The Wheel of Darkness (Special Agent Pendergast)

Douglas Preston , Lincoln Child

Edition	Hardcover
List Price	$25.99
	$17.15 (Save 34%)

Published by	Grand Central Publishing
Release date	2007-08-28
ISBN	0446580287
Availability	Usually ships in 24 hours

FBI Special Agent Pendergast is taking a break from work to take Constance on a whirlwind Grand Tour, hoping to give her closure and a sense of the world that she's missed. They head to Tibet, where Pendergast intensively trained in martial arts and spiritual studies. At a remote monastery, they learn that a rare and dangerous artifact the monks have been guarding for generations has been mysteriously stolen. As a favor, Pendergast agrees to track and recover the relic. A twisting trail of bloodshed leads Pendergast and Constance to the maiden voyage of the Britannia, the world's largest and most luxurious ocean liner---and to an Atlantic crossing fraught with terror.

Customer Reviews - courtesy of Amazon.com ( Marked4Sale.com is not responsible for review content )

Fantastic!!

Preston has continued his fast paced, horror novel style. I love being scared by his creatures and otherworldly threats. It is definitely a page turner and I would recommend it to any one who loves this genre as much as I do.

Hard core - don't miss it!

A very strange chapter in the Pendergast story, The Wheel of Darkness has to do with a missing Tibetan relic that could bring about the end of the world. Pendergast and his ward Constance learn about the theft while at the Tibetan monastery to help Constance after Diogenes brought about the collapse of her delicate psyche in Book of the Dead. Pendergast believes the thief is taking part in the maiden voyage of a new super-luxury ocean liner, so he gets himself and Constance aboard and they set to work trying to discover who has stolen the mysterious relic. Forced to confront his worst fear - himself - Pendergast experiences a most dangerous journey.

It is difficult to describe this story without spoiling it, so I have left my review vague on the plot points. However, I can heartily endorse this book as a great piece of thriller fiction and a story that gives Pendergast a most interesting ... twist. Definitely be sure to check this one out!

Holmes and the Tibet Affair

I think that some of Preston and Child's fans are missing the whole point of the main character, Pendergast and the series framework.

The whole formula for these series is based on Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. It's simply an updated version of a Holmes-like character functioning in a modern world. Perndergast's physical description and mannerisms are so close to Sherlock's that if they wrote like some slam-bam thriller writers, they would say he was a Basil Rathbone lookalike.

In place of Watson, they feature various cast members from Constance to the NYPD officer. And Constance is the typical demure Victorian era damsel in distress. So the emphasis, unlike their other novels like Relic, is on Pendergast's character and how he uses his "Thinking Machine" mind to solve the crimes. So yes, at times you do get visions of Murder She Wrote because this is first and foremost a mystery rather than a thriller. It's Pendergast's unique and eccentric personality that carries the story line, and the puzzle to be deduced. And like in Doyle's work the explanation comes at the end.
Setting this story on an ocean liner is classic; it's been done before by Agatha Christy and many others. Personally, I like the Ian Fleming like attention to details about the foods, the wines, the art etc.

There is absolutely nothing realistic about Pendergast at all, he's an over the top mystery detective pure and simple.

I admit that I like their action thrillers more, but they do both genres equally well. Their strongest point is their ability to carry off these cross-genre: horror, mystery, action/adventure thrillers.

Frantic And Entertaining

The Wheel of Darkness is the first Pendergast novel I've read. Thus, I approached the book with no preconceptions or comparisons to earlier novels in this series. So, how did The Wheel of Darkness resonate with this first-time reader? Surprisingly well.

There's little question that Preston and Child have created two wonderfully realized characters in Pendergast and Green. The idiosyncrasies that the authors have imbued on these characters make them both real and memorable. The strong personalities are needed, because Preston and Child almost lose control of the story while trying to conclude several plotlines. Still, the protagonists' strength ground the frantic conclusion, resulting in an entertaining end to the story.

With the combination of an action packed story line and vivid central characters, it's easy to see why The Wheel of Darkness would have strong appeal. Did The Wheel of Darkness' strengths compel me to rush out and buy the rest of the Pendergast novels. Well..no. But, I found enough positives that if I'm browsing the bookstore for an entertaining action/mystery story, I'll strongly consider purchasing another Pendergast story.

Don't bother!

The best word I can think of to describe this book is LAME! I'm a big fan of Preston and Childs' previous works, but this one was a stinker. The other negative reviews mirror my sentiments exactly. Don't waste your time with this one, you'll end up disappointed.