Cold Vengeance: a novel by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

In ten words or less: Agent  Pendergast discovers that his wife survived a hunting accident.

Review: Mysterious FBI Agent Aloysius Pendergast’s wife died in a hunting accident while in Africa. Helen was an excellent shot, but apparently her rifle misfired, and she was mauled to death by the beast. Her brother, Judson Esterhazy, invites Pendergast on a hunting trip  to remote Scotland, where he shoots Pendergast and leaves him to die in a marsh. Before the wounded Pendergast sinks into the mire, Esterhazy tells him that Helen is still alive.

How Pendergast manages to survive to outwit his brother-in-law is a twisted tale, indeed. He travels to Louisiana and New York, searching for clues to Helen’s whereabouts. Her body is exhumed—and the DNA evidence proves that it is Helen buried in the plot. Penderfast’s friends worry that his grief has taken hold of the man’s usually brilliant mind.

Why bother? “Cold Vengeance” continues the last volume, when Pendergast realizes that he knew very little about his late wife’s past. There is less of the supernatural, and more human evil, in this volume than in some of the other Pendergast novels. In some ways it is disconcerting to see the level headed and methodical FBI agent in the grip of such grief. With a cliffhanger ending, readers will be impatient for the next adventure.