Two Graves

Impeccable narration by René Auberjunois could not overcome my disappointment at this implausible, fragmented, and frustrating "visit" with Special Agent Pendergast. Three or four separate plots--and I do mean separate--never connected the characters we usually enjoy as an ensemble. Pendergast was in South America, Corey Swanson was in Kansas, Constance Green was following her own story line, and NYPD Detective Vincent D'Agosta was mere window-dressing. None of the plots overlapped or worked together, yet none was strong enough to stand alone. They are not improved by being bound together in one volume.

I usually enjoy suspending disbelief, at least a little bit, when going on an adventure with Pendergast. But the main plot, focusing show more on him, was a deadly combination of "timeworn" and "ridiculous."

Pendergast remains one of my favorite continuing characters, and I will most likely read the next novel as soon as it's available. By then I hope the bitter taste of this one will have dissipated. show less

A while back I reviewed the suckfest that is Gideon's Sword by these same authors and said that I hoped said suckfest wouldn't leak over into the Pendergast books. Well guess what? It has.

Spoilers set to kill. Seriously. You've been warned.

So this might be the end of me and Pendergast. He's lost his mystique, gravitas and sense. And with this one the already ludicrous plot went even further into eye-rolling territory. Nazis? Really? That's the best you could come up with? Nazis? And even worse, Nazis in Brazil who are still continuing with genetic experiments in order to create a master race? As if The Boys From Brazil wasn't enough of this kind of thing, Preston & Child had to go there, too, and worse, they didn't add anything show more intelligent or even interesting. OMFG. You owe Ira Levin some royalties, guys.

And another thing...Helen dies??? After all that, she croaks? I guess they couldn't figure out what to do with her as a character so they killed her off. All the better to strip Pendergast of all personality, mental conditioning, toughness and resilience. Better to turn him into a simpering asshole, surely. Oy I was sick of him for most of this book. Go ahead and down the super-secret poison already, save me from your misery.

But as sick of Pendergast as I was, it was nothing compared to Alban. After the first few scenes of his I started skimming them. Emotional cheap-shots and mindless, robotic platitudes don't really do it for me and neither did his bizarre mind-reading or future-seeing ability. It was just too much, too fast. Honestly I was expecting Diogenes since we never did see the body so to speak and in comparison, Diogenes is subtle that's how over-the-top Alban is. I guess they wanted to scare me with all their genetic mutation and eugenics stuff, but they didn't. Animal instinct is about all that's driving Alban. His humanity has been bred out and all that's left is a shell governed by an over-simplified set of instructions. Like those Erector set contraptions your brother built when you were a kid. At least Diogenes had the warming glow of emotional-instability to shine over us.

Then there are the multiple storylines, each one reading like a set up for new directions for future novels. The only one of real interest was Constance's, but even that was a re-tread. We already knew about the kid, her childhood, her age and why she's in the nut house. What else is there? Felder's bit of housebreaking was funny, but DNA from hair without roots is not possible. At least so far as I remember. Did the artist try to snatch Constance bald or something? Oy. And even more outrageously silly is the on-cue volcano eruption. And Pendergast didn't even have to fly around the earth backwards or anything. What a time-saver a tame volcano is. Granted, the novels are wicked over-the-top and always have been, but this strained the bounds of reality hard, even for these guys.

Corrie's cliffhanger resolution comes very late in the story and I almost thought they wouldn't get to her at all, but they did and from that we had a wild tangent where she is reunited with her long-lost father, who of course turns out to be a prince, not the pathetic loser her mom made him out to be. The whole car dealership thing is unnecessary and distracting. How the hell does this further anything having to do with Pendergast? We don't care about Corrie. She's a supporting character that had her uses 6 books ago, but isn't interesting enough to be sustainable no matter how much she is compared to Lisbeth Salander.

Last, but not least, was the whole D'agosta thread which has almost no bearing on the situation at all. Nearly in vain he tries to get Pendergast out of his morass of self-pity, but he eventually does. Then they basically sever all ties for the remainder of the novel. Pendergast has to get a new grunt for his assault on the Nazi headquarters and we're left to watch D'agosta try to figure out how to propose to Hayward. Ugh.

