New Reads: Preston & Child Dark Mysteries

 I posted this on my other blog, but am reposting it on this blog as I figured the readers here would also enjoy these thriller-mysteries.

 If you like your mysteries dark with a touch of horror, then the Agent Pendergast series written by Preston & Child is for you. What took me so long to discover this series?

Wow! Amazing thrillers written a touch above other mysteries with bits of horror and the supernatural that find me even making a list of words to look up and I have a good vocabulary. Intrigue, weird situations, and some monsters, both human and other-worldly.

 I'm reading out of order (of course!), but it doesn't seem to matter too much. Some of the books are in sets so I'll be reading those together.

**  I'm just finishing book 20, Bloodless, so we'll see which one I read next.

The series starts with Relic where murders at a natural history museum exhibit of South American objects and weird religious fetishes can't be done by a human. And aren't. (Interesting settings though I wasn't as crazy about this one.) Book 2 Reliquary continues the hunt for the monster so read these two together. 

The first book I read in the series was The Cabinet of Dr. Leng (#21), a creepy serial killer, time-travel novel. Fascinating! I love finding a long series to read and this is a good one!

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The 22 book series list in order (plus a new prequel): (I'll link these as I read them and mark with * for myself.) I'm going to add a short description to remind myself of what they're about. I'm listing these, too, as the books don't really have a good list in order.

   

* 1 Relic  - a creepy museum exhibit and a mysterious (not of this world) murderer (Books 1 and 2 are a set.)

* 2 Reliquary - The hunt for the murdering Museum Beast deepens and continues as Pendergast and team search Manhattan's labyrinth of sewer tunnels.

3 The Cabinet of Curiosities

4 Still Life With Crows

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5 Brimstone (Books 5-7 make up the Diogenes Trilogy about a twisted criminal - Pendergast's brother, Diogenes.)

6 Dance of Death

7 The Book of the Dead

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8 Wheel of Darkness

9 Cemetery Dance

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10 Fever Dream (Books 10-12 make up the Helen Triology concerning Pendergast's late wife Helen)

11 Cold Vengeance

12 Two Graves

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13 White Fire

14 Blue Labyrinth

15 Crimson Shore

16 The Obsidian Chamber

17 City of Endless Night

 * 18 

19 Crooked River

 

* 20 Bloodless (2021) - Is a vampire stalking Savannah? (Good one! Might be my favorite so far.) Strange goings-on with links to alternate universes, AI, computers, and monsters, plus a link to DB Cooper's 1970s unsolved bank robbery and skyjacking.

* 21 The Cabinet of Dr. Leng - I read this one first and wow!  Pendergast's protege Constance Greene goes back to the 1800s to prevent the deaths of her siblings and find a creepy serial killer. Great time travel! (Beware it ends on a cliffhanger and continues in book 22.)

 

* 22 Angel of Vengeance - Constance Greene returns to the past to face the serial killer while Pendergast's brother appears with his own agenda. Some interesting twists in this one.

23 New Prequel: Pendergast: The Beginning (Jan. 2026) Pendergast's first case reveals his unorthodox style as he and his partner investigate ritual murders by a serial killer. (Waiting for the library to get it in.)

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