Listen. If you like well written, thrilling mysteries, it is a crime if you do not read the Agent Pendergast novels. Many of the books can be read stand alone, but I recommend reading them in chronological order. This particular title is the center of a trilogy, and aside from the cliffhanger ending, the authors did not disappoint.

I am beginning to feel like Douglas Preston and Lincoln Childs have an ever-other –book gift. When their book is as much about New York City and all of it inherent madness as it is about the gradual unraveling of Agent Pendergast and his supporting cast, they can’t be beat. But this is twice now the book seems to lose all the flare of the city and just get caught up in Pendergast’s almost-super-powers, and even this girl can’t suspend my disbelief. Believe me folks, that is saying a lot, I can get wrapped up in almost anything!

I must say that I do love this supporting cast of characters, especially the immortal (although the authors denied it last time I heard them speak in New York) Constance. She delights and intrigues me, as does her doctor who has quite a scare in this book. I look forward to what is coming their way, including the possibility that the baby is alive?! Did I read that right? Nice!

Ok, so the ongoing dramas and my attachment to the cast kept me going, but it lacked the city magic that I had seen return in Cemetery Dance. Will I look forward to the next installment? You bet, but I hope my beloved city comes front and center again.

Eh. As usual, the tired endpaths of a series just lay there, twitching. More questions than answers, and I'm not that interested in the questions.

I'm pretty sure this book gave me whiplash with all the twists and turns. Prepare for a continental chase of epic proportions. Pendergast is on the search for the man he believed killed his wife, and he will stop for absolutely nothing to get answers. With many characters from previous novels making an appearance this installment in the Pendergast series quickly became a favorite. On to the next one!!

Okay, I ran straight for this book after reading [b:Fever Dream|7122034|Fever Dream (Pendergast, #10)|Douglas Preston|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1275757940s/7122034.jpg|7383328]. We just had a big reveal at the end of that story and there was no waiting. [b:Cold Vengeance|9489502|Cold Vengeance (Pendergast #11)|Douglas Preston|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328001264s/9489502.jpg|14374946] lived up to expectations. It's gripping, non-stop suspense that constantly raises more questions than it answers, and for Pendergast fans, it gives more insight into the character than perhaps all previous Pendergast novels. The FBI Agent came dangerously close to the "edge" in [b:Fever Dream|7122034|Fever Dream (Pendergast, #10)|Douglas Preston|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1275757940s/7122034.jpg|7383328], but in [b:Cold Vengeance|9489502|Cold Vengeance (Pendergast #11)|Douglas Preston|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328001264s/9489502.jpg|14374946] he leaps over that line. We see Pendergast as we've never seen him in his desperate pursuit of what may or may not be the truth. I'll say no more, as I hate to give spoilers.

Although I enjoyed this book immensely, I expected more answers than I got. And near the end, when the brother-in-law is pressing Pendergast to go along with his plan, and insists that there's no time to explain -- it felt a bit forced. They did have time for a brief explanation about what was going on.

One more thing -- the title doesn't seem to fit. This story wasn't about vengeance at all, but about finding the truth. Pendergast had more vengeance on the brain in the previous story, but with the new information he has, he's moved on.

Finally, I have one question for the authors, Preston and Child: REALLY??? You really left us there? I've read that there won't be another Pendergast novel for a while, and that makes the ending to this novel so much WORSE! Normally, I would have already started the next one - but there is no next one, with no date on when you'll pick up the tale. You are not finished with Agent Pendergast. There are too many unanswered questions, too many dangling threads. You have two characters that have been kidnapped, a secondary character possibly mortally injured, Pendergast bleeding, and implications all over the place that there's a whole bunch more going on -- with multiple characters. Just in case you get it in your head that you're tired of writing this character -- sorry, but with an ending like that, you are not allowed to stop.

Just saying.

While I am a big fan of the Pendergast series, this installment did disappoint a little in that it finds Pendergast to be-*gasp*-human. The appeal of his character is that mysterious, smoke-and-mirrors, superman quality with a wonderfully cerebral twist and in this book we see more of the fallible Pendergast with feelings. I still enjoyed it, though, and look forward to the follow-up, the third in the trilogy. I'll take Pendergast any way I can get him but I would recommend reading the Pendergast novels in order to anyone new to the series, starting with Relic.

This was good. I liked it more than Fever Dream. I guess I'd give it 3 and a half if I could. I am not a fan of the half novel (which is what this is--I won't ruin it for you by saying HOW it is...suffice to say if it were any more open ended it would have stopped mid sentence). I also had a problem with Pendergast's nearly lethal case of Buffy-Syndrome (in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series, Buffy fought amazingly...when it suited the plot and her fight skills tended to vanished when the writers needed her to lose a battle or look like she was losing at the beginning of a battle). In the beginning of the novel, Pendergast could have taken Esterhazy out on the moor with a blade of grass and two acorns...if he had been the Pendergast of previous novels...instead--well, you'll have to read it to find out. OR wait until the final volume in the Helen "trilogy" comes out late next year and read the whole novel.