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A review by offbalance80
Two Graves by Douglas Preston
4.0
My father and I have been flailing at each other over text message about this book, the close of the Helen trilogy (or whatever they're calling it), and I have to admit, this was the best of the three. Lots of exciting reveals (Pendergast is a father! Of Twins! Who were born as part of a secret Nazi experiment in a secret Nazi camp in Brasil! As was his beloved late-not late-late again wife!), but on the whole, I feel like they should have spread all of this across a few books, because there was just so much going on in this one. First of all, I have a hard time believing that all of the people who were furiously investigating Alban's murder spree would just throw up their hands and say "welp, so much for that!" the minute they stopped for a few days. Secondly, Corrie's storyline should have been a book of its own, as it was shoehorned in for no reason, and ended as abruptly as it began. Thirdly, they could have wrapped up the Dr. Felder/Constance storyline a book ago, and without the icky subplot of Felder falling madly in love with her. Also, who in hell does her heart belong to? Pendergast? (COME ON!!! #1) Fourthly, what's the point of introducing the idea of D'Agosta FINALLY standing up to Pendergast and his shenanegains if it's also going to be dropped, and all forgiven offscreen? (COME ON!!! #2).
I certainly hope someone wrote a check to Ira Levin at some point. Nova Godi was not a new idea, guys. The twin angle was pretty cool, though.
That said, this book was so much fun I'm giving it an extra star I would have deducted otherwise. It was a fun muddle, rather than a dull one. But it's clear these two are tired of writing about their most lucrative character and universe, so they tied things up in an almost-perfect bow at the end (Alban, aka Diogenes II, was still at large). Even still, if they'd spent more time leading up to this book and more time spreading the great things around across Cold Vengeance and Fever Dream, this series could have really given the Diogenes books a serious run for the money. Alas, I'll take my fun rides where I can get them, and this was indisputably a fun ride.
I certainly hope someone wrote a check to Ira Levin at some point. Nova Godi was not a new idea, guys. The twin angle was pretty cool, though.
That said, this book was so much fun I'm giving it an extra star I would have deducted otherwise. It was a fun muddle, rather than a dull one. But it's clear these two are tired of writing about their most lucrative character and universe, so they tied things up in an almost-perfect bow at the end (Alban, aka Diogenes II, was still at large). Even still, if they'd spent more time leading up to this book and more time spreading the great things around across Cold Vengeance and Fever Dream, this series could have really given the Diogenes books a serious run for the money. Alas, I'll take my fun rides where I can get them, and this was indisputably a fun ride.