nazis!? Secret South American hideout Naziville?! Hidden children? An unknown twin? Gasp x4!! I watched soaps in college and I am pretty sure I saw something darn similar on daytime TV ages ago. That's how bad it is.I really didn't understand why people were absolutely rage-ranting on Amazon about this book. Now I do. It isn't just that I will never get those hours of my life back, or that I feel stupid for not just stopping, it is that a once great character and a fascinating series have been reduced to drivel.
    • 5/5
      Lovers of Agent Pendergast may be thrilled or horrified by the opening part of Two Graves. But it is a hint, and perhaps a warning, of the depth of treachery and danger Pendergast will face. I took it as an indication of the depths of his misery. Pendergast doesn't wallow. He acts, and boy, it would have been quite the final act. But I hate spoilers, so I'll try to keep them to a minimum here!I was entranced throughout the story. It lived up to the reputation of the series, with suspense and action to spare even. Well, mostly.With so much going on, about three-quarters of the way through I thought another book would be needed to wrap up the many story lines. Pendergast was hopelessly entangled in South America, rather far for D'Agosta to be of any help. Never mind how they'd left things when D'Agosta and Pendergast had last spoken! Then, in the span of twenty pages, things took such a turn for the worse, I was hoping D'Agosta could come in to help Pendergast.Corrie's story line was a bit confusing, though. Aside from the fact that she found the Nazi papers that drove her into hiding, there was no clear reason for her to be in the story. Perhaps it's going to tie in to the next book, but it didn't seemed related to the story line at all. If I were the sort of person who skips over parts, I would have skipped over those parts. I just didn't see what her subplot had to do with the rest of the story. And with the suspense of the predicament Pendergast had found himself in, it was a bit of a let down to then be taken to suburban Pennsylvania to deal with a framed bank robber.I would've liked more D'Agosta in the story. Usually D'Agosta comes to Pendergast's aid or to assist him, but this story was different. This was really Pendergast's story. He was teetering on the edge much of the time, came close to giving up, didn't care if he lived or died a number of times, was actually suicidal, had to face the grimmest of realities... To add his friend--one of a very few--as a witness to his turmoil might have been too much for him. I would have liked to see the repairing of the relationship between them, though. I needed a bit more than D'Agosta telling Laura that Pendergast once again called him 'my dear Vincent.' Perhaps more in the next book?Don't get me wrong -- Two Graves was gripping, at times shocking, and a true couldn't-put-it-down read. Pendergast got himself into a far worse mess than he has before, came closer to having no escape than I can remember, left behind many more bodies, and faced a far more frightening enemy.As I've read through the Pendergast series, I got used to lining up the next one while I was reading. Now I've caught up. I can't move on to the next one. There isn't a next one. I have to WAIT for it to be written. I'm not happy about that. I've been getting a Pendergast fix about once a month for maybe a year now. What am I going to do now?Mr. Preston? Mr. Child? Get busy!
    • 5/5
      Excellent Detective Pendergast book. This one finds pendergast at his deepest darkest and then he rallies in spectacular fashion to get the bad guys!
    • 5/5
      I was eagerly awaiting this book since it was Preston & Child's chance to redeem themselves after the less-than-satisfactory Cold Vengeance. They do redeem themselves to an extent - this story does flesh its characters out more, and doesn't seem to be an attempt to rush through the story. It is more in line with the type of writing these two men are known for - excellent narrative, edge-of-your-seat tension, and the multiple-plot-thread style that keeps you interested in continuing to read.The only negative I can really come up with is that Pendergast is pretty much bludgeoned throughout the book, yet manages to overcome seemingly impossible obstacles throughout. At some point you begin to wonder if P&C have put this guy through enough "bad" that he should have died pages ago. If anything, the "Helen Trilogy" has taken Pendergast way beyond anything one can imagine. [Just as an aside, Dan Brown did the same thing with his "Langdon" character. After the last Langdon story I felt as if enough was enough - the character had been put through too much to be a realistic character with whom one could empathize anymore. Unfortunately, Brown likes the smell of money, and a new Langdon story is forthcoming. I shall not read it.]The story ends in an excellent way - because I don't intend to read any more "Pendergast" stories. All loose threads are tied up nicely, all conflicts resolved in appropriate ways, and it ends in a way that could signal the end of the series. And so it shall be - at least as far as I am concerned.
    • 3/5
      Maybe whole Pendergast/D'Agosta series is getting tired. Two lines of the narrative, of woman clearing the name of her father and guy looking for certain documented proof, seem completely artificial, serving only to fill the space. As other reviewer noted, 'Pendergast as Jack Bauer' action doesn't really suit the image of agent Pendergast from previous novels (at least in my mind).
    • 2/5
      I am very disappointed. Pendergast as Jack Bauer is not Pendergast. And the whole Boys from Brazil theme is overdone. I was worried after the way Cold Vengeance ended so abruptly. My fear is that they may be returning to the really bad writing of the first two books of the Pendergast series.
    • 4/5
