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173 of 184 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Getting back to form..., May 11, 2010
After pre-ordering the book on kindle, I read the book in one sitting. I must say that Preston-Child are showing some love back to Prendergast series after the last couple of mis-haps ( yes, wheel of darkness quite ruined the series for me ). This book gets basic elements right and tells a compelling story set in the heart of American south. In my humble opinion, there are three sets of Pendergast series. The first three belong to the great series, namely, Relic, Reliquary and Cabinet of curiosities. The second set is the "Diogenes" series ( Brimstone, Dance of death and Book of the dead ), which are quite good reads, but could get repetitive. The third set is purely commercial breaks between solo projects of each authors ( Still life..,Wheel of darkness and recent Cemetery dance ). This book signals the return to form for the authors. Recurring characters are kept to a minimum and story is fast paced with thriller elements. Sherlockian style is quite visible here more than any other novels. Also the books seems to leave quite loose ends of the story for continuation in another book, but is not quite unwelcome. We would love another great story by the authors. One nagging doubt for me is if the authors are getting themselves into a corner with Pendergast. Since the last 4-5 books dealt with similar theme around Pendergast's family, the series is getting quite contrite. A change of scenery may be good. Also, the pre-climax action sequence of the book is vaguely familiar to a recent book by one of the authors and if you were reading them back to back, similarities are hard to mess ( leverage the research, is not a bad idea, but might have been too soon ! ). In summary, Fever Dream is quite worth the wait and signals a renewed comeback for our favorite FBI agent and loyal lieutenant. Go for it !
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57 of 62 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Pendergast Novel In Years--A True Return To Form., May 15, 2010
"Fever Dream" is the 10th suspense thriller from Preston and Child built around Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast. Trust me when I say it is a return to form for the authors and for our favorite enigmatic Holmesian sleuth. This series was great from its inception with "Relic", "Reliquary" and "Cabinet Of Curiosities" until it began to slide into complacency, supernaturalness, and predictability. Even worse was the seeming decline of Pendergast's intuitive skills compunded by his sometimes long absences from subsequent books while his NYPD ally, Lt. Vincent D'Agosta, carried much of the load. "Fever Dream" remarkably returns all focus on Agent Pendergast, fine tunes his logical, eccentric, and brilliant crime solving talent, and makes him more human and emotional than ever before in the series. Twelve years earlier, Pendergast and his wife, Helen Esterhazy Pendergast, had been hunting in Zambia, Africa when she was tragically devoured by a ferocious man-eating lion. A chance discovery 12 years later leads Pendergast to the certainty that his wife was murdered by an elaborately staged accident. He enlists the aid of his old friend, Lt. Vinnie D'Agosta, to assist him in following the cold trail in an effort to find Helen's murderers. Of course, this time the investigation is personal and Pendergast reveals his emotional side as he fights to control his anger and his baser instincts for abject vengeance. He is also forced to rely more on his allies for assistance and perspective because some of his cool resolve has, understandably, melted. Captain Hayward, D'Agosta's love, also joins the hunt as the level of violence and suspense ratchets up several notches. Pendergast has to reexamine all that he knew--and did not know---about his wife in order to make headway. He discovers so many mysteries and dead ends that cause him to reevaluate his whole experience with Helen. Who was she really? What was her fascination with John James Audubon and his missing masterpiece, The Black Frame? How was she able to hide her secretive life from him while they were married? Who from his past can he trust? Despite some worldwide travel, most of the action occurs in the deep South where Preston and Child create a believable, right-on scene of distrusting rednecks and duplicitous white collars. The taciturn Pendergast employs his brilliant problem solving skills to great effect as he continues to see clues where others see nothing. He is much more emotional, edgy, and violent than usual which adds to the intrigue of this fine character. If you enjoyed the Pendergast of old and have become somewhat jaded by the recent Pendergast efforts, do yourself a favor and grab this one and rediscover the magnetism of this wonderfully developed character. My only quibble regards the reappearance of Constance Greene, Pendergast's ward, who again is a distraction from the main storyline. The Constance Greene storyline has become laborious and distracting over time, yet I assume that there will be a major payoff in some future novel to compensate us for her whiny, unstable, distraction. Despite that minor concern, this is a great addition to the Pendergast legacy. He is "on-screen" almost the whole book, we see his fantastic talents in great detail, yet we also see a more vulnerable, human side to the character we grew to love so long ago. A highly recommended read.
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26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Fun fluff . . . nothing more, June 22, 2010
Fever Dream is fast-paced, fairly entertaining, and will satisfy most of the avid Pendergast fans out there longing for their Aloysius fix. At the same time, it's not a very good novel. Let me be clear - I have enjoyed the Preston/Child novels, to various degrees, since Relic, and I am as intrigued by the enigmatic Special Agent as most readers out there. Over the years, however, Pendergast has grown less interesting and more . . . well, more predictable. I sometimes find myself speaking his lines in my head before I read them. He doesn't surprise me anymore. He has become a caricature of himself, which is disappointing. Preston and Child have succumbed to two of the most egregious failings of recent popular fiction. First, Fever Dream has a plethora of mini-chapters (many are 2-3 pages in length), which work to push the plot forward but allow no time for character development or depth. This leads to the second failing - the novel is nothing more than its fairly absurd plot. I'm as willing as most to suspend my disbelief as mutated scientists wreak havoc on musty museums or crazed lunatics plot dastardly deeds against family members. But to make those stories work, we have to really care about the characters, the settings, and the world Preston/Child have so beautifully created. In Fever Dream, we get a bunch of the expected characters (Pendergast, D'Agosta, Laura Haywood) acting pretty much as we expect them to act. The central plot, however - about Pendergast's hunt for the people who murdered his wife twelve years earlier - doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I won't spoil it for those of you who haven't read it yet, but the "murder weapon" is patently absurd, as are the motives of the "bad guy" (whose identity I guessed the moment he was introduced, even though Pendergast, D'Agosta, and Haywood never seemed to get it, even in the end). Which brings me to a third failing - Fever Dream is written as the first in another series of novels, meaning there IS no ending. I have nothing against sequels, but it does bother me when writers work harder to sucker a reader into their next book than they do making the current one worth reading. Relic worked on its own; Reliquary was a good sequel, but it wasn't NECESSARY to buy Reliquary to understand and enjoy Relic. If you want to know what happens at the end of Fever Dream, you'll have to buy the next book in the series (and maybe the next TWO books, if Preston/Child follow their established pattern). That's a cop-out, and it's a lazy cop-out. I see that Preston/Child are beginning a new series of books with a new investigator (Gideon Crew, who they describe as "uncommon," meaning he'll be intriguing and enigmatic and probably very eccentric). I think they, as much as any of us, realize that their Pendergast novels can't go on forever. I only wish they would spend a bit more time writing good stories and a bit less time setting up their marketing plan. Their earlier work (Relic, Reliquary, Riptide, Thunderhead) remains their best. Fever Dream, while not bad for a beach read, is pretty much just fluff with some familiar names.
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