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melanie55's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.0
alexnaderwrites's review against another edition
3.0
I was going to leave a comment that said this book glazed over some details. I was going to leave a comment that said the ending felt rushed. As it turns out, I'm an idiot and accidentally picked up the abridged audiobook. Won't make that mistake again.
So what I got of this story was enjoyable. It's a good mystery that had me guessing for the entirety and left me wanting more at the end. Although Pendergast typically a character type I like (Know it all, photographic memory, genius-esque character) he is relateable and enjoyable.
One day I just might have to come back and read the whole book and that might bump the rating up a notch, but until then it's a three.
So what I got of this story was enjoyable. It's a good mystery that had me guessing for the entirety and left me wanting more at the end. Although Pendergast typically a character type I like (Know it all, photographic memory, genius-esque character) he is relateable and enjoyable.
One day I just might have to come back and read the whole book and that might bump the rating up a notch, but until then it's a three.
monte_cristo's review against another edition
4.0
This Pendergast series is super addictive, having just finished book #5 and thinking perhaps I should ditch any plans for reading other books (eg The Sentinel) and just move on to Pendergast #6!
Ok, so none of them are masterpieces by any means, but they are well written, the plot is interesting, some cool mysteries and Pendergast is quite the hero. This fifth book of the series takes us from New York to Tuscany with Pendergast trying to solve a series of murders in which the victims were killed through some sort of devilish instantaneous combustion. We also see very briefly the introduction of his evil (?) brother, Diogenes, even though he plays no role in this book.
I'm looking forward to reading #6 and I hope it is as good as the previous books (with the exception of #2 perhaps that was not really that good!).
Ok, so none of them are masterpieces by any means, but they are well written, the plot is interesting, some cool mysteries and Pendergast is quite the hero. This fifth book of the series takes us from New York to Tuscany with Pendergast trying to solve a series of murders in which the victims were killed through some sort of devilish instantaneous combustion. We also see very briefly the introduction of his evil (?) brother, Diogenes, even though he plays no role in this book.
I'm looking forward to reading #6 and I hope it is as good as the previous books (with the exception of #2 perhaps that was not really that good!).
trisha76's review against another edition
4.0
Inhoud:
Het lijk van criticus Jeremy Grove wordt gevonden in een gebarricadeerde kamer. Zijn gezicht vertoont een grimas van doodsangst en zijn lichaamstemperatuur is onmogelijk hoog. De kamer stinkt naar zwavel en op de muur bevindt zich een brandplek - de afdruk van een klauw... Wanneer er nog een slachtoffer valt - met als enig verband een identieke doodsoorzaak - ontstaat er een mediacircus en barsten de onheilsprofeten los. Veel mensen vragen zich af of de duivel los is.
FBI-agent Pendergast en sergeant Vincent D'Agosta (THE RELIC) geloven niet in een natuurlijke oorzaak. Hun onderzoek voert hen van de landhuizen van long Island via een kerkhof in Yonkers naar een eeuwenoud kasteel op het Italiaanse platteland. Daar ontmoet Pendergast opnieuw de gevaarlijkste tegenstander die hij ooit heeft gehad.
Waardering:
Goed geschreven en net als alle boeken van Preston & Child gewild om uit te lezen. Spanning is hoog.
boekinformatie:
©2004 by Lincoln Child & Splendide Mendax, Inc
Published by arrangement with Warner Books Inc.
Uitgeverij: Luitingh~Sijthoff
ISBN: 90.245.5092.0
504 pagina's; paperback
Het lijk van criticus Jeremy Grove wordt gevonden in een gebarricadeerde kamer. Zijn gezicht vertoont een grimas van doodsangst en zijn lichaamstemperatuur is onmogelijk hoog. De kamer stinkt naar zwavel en op de muur bevindt zich een brandplek - de afdruk van een klauw... Wanneer er nog een slachtoffer valt - met als enig verband een identieke doodsoorzaak - ontstaat er een mediacircus en barsten de onheilsprofeten los. Veel mensen vragen zich af of de duivel los is.
FBI-agent Pendergast en sergeant Vincent D'Agosta (THE RELIC) geloven niet in een natuurlijke oorzaak. Hun onderzoek voert hen van de landhuizen van long Island via een kerkhof in Yonkers naar een eeuwenoud kasteel op het Italiaanse platteland. Daar ontmoet Pendergast opnieuw de gevaarlijkste tegenstander die hij ooit heeft gehad.
Waardering:
Goed geschreven en net als alle boeken van Preston & Child gewild om uit te lezen. Spanning is hoog.
boekinformatie:
©2004 by Lincoln Child & Splendide Mendax, Inc
Published by arrangement with Warner Books Inc.
Uitgeverij: Luitingh~Sijthoff
ISBN: 90.245.5092.0
504 pagina's; paperback
weaselweader's review against another edition
4.0
A high water mark in suspense literature!
When the gruesome ashes of Jeremy Grove's still smoldering body are discovered in the locked bedroom of his ostentatious Hampton estate, it was a pretty easy leap to the paranormal conclusion of spontaneous human combustion. A melted cross, the clear odour of sulphur and brimstone and the image of a hoof print seared into the floor make a further leap to the conclusion of supernatural cause and a pact with the devil gone wrong a small step indeed. FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast, perennial Johnny-on-the-spot in the environs of such a bizarre case, artfully inserts himself into the investigation and finds himself allied with some old friends - Sergeant Vincent D'Agosta of the Southampton PD and Captain Laura Hayward of NYPD.