      One of the most unique character found in any book, Pendergast, his strange family and back story has kept me entertained for many years. I have to admit I found the last book to be somewhat of a disappointment, Pendergast wasn't quite acting like himself. In this book he is back in full force and though the reader has to suspend disbelief at some parts of the plot, all in all I really liked this book. Wonder where the authors will go with this series next.
    • 2/5
      A while back I reviewed the suckfest that is Gideon's Sword by these same authors and said that I hoped said suckfest wouldn't leak over into the Pendergast books. Well guess what? It has.Spoilers set to kill. Seriously. You've been warned.So this might be the end of me and Pendergast. He's lost his mystique, gravitas and sense. And with this one the already ludicrous plot went even further into eye-rolling territory. Nazis? Really? That's the best you could come up with? Nazis? And even worse, Nazis in Brazil who are still continuing with genetic experiments in order to create a master race? As if The Boys From Brazil wasn't enough of this kind of thing, Preston & Child had to go there, too, and worse, they didn't add anything intelligent or even interesting. OMFG. You owe Ira Levin some royalties, guys.And another thing...Helen dies??? After all that, she croaks? I guess they couldn't figure out what to do with her as a character so they killed her off. All the better to strip Pendergast of all personality, mental conditioning, toughness and resilience Better to turn him into a simpering asshole, surely. Oy I was sick of him for most of this book. Go ahead and down the super-secret poison already, save me from your misery.But as sick of Pendergast as I was, it was nothing compared to Alban. After the first few scenes of his I started skimming them. Emotional cheap-shots and mindless, robotic platitudes don't really do it for me and neither did his bizarre mind-reading or future-seeing ability. It was just too much, too fast. Honestly I was expecting Diogenes since we never did see the body so to speak and in comparison, Diogenes is subtle that's how over-the-top Alban is. I guess they wanted to scare me with all their genetic mutation and eugenics stuff, but they didn't. Animal instinct is about all that's driving Alban. His humanity has been bred out and all that's left is a shell governed by an over-simplified set of instructions. Like those Erector set contraptions your brother built when you were a kid. At least Diogenes had the warming glow of emotional-instability to shine over us.Then there are the multiple storylines, each one reading like a set up for new directions for future novels. The only one of real interest was Constance's, but even that was a re-tread. We already knew about the kid, her childhood, her age and why she's in the nut house. What else is there? Felder's bit of housebreaking was funny, but DNA from hair without roots is not possible. At least so far as I remember. Did the artist try to snatch Constance bald or something? Oy. And even more outrageously silly is the on-cue volcano eruption. And Pendergast didn't even have to fly around the earth backwards or anything. What a time-saver a tame volcano is. Granted, the novels are wicked over-the-top and always have been, but this strained the bounds of reality hard, even for these guys.Corrie's cliffhanger resolution comes very late in the story and I almost thought they wouldn't get to her at all, but they did and from that we had a wild tangent where she is reunited with her long-lost father, who of course turns out to be a prince, not the pathetic loser her mom made him out to be. The whole car dealership thing is unnecessary and distracting. How the hell does this further anything having to do with Pendergast? We don't care about Corrie. She's a supporting character that had her uses 6 books ago, but isn't interesting enough to be sustainable no matter how much she is compared to Lisbeth Salander.Last, but not least, was the whole D'agosta thread which has almost no bearing on the situation at all. Nearly in vain he tries to get Pendergast out of his morass of self-pity, but he eventually does. Then they basically sever all ties for the remainder of the novel. Pendergast has to get a new grunt for his assault on the Nazi headquarters and we're left to watch D'agosta try to figure out how to propose to Hayward. Ugh.So after that little sappy scene, we go back to the mansion on Riverside where Constance is trying to teach Tristram the half-wit how to play some ancient card game. I'm sorry, Tristram isn't really a half-wit, but he's so soppy and backward that he comes off that way. I guess basically being an organ farm for your better half isn't that great for developing any traits that are interesting. And with Alban most likely lurking in the basement, I'm sure we'll have some kind of brother act going on. Will it be a duplicate of the one between A and D or will it be something else? Will Uncle and Nephew join forces and terrorize A and T? I really don't care that much since the magic of these books seems to be sucked dry and it will take a LOT of convincing to make me read the next one.
    • 5/5
      Wow! I am so relieved this book completes the Agent Pendergast trilogy. My body could not take anything more suspenseful than this latest book. It has more twists and turns in it than the Amazon River. It's really not possible to comment a whole lot concerning the plot without giving something away. Pendergast reunites with his wife Helen at the beginning of the book, and a serial killer strikes various New York City hotels. Pendergast will pursue the murderer. Will he survive this latest pursuit? Read it and find out. Thank you Preston and Childs for another great book!
    • 5/5
      Great story arc, in the middle of this series, which I'm sure has not come completely to an end.
      And one or 2 of those 'I'll explain it all to you later...' deals that drive me nuts because they almost never do, were explained. FINALLY!!!

