Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
Grand Central Publishing
October 18th, 2016
Since the enigmatic Pendergast disappeared beneath the waves in the last book, Constance has been moping about the house. Distracted and barely eating, she’s not easily coming to terms with Pendergast’s likely death.
Proctor, the retired soldier now Pendergast’s chauffeur and friend, is worried.
Suddenly, he is attacked from behind, a syringe stuck into his neck. The voice of the man holding it there is one he never expected to hear again–it’s the voice of a dead man.
When he comes to, he sees Constance being roughly shoved into an SUV, and the SUV speeds off. Proctor follows, and ends up on a much longer trip than he expected.
The Obsidian Chamber, the 16th Pendergast novel, returns us to Pendergast’s familial struggles. Yes, as was hinted in the previous novel, Crimson Shore, Diogenes is back. Diogenes is still a psychotic murderer and deft plotter, and still pretty much hates his brother. The new twist? He believes himself in love with Constance.
We also find out where Pendergast has been in the months everyone thought him dead, and that’s a little side case of its own.
Preston and Child have regained their stride with this new installment of the series, and it’s full of all the plotting and scheming you’d expect. A solid buy for fans of the series. It’s not something you can jump into if you’ve not read the previous books, as much of the plot leans on characters and information introduced in those previous books.
JL Jamieson is a strange book nerd who writes technical documents by day, and book news, reviews, and other assorted opinions for you by night. She is working on her own fiction, and spends time making jewelry to sell at local conventions, as well as stalking the social media accounts of all your favorite writers.