So after that little sappy scene, we go back to the mansion on Riverside where Constance is trying to teach Tristram the half-wit how to play some ancient card game. I'm sorry, Tristram isn't really a half-wit, but he's so soppy and backward that he comes off that way. I guess basically being an organ farm for your better half isn't that great for developing any traits that are interesting. And with Alban most likely lurking in the basement, I'm sure we'll have some kind of brother act going on. Will it be a duplicate of the one between A and D or will it be something else? Will Uncle and Nephew join forces and terrorize A and T? I really don't care that much since the magic of these books seems to be sucked dry and it will take a LOT of convincing to make me read the next one. show less

**AVISO**
=No leer si no se han leído los 11 libros anteriores de esta serie=

Una vez que empiezas con esta serie, se convierte en una verdadera adicción, lo más curioso es que me doy cuenta que si cada libro fuera independiente o si saco alguno de ellos del contexto de la serie jamás en la vida me los leería y muy seguramente no me gustarían, pero, la cosa es que por más estrafalaria que resulte cada historia, por más giros, muertes inesperadas, situaciones extrañas, cosas incluso que podrían perfectamente rayar en lo ridículo, no puedo evitar amar cada libro, emocionarme con cada muerte, sentir la adrenalina y la emoción con cada escena extraña, porque más que terminar siendo ridículas, terminan siendo vibrantes.

Este es show more el doceavo tomo de la serie y el tercero y último de la trilogía Helen, como parte general de la serie, me parece que va creciendo en intensidad que cada libro resulta mejor que el anterior y aun y cuando algunos de los 12 libros hasta el momento es mejor que otro, la historia en general ha ido en un ascenso imparable.

En cuanto a la trilogía, sin duda el mejor de los tres ha sido este y en este libro hay varias cosas que me han gustado y otras que no me han gustado, por un lado, hay que reconocer que mirandolo friamente es un culebrón del tamaño del mundo, es increíble que me sigan sorprendiendo con revelaciones que me dejan literalmente con la boca abierta y es que, bueno, eso de resucitar muertos, hacer aparecer seres extraños inexistentes, tener personajes con vidas prolongadas gracias a experimentos con humanos, un hermano que es asesino en serie, una persecución de muertos vivientes y muchas otras cosas más, casi no me puedo creer que me sigan sorprendiendo estos autores y que se sigan sacando cosas de la manga que, primero son de un culebrón de telenovela y segundo tan imposibles como increíbles y que ¡aun así me emocionan, me vibren y me encantan!.

Por otro lado, hasta el 70% del libro me ha parecido realmente una genialidad, entre la emoción de la aventura, el ir desvelando toda la parte del secreto de Helen, la persecución de los malos, la enorme revelación de los secretos de Pendergast, pero, ha llegado un punto en que se me hizo cuesta arriba, un punto donde he pensando inevitablemente en el “menos es más” y que creo que los autores se han pasado de este punto casi sin poder evitarlo, fue como ver estrellarse a un coche a alta velocidad en un muro, fue inevitable caer en lo exagerado y eso es lo único que me ha hecho fruncir la boca en el último tiro del libro.

Sin embargo, me quedo con lo bueno, sigo con esta serie porque es inevitable, porque es adictiva, porque me gusta mucho el estilo de estos dos autores, porque han creado un personaje fuera de serie, peculiar, raro, extravagante, lleno de secretos, místico, misterioso y atractivo y porque bueno, necesito saber que va a pasar con el gemelo malo. show less

Holy smoke.

(and just to note, I only wrote "smoke" in an effort to keep it clean.)

I have to confess, I am a unabashed fan of Preston and Child. I have read all of the Pendergast books, and pretty much everything in the Preston and Child oeuvre. What I haven't read, be assured, I own and have on my reading list. It's awesome stuff, peculiarly cerebral and at times wickedly humorous...oh, and it's vicious. Yes, vicious. A good bit of it reads like horror. And really GOOD horror; the plots are densely layered, and at times you have to keep on your toes to stay with 'em.

This is just such a book.