    • 4/5
      I just love Agent Pendergast. Keep them coming
    • 4/5
      Climax to the series was a little disappointing.
    • 2/5
      A decent adventure yarn, but a crap entry in the Pendergast series. There's a plethora of unnecessary subplots and the authors seem embarrassed enough that they've pretty much wiped the developments from the series two books later. Shrug shrug shrug.
    • 4/5
      Six-word review: Personally motivated, Pendergast goes into overdrive.Extended review:The conclusion of the "Helen" trilogy is more like a B movie than most of the others I've read so far in the Pendergast series (this is number 12). It boasts a full complement of murder, mystery, and mayhem, maybe even overfull. Special Agent Pendergast must overcome a Holmes-like malaise and launch himself into a remote destination in order to penetrate the heart of a dastardly Nazi plot for world domination. Special effects include not only bursts of gore and hails of bullets but violent explosions and, yes, flight and pursuit through dark, watery underground tunnels. We meet hitherto unknown members of Pendergast's family, learn the full extent of the terrible secrets his late wife had concealed from him, and discover an aspect of Pendergast's character that has not been seen before.There are also a couple of bizarre subplots that one might expect to see come together at some point, but they don't. Fodder for future episodes, I'm guessing.All this crazed adventure is borderline corny, verging on self-parody; and yet by now I know the series well enough to regard it as just part of the fun. Despite some superficial (and probably not accidental) similarities to Sherlock Holmes, Aloysius Pendergast is more like a Bruce Willis action-movie character, albeit with a heaping dose of class and a limitless bankroll.I'm still following.I'd just like to whisper an aside to the authors: No, I'm not expecting literature when I read your books; but please go look up "nexus" in the dictionary and stop using it as if it meant "crux." Also please use the search function to notice how many instances you have of someone or something "sporting" something, as in "The village sported stuccoed buildings" (page 344), "most sported classic Nordic looks" (page 346), and "Many of the buildings sported window boxes" (page 347), and replace at least half of them. (You might also check the frequency of "gingerly.") And while I'm at it, I'm tired of seeing "dogleg" (or "doglegged") in place of "corner" or "angle."That's all. Thank you. Carry on.
    • 4/5
      Two Graves by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
      3.5 Stars

