One of the books in the "Pendergast" series, this novel follows FBI Special Agent Pendergast and Lt. D'Agosta as they get to the bottom of a bizarre series of deaths.

It all starts with the death of an art critic, Jeremy Grove, who appears to have been burned alive in such a strange manner as to cause speculations of the devil coming to collect the man's soul. More deaths occur, and each points to a demonic source.

Pendergast and D'Agosta travel from New York City to Italy chasing down the story behind the deaths, while others begin to suspect an apocalyptic atmosphere.

Anyone who loves detective/mystery novels will probably enjoy this book. It definitely keeps the reader guessing right up to the end.

The start of the novel captured my interest immediately. I wanted to know more about the characters that were introduced and I was instantly drawn into the mystery that was presented.

I appreciated the straightforward writing presented by Preston and Childs. The action flowed well throughout the novel, and they did a great job of keeping me in suspense.

although the start of the novel was great, it fizzled out a bit by the end. I found myself feeling a growing sense of disappointment by the time the novel was finished. With such a great start, I expected a bit more by the end, and it just didn't deliver as well as I had hoped it would.

read the next one. Although a bit disappointed with this one, it left me wondering what is going to happen to the characters in this novel. It alludes to something very sinister that will happen in the near future, and I want to know what that is. I will be reading the next book in the series ("Dance of Death).

a little disappointed. I think this novel tries a little too hard to follow in the style of The DaVinci Code. It wants to give the reader a sense of history and background, but it switches from topic to topic too fast. It deals with art, history, music, architecture, and more, but all to a very minute degree.

The authors of this book are Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child who have written a series of novels together.

it's part of a series.

it fizzles out by the end.

Overall, it wasn't too bad of a read. It starts out great, but I found myself disappointed by the end. At the same time, though, it introduces something that made me want to read the next novel in the series. It's not the best detective novel, but it's certainly not the worst, either.

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Created Mar 29, 2007 at 7:42am • Submit your own review...