Just a hint: don't start "Two Graves" unless you've read the two preceding books in the "Helen" trilogy, "Fever Dream" and "Cold Vengeance". You'll show more be lost. Trust me on this. Even if you HAVE read them, if it's been a while, I suggest you re-read those two books. It will be worth your while. Then set down and prepare yourself to be thoroughly engrossed (and occasionally grossed out) till you've finally turned the final page.

There's a lot going on in "Two Graves", more than I care to list. Some of it seems wildly improbable--a Nazi stronghold? In a volcanic crater? In the middle of a lake? In Brazil?--Yeesh! The creepiest thing about all this is, whle you're reading it, gee, it's perfectly believable and makes complete sense. If I tried to explain it, I'd probably fail miserably.

A must-read. But then every Preston & Child book is a must-read. They're interesting characters themselves too...catch them on tour if you get a chance. They signed my old caving helmet years ago. Their fans are legion, and someday, someone will turn Pendergast into a movie franchise that may just top James Bond. But for now, he's ours, all ours.

Viva Aloysius Pendergast. Hurry back, good sir. show less

I love Preston and Child. I love Pendergast; or at least I did. I fought my way through the last several confusing, increasingly pointless books hoping for something to change, for literary redemption; for the books to get their groove back. Sadly, although he can go 700 miles in 6 hours in a rental car, even Pendergast cant convince me that these books will rebound to their former glory. He is a caricature of his former self, a pale ninja who borders on magical--and mental. There is no longer a method to the madness. Information is no longer withheld as intellectual exercise but because much of what happens has no genesis and no explanation. Random, unconnected, and often unexplained things just happen. The plots have become show more ridiculous, and worse, BORING. Nazis!? Secret South American hideout Naziville?! Hidden children? An unknown twin? Gasp x4!! I watched soaps in college and I am pretty sure I saw something darn similar on daytime TV ages ago. That's how bad it is.
I really didn't understand why people were absolutely rage-ranting on Amazon about this book. Now I do. It isn't just that I will never get those hours of my life back, or that I feel stupid for not just stopping, it is that a once great character and a fascinating series have been reduced to drivel. show less

I enjoy the Agent Pendergast series by Preston & Child. In fact, I can pretty much just blanket statement it and say that I enjoy ANY book by Preston and/or Child. Action, adventure, investigation, intrigue, supernatural weirdness....they pretty much cover all of my loves in their books.

Two Graves is the 12th book in the Pendergast series. The action revs up immediately and doesn't stop for the entire book. Pendergast is out for revenge when his wife is kidnapped by a nefarious group of evil scientists. He pursues them to South America and makes a horrifying discovery about his wife's background. The story is quite gripping and definitely action-packed.

I thought this series would turn from this type of plot once the action with show more Pendergast's brother was concluded earlier in the series. But, this story sort of re-ignites that past storyline, but in an interesting way. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

There are currently 18 books (and a few short stories/novellas in between books) in this series, plus a new novel coming out in February 2020. Definitely read this series in order as the plots build on each other and there are some spoilers if books are skipped. There is also a new off-shoot series with Nora Kelly as the main character (with appearances by Corrie Swanson, too)

I listened to the audio book version of this story. The audio (Hachette Audio) is about 16.5 hours long and narrated by Rene Auberjonois. Auberjonois always gives a great performance and his portrayal of Pendergast is spot on as far as I am concerned. Great listening experience!

Another great book in the Pendergast series! I'm glad I decided to re-read this series from the beginning! :) On to the next....White Fire! show less

Agent Pendergast desperately tracks the shadowy group that has kidnapped his wife, long thought dead. The chase culminates in an outcome that leaves Pendergast bleakly devastated to the point of suicide. A mysterious and strangely adept serial killer in New York City draws his attention, though, and launches him on a pursuit that leads to South America and the hidden denizens of Hitler's eugenics program that have been secretly linked to his wife and her family since WWII. This is the darkest, grittiest book in the Pendergast series yet, and is a welcome change for the vulnerability we now see in a man whose one drawback has been that he is too competent, too elegantly unflappable to be true.