      For twelve years, FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast believed his young wife, Helen, died in an accident. Then he was told she'd been murdered. Now he discovers Helen is alive. Just as he finally finds her, their reunion is cut short when Helen is abducted by a sinister ex-Nazi group. Two Graves concludes the “Helen Trilogy” and follows Fever Dreams and Cold Vengeance. I would not recommend reading these out of order since there are a lot of woven threads from the two previous novels. Many of the cliffhangers from Cold Vengeance are picked up and concluded in Two Graves.

      I love the Pendergast novels even though Aloyisius is out of control in the past couple of them. His mental state is clearly on edge after seeing Helen kidnapped and he becomes completely different from the Pendergast we've known over the years. There's a lot of impulsive action and not enough rationale thought which isn't like him. The plot involves neo Nazis working on genetic experiments in the Amazon jungle. I personally think this type of plot has been done numerous times but there is enough of a twist to this one that I forgave the authors. I kept wondering why Helen never told Aloysius about her past. Nevertheless there's a surprising twist that will give Pendergast a new direction in the future as well as a new villain we are bound to see again.

      Two Graves has at least two other story lines that barely connect to the main plot. Corrie Swanson returns with her own side story. She finally meets her father and attempts to help him solve a problem that could put him in jail. In the second one we return to Constance and her story where some of the questions we had about her are answered. D'Agosta is backand there is some progress on his character.

      I hope Preston/Childs give us a new Pendergast novel soon and they return to the elements that made the first books so good. I want to see Pendergast and D'Agosta working cases together as a team. I miss the cerebral, brooding Sherlockian Pendergast. I know both authors work on their own individual novels as well as their new character, Gideon Crew. I just hope they are not getting stretched too far because I would really miss all the characters in the Pendergast family.
    • 4/5
      Another great entry in the Pendergast series.

      Extremely painful to see him constantly fail and hit rock bottom, yet somehow it was also refreshing as he is usually several steps ahead of everyone and always at the top of his game. The past few books have certainly taken a psychological toll on Special Agent Pendergast, especially the events that open this book.

      I wonder how much more the authors can throw at this guy and keep him sane enough to still be a viable protaganist. Yes, he takes things in stride and eventually overcomes the challenges thrown at him ... but good grief! Good thing this is fiction!

      The Agent Pendergast series is good stuff!
    • 5/5
      There's nothing like a Preston Child "Pendergast' novel!
    • 3/5
      Over the course of the previous books in the series Pendergast has been led to believe that his wife Helen was killed by a lion and then died at the hands of a murderer. As this book opens we learn that neither of these is true and Helen is still very much alive. At their touching reunion in Central Park, where despite everything Pendergast wants to begin their life together again Helen is abducted. With his dream of a happy life together torn from before his very eyes Pendergast slips into a deep depression and opens his door to no one. The only thing that draws him back from the brink of suicide is a series of murders committed by someone Pendergast believes may be his brother (Presumed dead). Well, Aloysius is about to discover Helen left behind more than the mystery of where she has been for the past several years.

