The Book of the Dead

All the twists and turns are still easy to follow and hold your interest. All my questions got answered in the very end. If you haven’t read all the books in order you really should.

I feel like all my reviews for the Pendergast series are starting to sound the same, I'm gushing as if in love about how fantastic the books are but its still true, this story is phenomenal and it makes you want to read another and another, this could easily have thirty volumes and I would still want to read them all, as usual this book reads smooth as silk while the action cuts like a knife.The Book of The Dead is the standard great stuff that one would expect from the insightful and intelligent duo, their stories breathe a life of their own and to me they feel different than other novels. Our world is filled with books, one can find them everywhere but whenever I read a Pendergast novel I feel as if I was holding something of heft and value, there is knowledge in these pages; ancient cultures, science, architecture, folklore and mysticism, curses, artifacts and it all sounds real enough to touch and some of it is but I especially adore all the breathtaking characters both good and bad and some in-between, in my opinion they are invaluable to the books. I guess they speak to me, true love haha... Pendergast lives in my mind beyond the pages of the book, that's how great he is.The third in the Diogenes Pendergast trilogy and seventh in the Aloysius Pendergast series ( I highly recommend starting with Relic, Pendergast#1) story continues on the wild hunt to catch and expose the elusive Diogenes who is conveniently presumed to be dead by everyone but the small circle of our heroes. The Queen of Narnia, The Heart of Eternity, The Indigo Ghost, Ultima Thule, The Fourth of July, The Zanzibar Green and of course Lucifer's Heart, all precious diamonds that were stole in the last installment are destroyed by Diogenes and arrive pulverized into a rainbow colored snow to the museum as a final act of madness and show of power. The previous book was simply fantastic and it exposed Diogenes' identity but only to the reader, the entire museum still has no idea that not only is Diogenes alive but his secret identity is walking right under their noses. To make matters worse, Aloysius Pendergast is in a top security prison and everyone that has always been jealous of him is gunning for the guy to go down, he deals with that brilliantly, boy that was fun! Even though Aloysius is locked up he is the only one who can match up against his evil and twisted genius of a brother, their journey takes them half way through the globe and back.My personal favorite part of the tale was the prison sequence, well pretty much all of it, I don't want to spoil anything but what happens to Pendergast in the prison is nuts. I read all the parts while holding my breath, some I had to re-read because they were simply too good to only read once. Ingenious and stunning, no deus-ex machina way out of this puppy! Lots of stuff happens, there is also the museum exhibit with a tomb that appears to be cursed, madness and mayhem breaks out as usual, lovers of museum thrillers will have a ball with the Tomb of Senef and those who love Pendergast will gobble up everything he does and says. I was finally impressed with Constance, I never really gave her much thought before but through this book she became another strong contender for future stories and my dear Vincent D'Agosta, he was wonderful as was Laura Hayward. For some reason Laura Linney ( the actress) kept popping into my head when Hayward's scenes came up, she was something, the woman can hold her own.This was such a tremendous journey with the two brothers that I'm not sad to see it over because I'm really looking forward to the next chapter, the next book sounds quite potent and meaty and I might need a bit of a break to let my brain prepare for another greatness of Preston and Child. I don't read them back to back on purpose as much as I really want to, after all it's not good to eat dessert three times a day, same with books, I save the good stuff to be savored when I'm really in the mood for greatness.- Kasia S.

What more to say, besides, an excellent thrilling adventure that leads me to start turning the pages in the next book!

Fantastic story all round - this series continues to go from strength to strength. No major spoilers here, but this book has it all - an ingenious endgame plan by the evil Diogenes Pendergast, a daring prison breakout, and the usual suspects of Nora, Smithback, D'Agosta, and Constance, all who continue to grow and develop with each installment. All very satisfying except for one major flaw: why not wrap up the ending?What irks me most is a note at the end of this book from the authors stating in what order to read this series, and the comment about how these books are all "stand alones, but reading them in order does help". Understand this message is literally two pages after the story ends with a major revelation about one of the main characters on the very last line. I loved books 2-4 for that very reason - they truly were stand alone novels. You knew Pendergast would be back, but you still finished the book with a sense of satisfaction. Ever since Brimstone it's been one cliffhanger after another. Preston & Child are outstanding writers, but they're never going to get 5 stars from me with these "stand alone" series entries.