Pendergast and his team quickly determine that Grove, a cynical, selfish, harshly outspoken art critic, was involved in a strange relationship with Nigel Cutforth, a wealthy, high-living music producer, Locke Bullard, industrial magnate and pompous bully, and Rainier Beckman, a shadowy man that seems to have no past at all. The search for the solution to this bizarre mystery drives our heroes down a Byzantine path to a medieval castle in the Italian countryside and a small hostel in Florence where the four men apparently spent time together as students on a European vacation.
Brimstone is an exhilarating piece of work that clearly takes the team of Preston and Child to new heights. We are treated to splendid characterization for both newcomers such as the corpulent Count Isidore Fosco (a brilliant masterpiece of overbearing pomposity) and the maturing and continued fine-tuning of returning characters such as D'Agosta and Pendergast. Multiple plot lines are deftly handled and intricately woven together - the solution to the eerie opening murder mystery; the introduction of young Constance Green, Pendergast's ward and the ominous letter from his evil sibling, Diogenes, that is a clear set-up to the second novel in the trilogy, Dance of Death; and, of course, the flowering of romance between D'Agosta and Hayward - with each line complementing the others and contributing to a beautifully integrated whole.
I don't quite know how they did it but Lincoln and Preston even managed to insert a host of fascinating scholarly asides on a veritable cornucopia of cultural and scientific topics ranging from the history and manufacture of the Stradivarius violin, through opera, instrumental music, the Renaissance, modern art, secret societies and stealth weaponry without slowing the pace of the novel for even a single page.
I find myself positively drooling over the prospect of reading Dance of Death and The Book of the Dead, the final piece of the trilogy.
So why only four stars?
It's a sad fact that far too many modern authors (Lincoln and Preston included) refuse to accept that a real villain, given the opportunity, will simply pop an enemy without fanfare, escape and get on with a life of crime. The notion of the bad guy sitting down, having a civil conversation with the good guys and spilling his guts filling in every missing detail of the investigation before he eventually gets around to the killing is trite, overused and, frankly, hokey! The killing, of course, is also done through some extended, convoluted scheme or contraption as opposed to the simple, more expedient method of placing a gun against the temple and quickly squeezing the trigger. For goodness' sake, next time let Pendergast wring the solution out on the strength of his own sleuthing (it's not as if he isn't clever enough, that's for sure). He can sit down at the end of the story and play Sherlock to D'Agosta's Watson, fleshing out the details and explaining the puzzle to lesser lights such as us readers.
Paul Weiss
When the gruesome ashes of Jeremy Grove's still smoldering body are discovered in the locked bedroom of his ostentatious Hampton estate, it was a pretty easy leap to the paranormal conclusion of spontaneous human combustion. A melted cross, the clear odour of sulphur and brimstone and the image of a hoof print seared into the floor make a further leap to the conclusion of supernatural cause and a pact with the devil gone wrong a small step indeed. FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast, perennial Johnny-on-the-spot in the environs of such a bizarre case, artfully inserts himself into the investigation and finds himself allied with some old friends - Sergeant Vincent D'Agosta of the Southampton PD and Captain Laura Hayward of NYPD.
Pendergast and his team quickly determine that Grove, a cynical, selfish, harshly outspoken art critic, was involved in a strange relationship with Nigel Cutforth, a wealthy, high-living music producer, Locke Bullard, industrial magnate and pompous bully, and Rainier Beckman, a shadowy man that seems to have no past at all. The search for the solution to this bizarre mystery drives our heroes down a Byzantine path to a medieval castle in the Italian countryside and a small hostel in Florence where the four men apparently spent time together as students on a European vacation.
Brimstone is an exhilarating piece of work that clearly takes the team of Preston and Child to new heights. We are treated to splendid characterization for both newcomers such as the corpulent Count Isidore Fosco (a brilliant masterpiece of overbearing pomposity) and the maturing and continued fine-tuning of returning characters such as D'Agosta and Pendergast. Multiple plot lines are deftly handled and intricately woven together - the solution to the eerie opening murder mystery; the introduction of young Constance Green, Pendergast's ward and the ominous letter from his evil sibling, Diogenes, that is a clear set-up to the second novel in the trilogy, Dance of Death; and, of course, the flowering of romance between D'Agosta and Hayward - with each line complementing the others and contributing to a beautifully integrated whole.
I don't quite know how they did it but Lincoln and Preston even managed to insert a host of fascinating scholarly asides on a veritable cornucopia of cultural and scientific topics ranging from the history and manufacture of the Stradivarius violin, through opera, instrumental music, the Renaissance, modern art, secret societies and stealth weaponry without slowing the pace of the novel for even a single page.
I find myself positively drooling over the prospect of reading Dance of Death and The Book of the Dead, the final piece of the trilogy.
So why only four stars?
It's a sad fact that far too many modern authors (Lincoln and Preston included) refuse to accept that a real villain, given the opportunity, will simply pop an enemy without fanfare, escape and get on with a life of crime. The notion of the bad guy sitting down, having a civil conversation with the good guys and spilling his guts filling in every missing detail of the investigation before he eventually gets around to the killing is trite, overused and, frankly, hokey! The killing, of course, is also done through some extended, convoluted scheme or contraption as opposed to the simple, more expedient method of placing a gun against the temple and quickly squeezing the trigger. For goodness' sake, next time let Pendergast wring the solution out on the strength of his own sleuthing (it's not as if he isn't clever enough, that's for sure). He can sit down at the end of the story and play Sherlock to D'Agosta's Watson, fleshing out the details and explaining the puzzle to lesser lights such as us readers.
Paul Weiss
courtney_b's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
wanderlustsleeping's review against another edition
medium-paced
4.5