The Short Take: 

If you like your thrillers with a touch of the macabre, the books of Preston and Child are custom made for you. Particularly the ones featuring the eccentric FBI agent Aloysius Pendergast.

Why?

For me, Agent Pendergast is one of the most fascinating mystery solvers of the last 20 years. While he is supposed to be a FBI agent, he seems to do exactly what he pleases with little or no supervision. Unbelievably rich, emotionally flawed, and totally brilliant, his past is a Gothic as his present is dramatic.

Pendergast was introduced in Preston and Child’s first collaboration, The Relic. For some reason the authors chose not to develop him further for their next six books. But in their seventh collaboration, The Cabinet of Curiosities, he took center stage with a vengeance and has never turned it loose. He’s been the central character in their last six thrillers, with the seventh, Cemetery Dance, scheduled for release on May 12th.

It’s best to read them in order, starting with the above mentioned The Cabinet of Curiosities. They aren’t all of equal merit, ranging from “can’t put down” to “pretty darn good.” But if you enjoy mystery thrillers where the action depends less on guns and chases than it does on brilliance and the bizarre, I simply don’t think you can do better than this dangerously prolific duo.

Want to know more about them and their books? Just click here.