Verses for the Dead

[cornerofmadness]

Verses for the Dead by Douglas Preston

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I've had this library sale find lying around for a long time. I don't know why. I've forgotten just how much I like Pendergast. I should revisit him more often.

In this one, it opens with Pendergast getting a new boss, Pickett, who doesn't like him and is looking for an excuse to fire him or at least transfer him out of NYC's premiere FBI spot to somewhere like Nebraska (sorry Nebraska) Pickett also assigns him Agent Coldmoon, a Lakota from Pine Ridge sent to spy on him.

They're sent to Florida where a heart has been dug out of the chest of some poor young woman and put on the grave of a suicide. Elise Baxter's suicide was odd, a young woman who was on a business trip in Maine who suddenly decided to kill herself. How Mr. Brokenhearts (as he signs the note he leaves) picked her grave seems random until another heart show up on another out of state suicide's grave.

Naturally Pendergast thinks there is a connection no one is seeing and that the original suicides aren't actually suicides and being Pendergast you already know he's going to be right (It also touches on how MEs can be guided by the detectives assurances that this is a suicide and don't do their due diligence which sadly has happened more than once in real life)

As they work Coldmoon feels trapped in his role as spy and he comes to respect, at least a little, how Pendergast works and to be fair Pickett has a point about how people around Pendergast (perps and partners) end up dead.

I enjoyed this immensely so why not five stars? The ending. There was a red herring having you think one character is going to do something dumb and unprofessional but the reality is this other thing over here. However that other thing is something you couldn't have predicted from the clue and I felt a little cheated by it. But overall, a strong mystery (especially coming in as #18, long series do tend to get tired).



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