From the Publisher
This book is a lot of fun. The writing is crisp and lightly ornate, as usual, and the story is inventive and suspenseful."—Booklist
"An engaging adventure . . . entertaining, with a plot that twisted in unexpected ways . . . These are seasoned writers who know how to weave a good story and leave you wanting more."—The Mystery Site
PRAISE FOR BLOODLESS "Leave it to the imaginations of Preston and Child... Spooky and surreal [and] wonderful fun."
—Kirkus
"BLOODLESS is their 20th novel featuring one of the most unique protagonists in all of thriller fiction, Agent Aloysius Pendergast, and may rank as one of the finest books they have ever penned together.... BLOODLESS is a pure pleasure to read and is like candy to thriller fans — candy from which readers will drain every ounce of flavor in pure delight."—BookReporter
“Bloodless is rife with inventive scenarios, amusing exchanges (especially between oft-impatient Coldmoon and eternally placid Pendergast) and tantalizingly spooky mysteries, topped off with a gloriously wild finale that is as action-packed as it is memorable.”—BookPage (Starred Review)
PRAISE FOR CROOKED RIVER
"Exciting. Nail-biting. Quality storytelling."—Publishers Weekly
"Preston and Child know how to craft compelling stories that are both baffling and surprising. The cast of characters feels authentic and moves the story forward in unexpected ways. . . the authors are masters of the procedural with a gothic flair."—Associated Press
BookPage (Starred Review)
Bloodless is rife with inventive scenarios, amusing exchanges (especially between oft-impatient Coldmoon and eternally placid Pendergast) and tantalizingly spooky mysteries, topped off with a gloriously wild finale that is as action-packed as it is memorable.
Associated Press
The authors are masters of the procedural with a gothic flair.”
BookReporter
BLOODLESS is their 20th novel featuring one of the most unique protagonists in all of thriller fiction, Agent Aloysius Pendergast, and may rank as one of the finest books they have ever penned together.... BLOODLESS is a pure pleasure to read and is like candy to thriller fans —- candy from which readers will drain every ounce of flavor in pure delight.
Library Journal
12/09/2022
In Agent Pendergast series book 21 (book three of the "Leng Quartet," following Bloodless), the brilliant, eccentric, opium-addicted FBI agent Aloysius Pendergast is back "reading" criminal minds, but he's devastated that his ward (and love) Constance Greene has left him. Using a time machine, she has traveled to a parallel universe in 1880 New York City to prevent the murder of her siblings. They imprisoned her brother on the ominous Blackwell's Island, and her sister will become a victim of Dr. Enoch Leng—a serial killer surgeon who performs experiments on the poor. Pendergast must save Constance, but the only way is to travel back in time. In the present, Pendergast's NYPD friend Vincent D'Agosta investigates the murder of a Lakota curator of Native American artifacts at New York's Museum of Natural History. When Pendergast's former FBI partner, Armstrong Coldmoon, investigates the death of a Lakota Sioux man on the Rosebud Reservation, it's soon clear that the murders are related. VERDICT This dual timeline tale will appeal to fans of police procedurals, historicals, and magical realism, and those intrigued by quantum mechanics. But beware the dreaded words "to be continued"—readers won't know the ending until book four of the quartet.—K.L. Romo
Kirkus Reviews
2022-11-29
Constance Greene, ageless protégé of FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast, travels back to 1880s New York—the time and place of her childhood—to save the world from the evil Dr. Enoch Leng and prevent him from killing her two siblings.
Taken off the meanest streets of New York by Leng when she was 9, Constance was given an experimental elixir by him that succeeded in dramatically slowing down her aging process. More than a century later, now under Pendergast's wing, she is only 20 in physical terms. After belatedly discovering that the essential ingredient of the elixir was taken from the spines of young women, including her older sister, she uses the time machine that appeared in Bloodless (2021) to return to old stomping grounds—where, bizarrely, she encounters her own 9-year-old self. Posing as an Eastern European aristocrat, she insinuates herself into New York society to get next to the falsely celebrated Leng—who has taken the elixir himself—with the aim of killing him. Meanwhile, desperate to protect her from harm—and prevent her from getting stuck in that alternative dimension—Pendergast has the one-use-only time machine retooled. In a largely unconnected plot, his Native American FBI colleague Armstrong Coldmoon investigates two murders connected to the theft of precious Lakota artifacts from a South Dakota reservation. Played as a straight mystery, this part of the novel is efficiently done, if not as much fun as the SF stuff, but it ultimately seems like a time-killing device for the authors. After more than 400 pages, they go the "To Be Continued" route, apologizing for the "inconclusive ending." Now they tell us.
A mixed bag that leaves the reader hanging.
