Still Life with Crows (Pendergast, Book 4)

STARTS A BIT SLOW . . . BUT STILL A FAN!
Sadly, this Preston/Child novel left me wanting. I wasn't sure at first whether the setting had a lot to do with this feeling. It was hard that Still Life With Crows followed on the heels of Relic, Reliquary, and The Cabinet of Curiosities, all set in - and under - New York City and all saturated with fantastic imagination and mystery. The plot in this "fourth Pendergast installment" seemed slow developing and predictable. At least to me.

On the upside, these authors are masters at creating characters so well-defined that they draw the reader in, and make readers willing to invest the time and emotion needed to finish the book. Which, BTW, picked up speed about midway.

Special Agent Pendergast was his usual fabulously intriguing self. `Nuff said.

Though this novel will not remain on my shelf of keepers, it has in no way diminished my hunger for works by Preston and Child. In fact, today I bought four more of their novels: Dance of Death, Book of the Dead, Wheel of Darkness and Riptide. In scanning a few pages in each new book, I was thrilled to see old friends return.

Happy Reading!

Starts off well, feels rushed at the end
I'll be honest - this one was kind of a let down after the wonderful Cabinet of Curiosities. The novel starts off well enough - Pendergast is out of his element in Medicine Creek and the story is interesting. What really killed this book for me:
1). Medicine Creek is completely stuck in the 50's. I think you'd be hard pressed to find any place quite that backwards, even in ultra rural Kansas.
2). Hazen was an interesting character to me; I wish he had been developed more. Same for Corrie.
3). The last part of the book - the big chase through the caves - was completely ridiculous. Nothing explained the super human strength of the perpetrator to any satisfaction (indeed, given his circumstances growing up, I would think he'd be physically weak rather than strong) and the explanation given for why he arranged the victims in the way he did was silly. I got the sense that the authors ran out of ideas about 2/3 of the way through and just rushed the ending.

Still life with crows rocks
now we know why those corn fields always look kind of menacing. if you're nuts about pendergast (as i am), you're gonna love this one. we also get to see his human side, which is not as evident in later books. the usual preston and child creepy characters and bad ways to die. well written, reads fast...loved it.

Not Their Best, But Still A Fun Read!
I liked this one quite a bit, but I wouldn't say it is one of my favorites of their work. It wasn't terribly unpredictable and while I did enjoy the new characters (particularly Corrie - I hope she shows up in the series again) there were a few factual errors in the end of the book that were disappointing to say the least (the errors would constitute spoilers, which I don't want to give). But I was relieved that the solution to this mystery was not as offensive as it could have been (and had me worried that this would be the last book of theirs I read). I did find it very amusing that Corrie's book was a fake sequel to one of their books - every time the name was mentioned, I smiled.

A change of pace...
I really enjoy this series ! I started a few years ago with Book of the Dead, and was heartbroken to discover it was the "end of an 8 book series". After some time passed, and running out of good fiction from my usual authors, I searched for the original books on Amazon. I promptly bought the first few books. This one is a nice change of pace from the first three books, all set or occuring around the NY Museum of Natural History. While I find the museum to be fascinating in itself, it was nice to leave the dusty halls for a different outdoor setting. This book took Agent Pendergast into small town America, placed him opposite a good but somewhat stereotypical sheriff, and made things happen. The miles of corn became as suffocating as the author intended, and the trips into the cave were creepy enough to be what the reader expects from this series. I think they waited too long to introduce the cave, however, and there were some excellent surprises waiting at the end. I am looking forward to the shipment of book 5 !