      Mr. Preston and Mr. Child never disappoint with this series. Do you have to suspend belief a little bit, of course you do, otherwise it would not be a Pendergast novel. But the roller coaster this book rides makes it worthwhile. I particularly enjoyed the fact that the Constance Green story was featured a little more prominently. Personally, I wouldn’t mind if the authors added a book to the series where her story is the main one.
    • 3/5
      I'm getting less and less enthralled with the Pendergast series. Which essentially means I'm less enthralled with Pendergast himself. This is the third, and what I assume, final, book in the Helen trilogy. "Two Graves" is in many ways three different stories. One story follows Pendergast and D'Agosta as they investigate harrowing murders in several NYC hotels. This then shifts to South America after a rather big reveal--which I won't divulge here. But the events in South America involve only Pendergast (and other, new characters) and not D'Agosta, who once again seems to be put on the sideline for much of the book (as does Laura Hayward).The second story involves Corrie Swanson, a character first introduced back in "Still Life With Crows." This story line has little to do with the overall plot and I found it rather mundane and pointless. Which is disappointing because I loved the character and her interactions with Pendergast in the aforementioned book.Finally, we follow Dr. Felder as he investigates Constance Green's past. As with the Corrie plot, there's not a lot of reason for this to be a part of the main book. If Preston/Child want to explore these characters further, maybe they should do so in stand-alone novels and not wrap them up in a Pendergast novel. The characters are obviously tied to Pendergast, but here, there's little to no interaction with him, so what's the point?Not long after the big reveal, Pendergast goes into a major free fall; this is the most interesting part of the story for me. The special agent is always in control so to see him lose it so was quite interesting.Preston and Child's knack for weaving a perceived supernatural thriller, with Pendergast and D'Agosta hot on the trail, has lost a great deal of steam over the last several books. I'm hoping they can find their stride again because I'm losing patience and faith in this series.
    • 4/5
      The 12th volume in the Aloysius Pendergast series of crime novels has our intrepid detective briefly reunited with his wife (thought long dead), and introduced to some loving teen-age sons he never knew he had. Of course, the joyous reunions is ruined by those damned Brazilian Nazis, but with a title like Two Graves, there has to be some reason to dig them in the first place. Additionally, we find out more about Constance's story, and Pendergast's student apprentice solves a case of her own, one involving her father and a scam at a car dealership. As usual, the highlight is the reading by actor Rene Auberjonois. While I find these stories quite absurd, having them told by one of my favorite actors ads an entertainment factor that transcends the text itself. I haven't been reading them in order, but story lines arching across books are kept to a minimum. I've read enough of them now to get most of the references when they appear. If you're going to dive into this series, though, I would recommend doing so in order.
    • 4/5
      As a long-time reader and fan of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, I wasn't disappointed with their latest entry in the Pendergast series (#12), but didn't have the same feeling at the end of it as I have with most of the others. This book brings back all of the recurring characters in the long running series and each get their moment in the spotlight. Pendergast rightly takes center stage as he should, but also appearing are his friend and ally, Vincent D'Agosta, his ward Constance Greene, Corrie Swanson, Pendergast's wife, Helen, and cameos by some other minor characters.In this novel, Pendergast frees his wife from the clutches of Nazi kidnappers only to see her taken again. As he deals with this situation, Preston and Child creates sub-plots for the aforementioned recurring characters. Some of these sidebars feed the main plot that Pendergast is part of, some are head shakers that may the reader to wonder why they are included in this book (as I did). I know that fans of the series want to see these characters in each Pendergast novel, I just wish that the authors could have tied them all more closely to the plot.Preston and Child's writing is brilliant, as always, and the book moves swiftly along. I really enjoy their descriptive scenes and wonderful vocabulary. I really have only two complaints, though, about the book. 1) Some of the later scenes involving Pendergast and the Nazis were really overdone and in need of an editor's red pen. Perhaps, the duo was told to provide so many thousand words and had to stick to the plan. And, 2) those unfamiliar with the series will have little clue about the back story and history between Pendergast and the characters mentioned earlier. Not that this is all bad though, because it may cause the new reader to the series to go back and start with "Relic".Fans of the series won't be disappointed and should rush out and grab a copy. Those new to the world of Pendergast will hopefully start looking for copies of the first 11 books and prepare for some great reading.