Monday, September 11, 2006

Literature: (About) 100 Words on The Book of the Dead


Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
The Book of the Dead
Warner Books
2002

The Book of the Dead completes the Pendergast Trilogy that started with Brimstone and continued with Dance of Death. While somewhat compelling, these books remain an effort to combine Silence of the Lambs with The Da Vinci Code. Specifically the effort involves the introduction of brilliant and brilliantly flawed protagonists in the mold of Hannibal Lecter. This is coupled with the minutiae of antiquities studies. The Pendergast Trilogy largely fails to come to the level of similar books previously released. This is evidenced in the character names. Diogenes Pendergast is too over the top to take seriously and Aloysius is only slightly more believable.


© Copyright, C. Michael Bailey, 2006