I confess I had never read Preston & Child before I got my Kindle. Now that I don't have to worry about where to put all the books I buy and read I have branched out. Due to the ludicrous costs of some of my go to authors I have stopped reading quite a few of them and have been reading "new" (to me) authors. I'd heard of these two before so I decided to try their works.My first book was a Pendergast mystery. It "grabbed me", was fast paced, quirky, interesting, informative and tough to put down. Really, really tough to put down. I liked the book so much I bought all the Pendergast series and read one right after the other. I was mesmerized. Pendergast is an odd one and would never exist in real life, (particularly in the cookie cutter FBI), but this is fiction and we all want a hero to have what he needs at his disposal and doing it in style is not a bad way to go.All the characters came to life for me. I felt like I was with Pendergast and/or D'Agosta. I shared D'Agosta's frustrations and concerns. I asked the same questions. Felt the same emotions.If you like fiction, mystery, a little fantasy thrown in for good measure, you will love these authors and their star characters, FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast and Lt. Vincent D'Agosta. I read all of this series and give a five star rating to each book. Obviously I am so satisfied w/Prescott & Child I will continue reading their books, so they come highly recommended to you too.

This is a highly enjoyable book and exciting conclusion to a trilogy. One young? character certainly comes into her own here and looks to be the focus of the next book, Wheel of Darkness. Preston and Child are top rate writers of suspense. They are masters of writing highly descriptive paragraphs that don't bog down the flow of the narrative but rather intensifies the suspense. The cat and mouse chase in Florence was page turning stuff.Poor New York Museum! How many strange occurences and deaths can the museum survive? Wheel of Darkness does look to take the setting far away from New York.The word from the authors at the end was interesting: a nice way to summarise their novels so far and give a reminder of who appeared where. For instance, I had forgotten that Eli Glinn appeared in The Ice Limit. Keep turning the pages past the Wheel of Darkness sample to find a little addition by Corrie Swanson. And the website's real too! Does this mean that Corrie will get caught up in a future New York mystery along with Smithback, D'Agosta and friends?Looking forward to more about Penderghast or any other interesting characters the duo can dream up.

I am delighted with the condition of this purchase.It was advertised as very good but unlike some it lived up to this billing.Slight yellowing of pages which is inevitable but apart from that just perfect.I am more than satisfied with this seller.

This book is the final part of the trilogy between Agent Prendergast and his brother Diogenes. It is well written and there is much more to the story line. An exhibit of the opening of an Egyptian tomb at the New York Museum provides the backdrop. Recommended.

As usual, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child confirm their great ability in writing cool, well-conceived page turners.In this book in particular, a lot of details about some of the characters are unveiled, and the "Pendergast Trilogy" featuring Aloysius vs. Diogenes finally comes to an end... and what an end!Apart from the praises for the writing style and action scenes, for the characters and the mood, another point I found particularly strong in this book was the obvious amount of research the authors did. I am Italian, and the small details, for example the streets of Florence, or the cuss exclamation of a Carabiniere, or even the cell number of a bus driver (which uses a correct prefix for an Italian cell phone, no fake "555" number) all prove that they really went into research for the book.Also, the frequent sentences in Italian are correct and do make sense this time (unlike some of their previous books where the sentences were dictionary-translated and light-years from what a "real" Italian would say).All in all, a fantastic book, definitely well worth it!If you appreciate Preston and Child's novels, don't miss this one, with a single caveat: for maximum enjoyment you will need previous knowledge of facts and characters, so reading the other books (at the very least Brimstone and Dance of Death, ideally quite a few others) is *strongly* advised.

I really enjoyed this book another great fom th duo Preston/Child. I love the Prendergast books you get to know the characters and I like to read about their journies.