Cemetery Dance

Overview

Pendergast-the world's most enigmatic FBI Special Agent-returns to New York City to investigate a murderous cult.

William Smithback, a New York Times reporter, and his wife Nora Kelly, a Museum of Natural History archaeologist, are brutally attacked in their apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Eyewitnesses claim, and the security camera confirms, that the assailant was their strange, sinister neighbor-a man who, by all reports, was already dead and buried weeks earlier. While Captain Laura Hayward leads the official investigation, Pendergast and Lieutenant Vincent D'Agosta undertake their own private-and decidedly unorthodox-quest for the truth. Their serpentine journey takes them to an enclave of Manhattan they never imagined could exist: a secretive, reclusive cult of Obeah and vodou which no outsiders have ever survived.

Editorial Reviews

Bestsellers Preston and Child kill off a regular supporting character at the outset of this suspenseful tale of urban terror, their ninth to feature FBI special agent Aloysius Pendergast (after The Wheel of Darkness). William Smithback, a New York Times reporter, and his wife, Nora Kelly, an anthropologist with the New York Museum of Natural History, are celebrating their first anniversary when Smithback is fatally stabbed in their Manhattan apartment, apparently by a creepy neighbor, Colin Fearing, an out-of-work British actor. Given eyewitness descriptions of the killer, including one from Kelly herself, as well as surveillance footage showing a blood-stained Fearing emerging from the apartment building right after the crime, the case appears to be open and shut--until Pendergast and his NYPD ally, Lt. Vincent D'Agosta, learn that Fearing died almost two weeks earlier. This taut page-turner can only add to the authors' growing fan base. 8-city author tour. (May)
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Author Information

Bio of Douglas Preston

Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child are the coauthors of the bestselling novels The Relic, Mount Dragon, Reliquary, and Riptide. Douglas Preston worked for the American Museum of Natural History, is a regular contributor to The New Yorker, and in 1989 retraced Coronado's thousand-mile odyssey on horseback. He welcomes reader e-mail at prestonchild@prestonchild.com.

Bio of Lincoln Child

Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child are the coauthors of the bestselling novels The Relic, Mount Dragon, Reliquary, and Riptide. Lincoln Child is a former book editor at St. Martin's Press and has published numerous short-story anthologies. He welcomes reader e-mail at prestonchild@prestonchild.com.

Customer Reviews

• A New and Exciting Agent Pendergast Novel

  Posted May 30, 2009 by Mary R., Virginia Beach, VA

  After the disappointment of Brimstone and Wheel of Darkness, Cemetery Dance is a refreshing return to the excitement of early Agent Pendergast novels such as Relic, Reliquary and (my absolute favorite) Still Life with Crows. There are lots of surprises, interesting characters (both old and new), red herrings and plot lines all of which lead to a rousing finale. And on the last page the authors began setting the stage for the next installment which can't come soon enough for me.

• Pendergast is back!

  Posted June 12, 2009 by Tyler, Centerville

  A must read for fans, and new readers alike! Filled with many twists and turns!

• A welcome follow up

  Posted June 18, 2009 by Sam Reader, Quebec

  Pendergast is back in NY. A book difficult to close, a very bad habit, but one that I find hard to break...

• Good, intense read

  Posted June 30, 2009 by Nivek, Sacramento

  The latest in the series is a suspenseful read with lot's of action. The book started on a bad feeling with a shocking turn of events, but it led to a great story with the usual twists and turns, and a close-call with almost supernatural events. It has all of the elements of a Pendergast adventure and is a good read even if it does get pretty formulatic at some points.

Additional Info

Imprint

Grand Central Publishing

Filesize

1.53 MB

Number of Pages

448

eBook ISBN

9780446537841