Blue Labyrinth (Agent Pendergast Series, 14)

With their 14th entry in the Special Agent Pendergast saga, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child not only get their hero back to his prime, but they get the story back to basics. Blue Labyrinth is an extraordinarily strong entry in the series, and exactly what fans have been asking for, especially after last year's White Fire, in which Pendergast was just a supporting character.

It's impossible to write a typical review of this without getting into serious spoiler territory, so I thought I'd do something different and offer up the top 5 reasons that fans need to read Blue Labyrinth:

1. Pendergast is back - back at the forefront, back to his old ways, and back on top of his game. There's no question our hero has fallen on some hard times in recent books, but having spent much of the last book recuperating, he's once again the cunning man of thought and action that we've come to admire.

2. Vincent, Margot, and the New York Museum of Natural History are back - in an awesome wink to the fans, Preston & Child not only bring back the heroes of Relic and Reliquary, but they take us back to where it all began. It's not just a cheap cameo or token appearance either. Both have a role to play, and they follow up on how Margot has coped with the memories and the fears.

3. Pendergast is forced to be human - and he's as arrogant, irritable, and selfish as you'd expect. The cover blurb already tells you he's 'stricken in mind and body' so it's no spoiler to say he suffers a great deal in this book, but that means we get to see him lash out, express his emotions, and be honest with Constance about his feelings. The vulgar encounter over a Swiss parking ticket is worth the price of admission alone.

4. We get more of the Pendergast family history - and it's a history that's just as dark and unsavory as contemporary experiences with Diogenes and Alban would lead us to expect. While it's been hinted at before, we finally learn the truth of precisely where Pendergast's wealth and artifacts originated. It's a dark family secret, with a legacy of pain and death that, almost a century later, has come back to haunt him.

5. Constance gets to play the heroine - working alongside Margot in a frantic, desperate effort to save Pendergast's life. Constance has been something of a polarizing character since her first appearance, especially given how her eternal youth forces us so far beyond the willing suspension of disbelief, but she really gets a chance to shine here. I liked the way she was used in the story, and her scenes with an ailing Pendergast probably revealed more about him than we've ever seen before.

Blue Labyrinth isn't the best Pendergast tale, but it is the best in a long time. The story is strong, there's some real danger/suspense, and the characters all get a chance to shine. Personally, the way it brought things full circle, especially in dealing with the fallout of the original museum adventures, put it way over the top. It's a fun, frantic, can't-put-down-read that will undoubtedly go over well with fans both casual and dedicated.

Let me quote from the section where our hero lies in his room "at death's door" - "Constance," he began, his voice as quiet as before. "You must understand that, at times, it is becoming difficult for me to...maintain my hold on reality. It comes and goes, as does the pain. At present, for instance, just to converse with you in a lucid fashion requires all my concentration. So let me tell you what I have to say, as briefly as possible." As briefly as possible, he says? I think not. Pendergast is long-winded, stilted, and what is worse, boring. I know I used to look forward to a new Pendergast novel, but the bloom has worn off...just as the odor of lilies in the novel turns into an unbearable odor. The weight of cliches in this series has finally brought it down to the do-not-read-even-in-despairation level.

...What the HECK was this? Gone is the supernatural/gothic feel, which made their previous books enjoyable and fun to read. I was actually enjoying this book up until about halfway though.It's unfortunate to say that this book suffered greatly through contrived storytelling in the 2nd half and I was greatly disappointed that Preston/Child seem to be losing their touch. I found it improbable that Pendergast would be able to live through being poisoned like he did and he frankly should've died....plus, the authors killing off his one son, Alban? We only just got introduced to him a few mere books ago and now he's dead, with this whole "redemption" quality to him.

The only thing that made me happy about this book is when I purchased it through another website, it was signed by the authors.

I have read every book by Preston and Child. I've enjoyed them all to various extents, except for this one. This book is painful. Preston and Child typically write in a formulaic style and it works, but here they have overplayed their hand. Their recurring characters peaked in past novels and now there's nowhere left to go. So, instead of interesting developments, exciting plot twists, or any sense of mystery, the book is a collecting of tired memes interspersed with dialogue filler: Hey, it's D'Agosta again and look, in the course of three pages he's suddenly unraveled the mystery of his partner. Wow, there's Constance. Isn't she creepy playing around in the basement of Pendergast's mansion? Oh, I know, why not throw in a lot of happenings at the Museum of Natural History, maybe even toss in a murder there. That'll definitely freshen the plot up!
If this is a sign of things to come, Preston and Child should retire.

After the disaster that was Two Graves I swore I would never touch another Preston & Child book again. Then I found myself stuck away from home with only this to read. It is almost impossible to imagine that just 10 years ago these authors were the number one writers of pulpy, gothic Sherlock Holmes rip-offs. Today they are unrecognizable hacks who churns out material worse than fan fiction, devoid of ideas and any hope of salvaging this once highly entertaining series.

This is the Pendergast book that you have been waiting for! If you are a long time Pendergast fan, and were a bit annoyed with some of the recent storylines, you can come back, because this is the best books in the series. As you expect, you will have to suspend disbelief as you read Blue Labyrinth, but no magic-like events, no fantasy, and everything in the book actually could happen. This is a refreshing change. Pendergast still is Pendergast, but he is much more believable. The main characters in this book are FBI Special Agent Aloysius Xingu L Pendergast, Lt. Vincent D’Agosta, Constance Greene, and Dr. Margo Green, so this is a “Normal” cast, and one that you will feel comfortable with.

