City of Endless Night
Ratings7
Average rating3.2
15
Ratings7
Average rating3.2
"A consistently exciting and never predictable series."--Associated Press When Grace Ozmian, the beautiful and reckless daughter of a wealthy tech billionaire, first goes missing, the NYPD assumes she has simply sped off on another wild adventure. Until the young woman's body is discovered in an abandoned warehouse in Queens, the head nowhere to be found. Lieutenant CDS Vincent D'Agosta quickly takes the lead. He knows his investigation will attract fierce scrutiny, so D'Agosta is delighted when FBI Special Agent A.X.L. Pendergast shows up at the crime scene assigned to the case. "I feel rather like Brer Rabbit being thrown into the briar patch," Pendergast tells D'Agosta, "because I have found you here, in charge. Just like when we first met, back at the Museum of Natural History." But neither Pendergast nor D'Agosta are prepared for what lies ahead. A diabolical presence is haunting the greater metropolitan area, and Grace Ozmian was only the first of many victims to be murdered . . . and decapitated. Worse still, there's something unique to the city itself that has attracted the evil eye of the killer. As mass hysteria sets in, Pendergast and D'Agosta find themselves in the crosshairs of an opponent who has threatened the very lifeblood of the city. It'll take all of Pendergast's skill to unmask this most dangerous foe-let alone survive to tell the tale.
Featured Series
15 primary booksPendergast is a 15-book series with 15 primary works first released in 2003 with contributions by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.
Reviews with the most likes.
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"?
