A review by posies23
Two Graves by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child

4.0

After twelve books, the Pendergast novels have quite a bit of history behind them. In fact, there's a pretty hilarious page about 3/4 of the way through TWO GRAVES where there's an "info dump" to bring the reader up to speed about the convoluted events that have lead to what's happening in this novel. There's dark family secrets, a healthy dash of psuedo-science, lots of conspiracies, some reincarnations, and, of course, Nazi's. In less capable hands, the narrative might have collapsed under the weight of its own twists and turns, but Preston and Child are in fine form here, supplying lots of atmosphere and derring-do, while also providing enough action and suspense to keep their readers plugging along until late in the night.

This isn't my favorite Pendergast novel, but it's a good one. Several dangling plot-lines are (finally!) resolved, and there is, for once, a bit of resolution for our cast. I wasn't a huge fan of the two "b-plots," with D'Agosta and Corrie, but they were diverting enough, and served as a nice counterpoint to the rather over-the-top "a-plot." This isn't to say that EVERYTHING was tied up nicely, but it was nice to finally close off several threads that had been hanging for several books now. Yes, the coincidences stretch credibility, as do several of the action sequences, and Pendergast's resourcefulness is like James Bond on steroids. But when it comes time for some escapist fiction, this series is hard to beat.