Cold Vengeance
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4.3 • 835 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Twelve years ago, Special Agent Pendergast's beloved wife was murdered during an African safari -- and now, he's on a quest for revenge.
Devastated by the discovery that his wife, Helen, was murdered, Special Agent Pendergast must have retribution. But revenge is not simple. As he stalks his wife's betrayers--a chase that takes him from the wild moors of Scotland to the bustling streets of New York City and the darkest bayous of Louisiana--he is also forced to dig further into Helen's past. And he is stunned to learn that Helen may have been a collaborator in her own murder.
Peeling back the layers of deception, Pendergast realizes that the conspiracy is deeper, goes back generations, and is more monstrous than he could have ever imagined--and everything he's believed, everything he's trusted, everything he's understood . . . may be a horrific lie.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
If Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child were looking to shake up their Agent Pendergast series, Cold Vengeance is a rousing success. Although it’s the second installment in the Helen trilogy, the story will completely absorb newcomers as well as diehard Pendergast fans. As the usually stoic FBI agent investigates the dark truths surrounding his wife’s murder with frenzied single-mindedness, forensics and tech-talk give way to bold action. We especially loved the boggy expanses of the Scottish moors—an ideal setting for a grueling journey that reveals telling details about Preston and Child’s guarded protagonist.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
By picking up the action right where Fever Dream ends off, bestsellers Preston and Child sacrifice some accessibility in their 11th thriller featuring unconventional FBI agent Aloysius Pendergast. Pendergast is still reeling from discovering that the death of his beloved wife, Helen, 12 years before from a lion attack was actually the result of a cold-blooded scheme. Desperate to learn the truth about the people behind her murder, the agent embarks on a perilous hunting expedition with her brother, Judson Esterhazy. While in the wilds of Scotland, Esterhazy tells Pendergast a surprising secret that undercuts all the agent's assumptions about what actually happened. His usual sidekick, NYPD Lt. Vincent D'Agosta, plays a more muted role than usual, but Corrie Swanson, who assisted Pendergast in Still Life with Crows, returns to help. The authors do a good job of showing the lengths Pendergast is willing to go to in his quest, but because the book reads much like the middle of a trilogy, first-timers would do well to start elsewhere in the series.
Customer Reviews
Cold Vengeance
This book was something my bride and I waited for since we listened to Fever Dream together while driving. It was superpbly written and masterfully read. All the thrills and spills we love from a Pendergast novel.
An honest review when most aren't.
I thought this second book in the new Helen trilogy is one of PC best yet and is up their with the Diogenes trilogy.
For those saying there was no closure, it's because it's part two of three. And someone said this book is 300 pages shorter than their other books... Almost all their books are only 300-350 pages anyways!
If you're a Pendergast fan, you will love this book and if you read Fever Dream (which I highly recommend) , you will love it even more!
Horrible excuse for a Preston/Child Novel
What a lame effort on the part of these two exceptional writers. It's as if some slothful, distracted personage violently inhabited their minds, and produced this disjointed, utterly unsatisfying book. And who edited this train wreck? The plot is jerky and melodramatic, the characters are pathetically un-compelling, and Preston//Child have stripped Pendergast of his mystery - a stake through the heart of this series. What a departure from the craft and complexity of their early works, like The Cabinet of Curiosities. If you love these writers, don't buy this book - you'll regret it.