This being a Pendergast novel, I don’t think it’s a spoiler, either, to reveal that Pendergast makes yet another of his fabled great escapes - otherwise there’d be very little book left.

Eventually (and as this happens in the first few pages, I’m not going to consider it a spoiler), Judson Esterhazy gets his shot in and leaves Pendergast for dead. P&C’s talent for breathing life into a location is as active here as ever, and they walk the reader through the twists and turns of this Highland battle in a way that keeps the tension well-mounted. The first few chapters are wonderfully evocative, exploring a boggy mire in Scotland. We start in medias res, with Pendergast on what’s bound to be an ill-fated hunting trip with his erstwhile brother-in-law - whom he has just learned was responsible for his wife Helen’s death. Not just for the spoilers, but also because - it doesn’t really begin or end. But it does make it damn hard to review the thing. There’s nothing wrong with being the filler of the sandwich. That shouldn’t automatically be taken as criticism The Empire Strikes Back is my favourite of the Star Wars movies, and The Two Towers, in my opinion, is a far better tale than The Fellowship of the Ring. This is definitely the middle section of a trilogy. Most of this review will be spoiler-free for Cold Vengeance, though I will have a clearly marked spoiler-full section at the end. Spoilers: For Fever Dream, the preceding book in the series, as well as other previous Pendergast novels. Author: Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Fever dream douglas preston