Helpful Score: 3
The Pendergast novels are fantastic. Each one is very compelling and complex with lots of action and suspense. This one was phoned in. Instead of the usual Pendergast and his big giant brain against the bad guys it is Pendergast meets the slightly strange supernatural B movie creature. It's only worth reading to find out about Constance and her further adventures. I will read the next one but I won't promise to like it.
Helpful Score: 3
Another intriguing tale from Preston & Child. Pendergast and Constance Greene reappear on a journey of self-discovery in Tibet, when they are sent upon a mission to save the world from a mysterious artifact stolen from the Buddhist monastery. Another page turner as their "case" leads them onto the world's most glamorous ocean-liner, headed for disaster.
Helpful Score: 1
Although I've read all their books, and thoroughly enjoy them all, I think this one is a little weak in comparison. Still very good, and necessary reading to keep up with the story. Everyone is allowed at least one weak book, right?
Maurene G. (HayabusaLvr) reviewed The Wheel of Darkness (Pendergast, Bk 8) on + 90 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
This one was just as good as all the others, but it WAS slightly different....for one, we find that Pendergast has a weakness. In all the other books, he seemed to be made of teflon. But in WOD, we find that his defenses can be breached (but no worries). Another difference is that the bogeyman in this book doesn't have a natural explanation. In Relic, the "monster" turned out to have a scientific explanation. Perhaps not completely likely (I'm no scientist), but there was a natural reason for its existence. But in WOD, the monster seemed to me to have supernatural origins.
Whatever the case may be, I wasn't disappointed in this book, and I'm looking forward to whatever may come next!
Whatever the case may be, I wasn't disappointed in this book, and I'm looking forward to whatever may come next!
Helpful Score: 1
Well, I was right - 21st century pulp. Aloysius Pendergast is back in fine form - a cross between a fine southern gentleman, one of the Holmes brothers and Doc Savage. Also known as "That albino sonofabitch." The plot revolves around a mysterious artifact stolen from a secretive Tibetan monastary that ends up on a super passenger liner Brittania making its maiden voyage across the Atlantic. We wind up with a cast of characters and suspects and things rapidly going from tense to really bad.
All, in all, not too bad. Especially for a dollar at the local friends of the library book sale.
All, in all, not too bad. Especially for a dollar at the local friends of the library book sale.
Helpful Score: 1
I've read all Agent Pendergast novels. (This one wasn't one of my favorites. I think all three of the Diogenes Trilogy were.) The Wheel of Darkness kept me drawn in, afraid for Constance and the cruise passengers and personnel, intrigued of the mysterious deaths. I knocked this one out in two nights. Can't wait for the next adventure of Agent Pendergast.
Helpful Score: 1
Each Pendergast novel seems to surpass the previous one. This is an excellent thriller. The mystery, the suspense, and the fast-paced storyline have the new dimension of being centered aboard a luxury ocean-liner. It's awesome to see the twist in the conclusion of this story. If you like Constance Greene, you will love her slowly becoming more centered in the Pendergast novels.
Helpful Score: 1
These authors' books amaze me. They have a way of bringing to life some very scary monsters -- human and/or the surreal.
Another great read.
I have never figured out why these detective types can never go on simple, relaxing, boring vacations like the rest of us.
Enjoyable reading. Another great adventure.
This was another fantastic Pendergast book. Love it.
For my taste, not up to their usual standard. Slips in to the occult, which isn't my favorite genre..
Have read most of Preston and Child's books. Like their style, but thought this was
a little off from their best works. Just finished STILL LIFE WITH CROWS and enjoyed
it far better. Still would recommend if you are a fan.
a little off from their best works. Just finished STILL LIFE WITH CROWS and enjoyed
it far better. Still would recommend if you are a fan.
Lynda C. (Readnmachine) reviewed The Wheel of Darkness (Pendergast, Bk 8) on + 1474 more book reviews
Didn't finish. Couldn't get into this tale of a pair of investigators trying to locate a deadly Tibetan artifact on an ocean liner. The lead detective is annoyingly Bond-like in his total expertise on everything, and his girl sidekick seems flat and uninteresting.
Excitement on the high seas! I really enjoyed this one, though I was a bit disappointed that a plot twist that I had expected did not exactly happen... And the end was a little unsatisfying - the mystery was sufficiently wrapped up, but where the characters' journey ended in this book was a bit of a left turn. Still, it was very good book and one that I greatly enjoyed! I am quite curious as to where their most recent Pendergast novel will go!
I've loved all of the earlier Pendergast novels and eagerly awaited this one. The story line was weak and Pendergast was not a strong character in the story. While all of the books involved the supernatural,this story was weak and a bit ridiculous. I finished it just because I didn't want to leave it unfinished. The ending leaves an opening to continue the story but I'm not sure I will be bothered. A sad last novel to an otherwise enthralling series.
Whew! This one was a wild ride! Think Titanic on steroids. I highly recommend it.
