City of Endless Night

One of my favorite Pendergast books. The bad guy has an inventive motivation. There are a number of
complicated crimes with tricky connections between them. I always prefer the books where Pendergast is solving the mystery rather than being the mystery. And this is a mystery worthy of Pendergast.

I re-read this and I think I was talking about a different book above.
I still think this is a good Pendergast story up to the conclusion.
Then suddenly the authors and/or Pendergast seem unaware of a number of cultural icons.
The bad guys motivation has been used in many dozens of stories, probably in every form of entertainment.
Heck, it was used in a episode of Gilligans island.
The resulting chase is pretty exciting but there are two more popular culture elements used in the story and they are quite detracting.
I'll put the details in spoiler tags below.
But I stand by my statement that I enjoyed the book and much prefer stories that are not just about Pendergast and his family history.
The bad guys motivation is the "Most Dangerous Game" trope and when we discover this, I almost put the book away. Surely the authors and/or Pendergast were familiar with this.The chase starts with Pendergast trying to figure out which of two exits the bad guy will use.It read just like the iocaine poisoning scene in "The Princess Bride". It was hilarious there and here it is distracting because all I can think about is Wallace Shawn and Cary Elwes and laughing.Lastly, both Pendergast and the bad guy discard their shoes during the chase through a huge abandoned building full of junk and broken class. Did neither the authors of Pendergast see "Die Hard"?

In the umpteenth book in the vaunted Pendergast series, a serial killer is targeting the ultra-wealthy in New York, and Lt. D'Agosta and Special Agent Pendergast must track the maniac down before the city loses its collective mind and the panicked wealthy citizens bring wrath down about the NYPD And FBI.

I have read all of the Pendergast series. Every year, I look forward to the new one. At this point, Pendergast is an old friend despite the many enigmatic elements of his character, even after all these years. There's something about his unflappable nature, refined tastes, and gothic charm that appeals to me, and I think he's one of the great detectives, up there with Holmes and Poirot.

Preston and Child make a formidable team. Their books always clip along easily, demanding page-turners. CITY OF ENDLESS NIGHT is no exception to that rule. The writing, as always, is crisp and fluid. The story is enthralling. Even with their usual standards met, this story surpasses many of their more recent books solely because it is almost entirely focused on the problem at hand. There is precious little of the Pendergast family dramas that have tainted many of the more recent books, and Pendergast is not as melancholy and moody, dwelling over Constance and/or Helen, or the possibility that Diogenes is out there somewhere. He's an actual FBI agent again, and he works with Vincent to actually solve a mystery.

I know that Doug and Linc probably won't read this review, but if they do: Give me more of that. I'm not really a fan of Constance. I could do without her. I like seeing Pendergast focused on a real, flesh-and-blood crime without any supernatural elements filtered into it. It is refreshing to see him back in his natural element, to see him with some levity, to see him actually doing his job.

I'll take more of this sort of story every year. It was the sort of tale that first attracted me to the Pendergast series, and it was told well. I'll be hoping that the next go-round will be more of the same.

5/5