Review: A Good Story, Moderately Creepy, And Some Insight into Agent Pendergast's Youth
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 26, 2012
I've not been a reader of short stories in the past, but after recently purchasing a Kindle (PaperWhite) I've started to try a few stories from my favorite authors, and Preston and Child are pretty much at the top of the list. Their series of books featuring the character of Aloysius Pendergast has been superb, so I decided to give Extraction a try.As this story begins, Pendergast is with his "ward" Constance, and his old friend Monsieur Bertin (someone I don't recognize from any of the previous Pendergast novels, but maybe I've overlooked him before now). They are in the library of his mansion in New York City, waiting for dinner to be served. A comment from Constance regarding the need to prepare the pasta "al dente - to the tooth", reminds Pendergast of an experience from his childhood. It involves his brother, Diogenes, and Pendergast is initially reluctant to talk about it. But after some prompting he does tell the story, and we are taken back to the French Quarter of New Orleans and a tale involving the tooth fairy, of all things, with Pendergast at age nine and Diogenes having just turned six years of age.Rather than leaving a newly lost tooth under the pillow for the tooth fairy, children in their neighborhood know that they must wait for the next full moon and then leave the tooth in a vessel on the porch of the neighbor - Old Dufour - who they referred to as the tooth fairy. But rather than receiving a coin in return, the motive was different - the children know that if they don't give Old Dufour the tooth, then "he would come to your house in the middle of the night, and... take it".Pendergast, much wiser and more assertive at nine years that Diogenes at six, thinks this is all ridiculous, and when Diogenes loses a tooth he stops him from leaving it with Old Dufour. Instead, he throws it away. Diogenes is frantic with fear, and soon disappears. And then they find out what the consequences are of failing to comply with the long-standing deal with their neighborhood devil, Old Dufour.Pendergast's father also makes a brief appearance in the story, and the details of Pendergast's childhood life are fascinating and provide a small window into the upbringing that led to the person we know from the main Preston & Child novels.This is a really good, self-contained story, one that is completely consistent with the style of the previous Pendergast novels, and it is very enjoyable. I don't agree with complaints that the story was too short. I found it to be a very satisfactory length, and although more is always better this was a very acceptable value for my 99 cents.(And by the way, the feature of the Kindle where you can highlight a word and immediately see the definition - that is great for stories such as this one! Now I can quickly learn what exactly "Bertin is certainly an edacious fellow" means, and I can add "obeah" to my vocabulary of terms for obscure voodoo practices! Priceless!).