This is the fourteenth book in the series, and with any long running series, the question comes up, “Can I jump into this series with this book?” The short answer is yes. There are a lot of references to events that happened in the “Helen Trilogy” (Fever Dream, Cold Vengeance, and Two Graves), but even though you might wish that you understood what they were talking about, there will be nothing that will prevent you from comprehending the story. You may not understand Pendergast, but who does. I think that Preston & Child may not understand him. They interview Pendergast here for their newsletter “Pendergast Files”.

Most Pendergast fans will love this book. If you’ve never read any books in the series, you can start with Blue Labyrinth. If you had just started the series with White Fire, you might wonder why this book is so different. Well it isn’t, White Fire was the offshoot. Overall, anyone can pick this book up and start reading a great series.

I give Blue Labyrinth 5 Stars out of 5, and 2 Big Thumbs Up! This is the perfect Pendergast book.

I received a review copy of this book from the publisher, Grand Central Publishing.

The reason the Pendergast series has gained such a huge following is because of Aloysius Pendergast - not the supporting characters. Sadly, AXL sleep-walked his way through this novel. The Pendergast of yore would never have fallen for obvious traps. He would have discovered his own antidote and he would have survived through his own smarts. We knew the author wasn't going to "kill the goose that laid the golden egg," but really, concocting herbal tea in an ambulance? Holding a gun on doctors and nurses? Seriously? I realize so much of Pendergast is written tongue-in-cheek, but the whole scavenger hunt to find the mystery ingredients for the antidote was beyond goofy.

The plot was interesting enough, as plots go. I read the book in a couple of days. Nevertheless, the moribund Pendergast and "Pendergast's Angels" bogged it down. And... Constance Greene. Please have the great good sense to do a "Helen" on this very irritating, boring character. Constance is NOT mysterious. She is NOT fascinating. She is NOT remotely likeable. She is not Morticia to Gomez. Despite her harpsichord, she's not even as interesting as Lurch. Her hijinx in the conservatory gave me hope the authors would arrange for an accidental drop of acid in those "deep violet eyes" of hers. Barring that, I thought she might kill the villain (and herself) by crushing him as she plummeted from a treetop. Is that mean? No, after all, Constance is older than God. It's time.

Seriously, the entire "Green Sisters" adventures in the museum and conservatory was too much BS for my taste. It was simply too far over the top. Two sedentary "intellectuals" suddenly morph into Ninjas, defeating trained assassins? Aw, come on.

If you must keep Constance, develop her character as you did with Corrie Swanson, who was fascinating and a true dynamic female. The relationship between Corrie Swanson and Pendergast was well done in "Still Life with Crows." Pendergast was still an insufferable snob, but his inherent goodness made him three dimensional. The plot and character development make the book. Please, please, please do not concoct a romance between Constance and AXL. It would put a serious damper on the series. Helen was bad enough, don't make it worse.

It wasn't a bad book, but it could have been a fantastic book and I'm disappointed that it wasn't.

I just saw on Amazon.uk that Nov 20th it will be available on Kindle so are we here in the U.S. gonna ever be able to buy it. I am glad I didn't waste my time reading the first 11 chapters only to be more let down then I am right now after waiting all this time and NO book WHY ?!?!?!?!?

This is probably the last Pendergast book I'll read. I've read all of the others (in the space of about 4 months). Uneven. It's best when Pendergast is not fighting his brother or figuring out the mystery of his wife or dealing with the death of his son. What got me was the constant phrase "stench of rotting flowers". I think a person would know they were smelling the stench of rotting flowers if there were flowers rotting in front of his nose. But if it was just a smell they noticed - one which they noticed "out of the blue" - how many people would use that exact phrase. Yet it pops up from multiple different people throughout the book. It is details like this that eventually make me question the quality of the authorship. And these kinds of things occur in every book. I like the character of Pendergast, but there are so many other books to read that I think I can set aside this series.

When you have a central character to a book series, and when you place that character in a near-death experience, the "threat" to the character's life is not valid unless you intend to end the series. All drama is diffused and useless.

A lot of hype went to this title... even being called "reminiscent of Cabinet of Curiosities". Mind you, it is no where near the excellence of Cabinet. The series is becoming tiring... and in my opinion too stretched and dragging on the same characters for the fans' sake, same family drama (ok ok, I know Pendergast's are weird & interesting. But that shock factor has already had its limelight 5-6 books ago) for nostalgia. The story development was really slow too. Normally I would devour a Pendergast novel, but this is the first time that it actually took me 3 weeks to get through the novel. The past 4 novels in the series haven't been the best, it felt like a all you want to say is, "omg just move along move along". If this is a reflection of what's more to come from Agent Pendergast series, I would rather just stop reading and believe that the whole saga ended at Brimstone (which was in my personal opinion, the last good book before everything went downhill). I love Agent Pendergast and even with the frustration in this review, I still love the character. I just hope the next book is just totally about HIM & his brilliance, a stand alone case devoid of the old characters, and storyline baggage.