“Cold Vengeance” is the 11th Pendergast book and continues where “Fever Dream” left off…Pendergast finding out much more about the death of his wife, Helen Esterhazy Pendergast.
Once again the plot is improbable…but then that is what this series has been all about…fun…improbable fun that takes you away for a short while to the unbelievable and exciting lives of Pendergast, Vincent D’Agosta, and other returning characters such as Corrie Swanson (featured in “Still Life with Crows”) and Constance Greene, Pendergast's unusual ward who claims she was born in the 1870’s.
After reading Preston and Child’s first book in their new series featuring Gideon Crew, I was much relieved to find that they hadn’t applied the mediocre writing I found in that first Gideon book to their Pendergast series. Back was the intensity of their previous writing that has always grabbed my attention. A plot that moves along quickly while at the same time offering a full explanation for what is happening and why it’s happening. Characters who, after reading about them through multiple books, are well developed and perform actions that are plausible to who they are.
The ending of the book was good, not too subtle yet not too forced with a lead-in to a third book in the story about Helen Esterhazy Pendergast. I’m looking forward to that one…and then wondering if Preston and Child will be able to find another adventure for Pendergast and Vincent D’Agosta to embark on that will entice me to keep reading after they wrap up the Helen/Pendergast story line.
