Cold Vengeance by Preston and Child

Last year I wrote a review for Fever Dream, which followed the continuing adventures (for lack of a better word) of the authors Agent Pendergast character.  That book was the 1st of a trilogy that delved into the background of the character this time introducing the story of how he lost his wife.  Cold Vengeance is the follow up to that book. 

The story picks up with Pendergast finally confronting his brother in law, Judah, whom he thinks might have killed his sister, Pendergast’s wife Helen.  The two of them have a back and forth trying to kill each other for much of the duration of this book.  But towards the end we see that there is a mysterious organization behind Judah, and that he and his sister both have a mysterious connection to it.  Eventually Pendergast realizes this and by the end of the book just starts to dig into the truth.  The last 10 pages do a very good job setting up the 3rd and final entry into this trilogy (called the Helen trilogy after the character of Helen).

I’ve read all the books that Preston and Child have written together and most that they have written on their own.  I can honestly when these authors team up to write a book they never fail (though occasionally their solo efforts do).  This book is another installment of the series that follows one of my favorite characters of all time, Agent Pendergast.  The story is quickly paced and easy to follow.  The action never lets up as we follow our characters thru one engaging and interesting scene after another.  The authors also let us know that no one is safe and that anyone other then Pendergast can come to a bad end (I mean the series does revolve around him!).  This really works well because they do such a wonderful job of establishing the characters in such a way that you as the reader are invested in their fate.  This made the book a real page-turner for me (though I read it on my iPad…).  Plus the addition, even in small roles, of characters from the Pendergast “universe” that reoccur in this book make it even more fun for fans of the series.   

As I’ve already mentioned they do a wonderful job setting up the 3rd book and much like I said in the review for Fever Dream I can’t wait for the next entry in the series.  If you want to start in on a great series of books you can’t do much better then the work of Preston and Child.  Though I’d recommend starting with Relic if you were going to start reading the Prendergast books.  Jumping into this one might be a bit confusing if you don’t know who all the characters are and how they relate.  Either way I highly recommend this series and in particular this entry into the series. 

reviewed by John Shatzer

© Copyright 2011 John Shatzer