Evelyn N. (evelyn0309) -
I am a big fan of the Special Agent Pendergast books but found this book to be a bore. Gone are the insightful historical and scientific references, gone are the interesting secondary characters, gone is the suspenseful plot, and --most disappointing--gone is Pendergast being Pendergast.
I won't give away the ending but found the Golum-like obsession comically annoying. I'm hoping this volume is a temporary lapse (all series have them) and that the next book brings back Pendergast in true form.
I won't give away the ending but found the Golum-like obsession comically annoying. I'm hoping this volume is a temporary lapse (all series have them) and that the next book brings back Pendergast in true form.
In the exciting eighth supernatural thriller from bestsellers Preston and Child (after 2006's The Book of the Dead), FBI agent Aloysius Pendergast and his ward, Constance Greene, seek peace of mind at a remote Tibetan monastery, only to fall into yet another perilous, potentially earthshaking assignment. The monastery's abbot asks them to recover a stolen relic, the cryptic Agozyen, which could, in the wrong hands, wipe out humanity. The pair follow the trail to a luxury cruise ship, where a series of brutal murders suggests the relic's evil spirit might already have been invoked. Fans of earlier books focused on a thinly disguised American Museum of Natural History may find less at stake among the new cast of secondary characters, but the fate of Constance, who claims to have aborted the child of Pendergast's villainous younger brother, remains a potent subplot. While not as frightening as others in the series, this entry still shows why the authors stand head and shoulders above their rivals in this subgenre.
FBI Special Agent Pendergast is taking a break from work to take Constance on a whirlwind Grand Tour, hoping to give her closure and a sense of the world that she's missed.They head to Tibet, where Pendergast intensively trained in martial arts and spiritual studies. At a remote monastery, they learn that a rare and dangerous artifact the monks have been guarding for generations has been mysteriously stolen.As a favor, Pendergast agrees to track and recover the relic.A twisting trail of bloodshed leads Pendergast and Constance to the maiden voyage of the Britannia, the world's largest and most luxurious ocean liner---and to an Atlantic crossing fraught with terror.
FBI Special Agent Pendergast is taking a break from work to take Constance on a whirlwind Grand Tour, hoping to give her closure and a sense of the world that she's missed.They head to Tibet, where Pendergast intensively trained in martial arts and spiritual studies. At a remote monastery, they learn that a rare and dangerous artifact the monks have been guarding for generations has been mysteriously stolen.As a favor, Pendergast agrees to track and recover the relic.A twisting trail of bloodshed leads Pendergast and Constance to the maiden voyage of the Britannia, the world's largest and most luxurious ocean liner---and to an Atlantic crossing fraught with terror.
Preston & Child are in that unique category I call mystery/supernatural. This one will not disappoint although some of their earlier books are more unique in plot.
Wow!! I waited breathlessly for book to arrive and just devoured it. These two guys get better and better, if that's at all possible. In all my years of reading, I have never found a series (Pendergast) that was so enthralling!
They read so swiftly that before you know it the book is finished (maybe) and you can't wait for the next one. Enjoy them more and more with each book. Love those guys!
They read so swiftly that before you know it the book is finished (maybe) and you can't wait for the next one. Enjoy them more and more with each book. Love those guys!
Another good entry in the Pendergast series. Pendergast and his ward, Constance, travel to the mountains of Tibet and a Buddhist abbey to meditate and try to unload the events of the prior books, the Diogenes trilogy. While there, an ancient artifact is stolen by a man who made his way to the abbey after escaping from a mountain climbing fall. But what is this artifact and why have the monks kept it hidden from the world for centuries? Pendergast finds that the man who took the artifact has been murdered and the killer and artifact are on the maiden voyage of the Ocean Liner Britannia bound for New York. Pendergast and Constance take passage on the liner and then strange things begin to happen. There are some unsolved murders and a mysterious cloud-like presence is sighted on board. Then the Captain refuses to head to the nearest port resulting in a takeover by the next in command, a female officer who had been passed over in her career because she is a woman. So who stole the artifact and what is it's purpose? Are the murders connected to this theft? And what is behind the ship's takeover?
This was really a thrill ride that I found very intense. I have been putting off reading the remaining books in the Pendergast series but after recently reading and enjoying Preston/Child's newest book, Old Bones, I decided I need to get to these. I'll be looking forward to the next one, Cemetary Dance.
This was really a thrill ride that I found very intense. I have been putting off reading the remaining books in the Pendergast series but after recently reading and enjoying Preston/Child's newest book, Old Bones, I decided I need to get to these. I'll be looking forward to the next one, Cemetary Dance.
Great book, you can count on Preston and Child
Love the Pendergrast series and got my book club hooked on it. He is like an otherworldly Sherlock Holmes.
This book was a good read. It kept me guessing the entire book right up to the end.
Preston & Child make an awesome team.
Preston & Child make an awesome team.
