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THE WHEEL OF DARKNESS In
THE WHEEL OF DARKNESS, the latest Aloysius Pendergrast thriller by
Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, the villian is a nefarious thangka
from an extremely remote monastery on the Nepal/Tibet border.
Preston and Child specialize in writing fast-paced, extensively reseached novels which, by straddling the mystery, horror, and science fiction genres, have returned to a H. Rider Haggard sort of adventure story. The novels are enormously addictive, and unlike so much popular fiction, highly literate. The hero, Aloysius Pendergrast, is the embodiment of all that is most praiseworthy about the Enlightenment. He is versed in the sciences and humanities, martial arts, forensics, and Eastern meditation techniques. Unlike the usual formula hero, he doesn't have a neurotic fixation; if anything, it's his very perfection which is his fault. This, however, is complemented by his almost superhuman humility. THE WHEEL OF DARKNESS is quite entertaining. An enormous ocean liner with over three thousand souls on board is gripped with terror when a serial killer begins dispatching passengers. Unlike the heroes of the torture porn of Vince Flynn or Brad Thor, Aloysius Pendergrast is restrained in his use of force and skeptical without being jaded. In THE WHEEL OF DARKNESS, Pendergrast defeats his nemesis without moving, in a mental battle of silent equipoise. If you haven't read any Preston/Childs books, this reviewer would highly recommend RELIC, ICE LIMIT, or THE CABINET OF CURIOSITIES to start off with-- but it's perfectly acceptable to jump right into THE WHEEL OF DARKNESS. --C. B. Coble |