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4.07 AVERAGE
4.07 AVERAGE
This book was absolutely intense! I could not have predicted the ending what so ever! As usually Preston & Child introduce another strong female character that helps Detective Pendergast solve these unexplainable crimes. This book was dark and definitely thrilling. It left me thinking about the ending for days after I finished.
Great thriller. Good pacing and interesting characters. A drawn out climax that's really scary and the final scene made me laugh and shiver. Well played!
Fabulous. I will definitely be reading more from these authors. Or listening if the same narrator does them.
Audio book
Audio book
Okay, you won't actually miss much if you don't read this book. It's not a supernatural being, but it almost might be.
The perp turns out to be the 53-year-old son of one of the women im Medicine Creek, the one who hosts the tours of the local cave. It's a rather small cave, and not terribly exciting.
She kept her son locked up in this cave until he accidentally found a back way out. This leads to a murderous rampage through town, with people near the cave having limbs torn off, or being gutted, with lips, noses, and ears cut off.
The Sheriff doesn't like Pendergast helping with the investigation, and is able to get him removed with a cease and desist order from the FBI. (It turns out he is on vacation, and not there in an official capacity.)
When Pendergast and the Sheriff both realize independently that the murderer is likely hiding in the cave, Pendergast and the Sheriff (with his assault squad) enter the cave, only to find a monster who moves quietly with practiced ease, picking them off one by one.
No, you aren't missing anything if you skip this book.
The perp turns out to be the 53-year-old son of one of the women im Medicine Creek, the one who hosts the tours of the local cave. It's a rather small cave, and not terribly exciting.
She kept her son locked up in this cave until he accidentally found a back way out. This leads to a murderous rampage through town, with people near the cave having limbs torn off, or being gutted, with lips, noses, and ears cut off.
The Sheriff doesn't like Pendergast helping with the investigation, and is able to get him removed with a cease and desist order from the FBI. (It turns out he is on vacation, and not there in an official capacity.)
When Pendergast and the Sheriff both realize independently that the murderer is likely hiding in the cave, Pendergast and the Sheriff (with his assault squad) enter the cave, only to find a monster who moves quietly with practiced ease, picking them off one by one.
No, you aren't missing anything if you skip this book.
Not my favorite out of the series, but it was still good and kept me interested. Loved the twist at the end, especially in the epilogue. Didn't see it coming.
This was a good entry in the Pendergast series. The previous two books dropped a bit because they took a turn into the more fantastical, but there were decidedly fewer fantastical elements in this one.
I did end up catching the drift of what was going on before it was revealed, but I was fine with that. After a while of misdirects, I got that this was most likely following a so-called 'wild child.' Thank you high-school psychology.
I will say though that there were two things that I didn't enjoy too much about this. First of all, for most of the book, the plot focused on the fact that the town is built on Indian land. I originally thought that what was going on had something to do with the massacre that occurred and the Indian ghosts, because that was where the story was steering you to and at this point, ghosts wouldn't surprise me. So, when in the end the whodunnit was a wild child, I felt like most of the storyline was now pointless because the connection between the two was so small. I also didn't like how there was a hint at the end about why Job included ritualistic elements, but then the book ended.
My other gripe with the book is Corrie. Ah, Corrie, you were doing fine until the end. When there is a killer on the loose and you are told to stay home, maybe you should listen to that advice? But no, you couldn't do that and almost dies because you decided to head straight into the belly of the beast. I don't like characters who act impulsively.
Overall though, a solid book in the series.
I did end up catching the drift of what was going on before it was revealed, but I was fine with that.
I will say though that there were two things that I didn't enjoy too much about this. First of all, for most of the book, the plot focused on the fact that the town is built on Indian land.
My other gripe with the book is Corrie. Ah, Corrie, you were doing fine until the end.
Overall though, a solid book in the series.
i LOVED "Still Life with Crows" out of the three Pendergast novel's i've read so far i loved this one the most.
This book kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time! i read it ever chance i got, it was a super great page turner and and great thriller.
FBI Special Agent Aloysius X.L. Pendergast is at it again! This time he is on vacation, and where oh a little crappy town of Medicine Creek, Kansas. This s is no ordinary vacation. He's investigating a murder has taken place and of all places in a corn field. Beyond investigation of the crime scene things are a little different. Ancient Indian arrows and strange a strange killing method. With the aid of local goth chick Corrie Swanson, Pendergast is set out to solve the case. More murders start happening around town and time is running out, will Pendergast help solve the crimes, and catch the killer in time?
This book kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time! i read it ever chance i got, it was a super great page turner and and great thriller.
FBI Special Agent Aloysius X.L. Pendergast is at it again! This time he is on vacation, and where oh a little crappy town of Medicine Creek, Kansas. This s is no ordinary vacation. He's investigating a murder has taken place and of all places in a corn field. Beyond investigation of the crime scene things are a little different. Ancient Indian arrows and strange a strange killing method. With the aid of local goth chick Corrie Swanson, Pendergast is set out to solve the case. More murders start happening around town and time is running out, will Pendergast help solve the crimes, and catch the killer in time?
This is the first book I read in the Pendergast series, and my favourite. As an introduction to the series I don't think you can do any better, IMHO, it's the high point of the series. The earlier books (especially the first) have a supernatural/SF vibe. Still Life With Crows could be any mystery/crime novel, it's well written, the characters are believable. Not that I have a problem with supernatural/SF, I don't, but I found it hard to suspend disbelief for the first novel in the series.
I found some of the later books almost become a bad soap opera.
I found some of the later books almost become a bad soap opera.
There's a scene early in the book where a character is standing out in a clearing in a corn field around sunset that is described in such a was as to make me want to go there. The long sunset, the lightening bugs, the rich earthy smell... Living in San Francisco, I don't have that. And it's really the lightening bugs that spark my interest. Very well written and conceived. And I'm very much enjoying the evolution of Pendergast from a catalyst character to a major player.
3.5 out of 5. At the end of the day, the individual books in this series turn on the case at hand - and while this was certainly an interesting one, it didn't really draw me in like Cabinet or even Relic. There was something a little too ungrounded - not the eventual reveal, not even the experience of solving the case, but rather a sense that the authors left this somewhat more lightly sketched. There are things that wrapped up too simply and 'surprisingly' where they could've been a little more genuine and innovative. But then again, I might be wrong: this book might, in fact, be about introducing Corrie and developing Pendergast much further as a character. Either way, it was still a fun read.