by Douglas J. Preston. If a movie were made from the latest Special Agent Pendergast novel, the tagline might read: This time, it's personal. Twelve years ago, in Africa, Pendergast's wife was mauled to death by a lion after she shot at it and missed. Now, in the present day, Pendergast makes the startling discovery that his wife's gun was loaded with blanks. He enlists the aid of his old friend, New York City cop Vincent D'Agosta, to help him track down the people responsible for his wife's death and mete out some very personal justice. The Pendergast novels, beginning with 1995's Relic, are uniformly excellent, although they have grown steadily darker and more elegantly written. Singly, both authors turn out solid stand-alone thrillers, but together they reach an entirely different level, achieving a stylistic grace and thematic resonance neither has so far matched alone. This may be the best of the Pendergast novels, if for no other reason than we are permitted to see the man beneath the cold, steely exterior. For fans of the earlier novels, a definite must-read. --Booklist.
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