Review: A Teaser for Pendergast Fans...
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 11 10, 2012
SHORT campfire ghoststory (almost 300 Kindle locations!)that takes readers back to the childhoods of Aloysius and Diogenes Pendergast in New Orleans. As a fan from the beginning of Preston & Child's Pendergast novels, I was excited to have a short story as an appetizer while I wait on the main course, Two Graves, the next Pendergast novel due out next month. The ONLY disappointment was in the length of the story--not even as long as a typical chapter in one of their beloved books!The story revolves around Diogenes losing a baby tooth. He wants to follow neighborhood kid tradition and place it in the special receptacle on the porch of the neighborhood recluse's (think Boo Radley only much scarier and spookier) dilapidated house. Aloysius, as only an older sibling can do, mocks Diogenes for falling for such childish popycock and ridiculous small-minded thinking as to believe some old relic of an old man could have anything to do with tooth-fairy voodoo business, to be entitled to what Diogenes refers to as "his due", and attempts to persuade Diogenes to be 'normal' and place it under his pillow for a coin. To his dismay, Diogenes declines to accept his sage, older brother advice and runs off.Eventually, Aloysius intervenes and this leads to their guardian Uncle having to settle matters with the old recluse.It was a good story, as far as it went. It did give us a brief, tantalizing glimpse into the childhood dysfunction of Aoysius and Diogenes, as far as it went, which wasn't very far at all. I'd compare it to 3 days of their childhood years--that's how much we get to see of their formative years. Unfortunately, the story tells us that Diogenes is ALREADY odd and stepping to the beat of his own drummer...it doesn't give us any more insight into why other than to offer this one episode, which reinforces that oddness, but surely did not create it. It does allow the reader to believe that this incident might be one of the reasons behind the brothers' disconnect, but hardly enough to cause the depths of Diogenes's hatred and contempt for his older brother.Also included was the first look at the new novel, TWO GRAVES,Two Graves (Pendergast)which is due out December 11, 2012.