Author: Preston & Child
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Genre: Dark Mystery
Unique Elements: Super resourceful modern sleuth deals with dark and demented murders.
Series: Agent Pendergast series, #17
Release Date: January 16, 2018
Number of Pages: 368 pages
MSRP: $28.00 Hardcover/Audio ; $14.99 eBook
Discount Link: Click Here
Author Website: Click Here
Purchase Site: Click Here
Reviewed by: J.T. Hanke
Final Score: 5 Moons (out of 5)
With Constance Green in a remote monastery, Special Agent A.X.L. Pendergast finds life to be unbearably dull and flavorless—until he’s “punished” by being assigned to the death and decapitation of a dot-com socialite by his boss, who’s still not over Pendergast’s behavior in the last tale.
However, when the death turns out to be the first in a string of murders by a brilliant serial killer known as the Decapitator, Pendergast is pulled into the most dangerous game he’s ever played.
Story
One of the strengths of the Pendergast books have been the brilliance of the villains. Unfortunately, the memorable ones have all been members of Pendergast’s own family. As such, he’s never really had a true Moriarty—a criminal who is as smart as he is and whose backstory he doesn’t intimately know—until now.
The introduction of this character is epic and feels right on so many levels. Not only does the story this individual motivates push the book along well, but the conclusion is extremely well designed and even better than the one I suspected (or even hoped for).
Dynamics
This book brings Pendergast back to work with his favorite police officer, Lt. D’Agosta, which is always enjoyable. The dynamics between them is familiar and enjoyable to readers of the series.
While Constance is a much missed character with her complex dynamics with Pendergast, her presence is still felt in absentia, with the vacuum of her physicality wreaking havoc on Pendergast in subtle, but important, ways.
Finally, to reiterate what I mentioned in the Story section, the dynamics of the villain in relation to both the city of New York as a whole and that person’s effect on Pendergast as an individual are quite powerful and captivating.
Gothic Fit
While Pendergast starts this episode a little more emo than Goth, he soon springs into the brilliant detective of the night that we love so well. With the exploration of what makes us into monsters or heroes, as well as the deep looks at what corrupts or transforms a society, this is a great Gothic fit for our readers.
Final Thoughts
In a series that’ve had a lot more hits than misses, City of Endless Night might be one of the very best in the series. I highly recommend this book!
(The better they do with this series, the more angry I become with the Pendergast TV series being cancelled by Paramount. I wish Paramount would do like Marvel did and create a development license for this title to Netflix, as that’s a venue where this character and world could really shine–especially if they were able to get showrunner Steven Moffat!)
Story: 5.0 Moons (out of 5)
Dynamics: 5.0 Moons (out of 5)
Gothic Fit: 5.0 Moons (out of 5)
Final Score (not an average): 5.0 Moons (out of 5)
