Oh boy, oh, boy, oh boy! Once a year, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child make it possible for readers to escape into the dangerous and eerie world of Special Agent Aloysuis Pendergast, a highly unorthodox FBI agent who specializes in unusual cases. If you’ve followed my blog for a while you know I’m crazy-mad about this series and, most especially, Pendergast. Needless to say, I devoured the latest release, Bloodless. The only down side of finishing this enthralling book is now I have to wait a year until a new release!
BOOK BLURB:
Agent Pendergast faces his most unexpected challenge yet when bloodless bodies begin to appear in Savannah, GA, in this installment of a #1 New York Times bestselling series.
A fabulous heist:
On the evening of November 24, 1971, D. B. Cooper hijacked Flight 305—Portland to Seattle—with a fake bomb, collected a ransom of $200,000, and then parachuted from the rear of the plane, disappearing into the night…and into history.
A brutal crime steeped in legend and malevolence:
Fifty years later, Agent Pendergast takes on a bizarre and gruesome case: in the ghost-haunted city of Savannah, Georgia, bodies are found with no blood left in their veins—sowing panic and reviving whispered tales of the infamous Savannah Vampire.
A case like no other:
As the mystery rises along with the body count, Pendergast and his partner, Agent Coldmoon, race to understand how—or if—these murders are connected to the only unsolved skyjacking in American history. Together, they uncover not just the answer…but an unearthly evil beyond all imagining.
MY REVIEW:
Combining the mystery of D. B. Cooper with a series of odd murders in which the victims are drained of blood? Only Preston & Child could pull off a plot like that, and they do it exceptionally well in the twentieth outing for FBI Special Agent Aloysius X. L. Pendergast. If you’ve never read a Pendergast novel, Bloodless is written in such a way that you can go into it fresh without worrying about what came before.
Pendergast and his sometimes partner, Coldmoon, are diverted to Savannah, Georgia, accompanied by Pendergast’s ward, Constance Greene. Call me a happy camper as other than Corrie Swanson (who now stars with Nora Kelly in their own series), Coldmoon and Constance are my favorite supporting characters.
The haunted setting is perfect for a story that includes an unethical ghost-hunting reality TV host, a slimy politician, and an eccentric wealthy woman who lives in isolation on the upper floor of a luxury hotel. There’s also a collection of local law enforcement for Pendergast and Coldmoon to interact with. I particularly loved Delaplane, the Savannah commander who gets to shine in her own right.
The book starts out with a slow build of eerie killings, then explodes in the last half as all hell breaks loose. The story is so different than any that have preceded it—downright bizarre—I had to pause for a day to examine how I felt about it. I stayed up reading past bedtime on a work night just because I had to know how it ended.
It’s near impossible to put the book down once the action really kicks in and pieces begin to slot into place. The pace is frantic, and the descriptions vividly portrayed. This is another five-star read in a series that never grows stale and features one of the most unique characters in modern fiction. I can’t wait for the next Pendergast adventure—especially with the hint provided in the closing chapter of what is to come. One of my top reads of 2021!
Author Bio:
I’ve got a crazy launch day, with an appointment that falls smack in the middle of the day, sure to keep me offline for a time. I’m apologizing in advance because I have so many wonderful bloggers helping me out, and I fully intend to make rounds and visit all my host blogs. I just may be a little late.