Over the years, the novels of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child have become some of my favorite guilty pleasures. From "Relic" to "The Ice Limit," their novels are full of adventure, action, and imagination. Along the way, they've also created some of the more vivid and interesting characters in modern popular fiction.
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Their most recent novel, "The Book of the Dead" completes what most fans consider their Pendergast trilogy. Aloysius Pendergast, a rather unconventional agent with the FBI, is a character they created back in their very first novel, "Relic", and Pendergast has become undoubtedly a fan favorite.
The trilogy, which includes "Brimstone," "Dance of Death," and lastly "The Book of the Dead" follows Pendergast through the tribulation of his lifetime, that of stopping his mad-genius brother Diogenes from committing the perfect crime. In a way, since the universe they've created in the body of their work is a continuous one--characters crossing over, plotlines twining--"The Book of the Dead" is a culmination of all their work to date.
But though the premise holds promise, "The Book of the Dead" falls flat. If Preston and Child have one main failing, it's that they've grown too enamored with their own characters--all of them--and the fatal flaw of this book is its inability to stay with any one character for too long. Because of the scope of the book, there's no doubt that it needed to be told via multiple viewpoints, but Preston and Child tell it through entirely too many viewpoints. Not only did it make for a choppy read, but there is no clear protagonist, nobody for the reader to latch onto for the ride.
Normally, the protagonist of a book should be the person or persons who have the most at stake, the most to lose, or who are in the most pain. But in "The Book of the Dead," as in "Dance of Death" Preston and Child have brought back just about all the main characters they've created from previous books and have given them all significant stage time. Unfortunately, in doing so, they robbed the book of something vital--a true protagonist.
Still, the book is an interesting read. Set, once again, in New York's Museum of Natural History, the book centers on the reopening of The Tomb of Senef, an Egyptian exhibit long buried in the museum's bowels. There's action, drama, suspense, and interesting back-story woven throughout the book.
Unfortunately, it just isn't enough to make this a truly worthwhile read. The climax is painfully inadequate, falling far short of what it should be, considering Preston and Child have been building to this book's climax for years now. In addition, the dramatic impact of the major events is ultimately, for the most part, unrealized. These events should have consequences for the characters and in "The Book of the Dead," the consequences seem to be merely a sidebar. I left the final page feeling disappointed and, worse, cheated.
Though separation anxiety is understandable, in the future, Preston and Child would do well to relegate some of their beloved characters to the background and let the story be told by those who it truly belongs to.
About the author:
Lisa is an author on http://www.Writing.Com/
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