Review: A little something to tide you over
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 11, 2013
"Extraction" is a very short story, told by Aloyisius to Constance one night as they are sitting around at home Riverside Drive waiting for cook to re-do some overcooked pasta.  As the dish requires pasta "al dente", a hungry dinner guest from Aloyisius' past comments about the "American obsession with undercooked pasta", which leads Aloysius to use the term "al dente" which then prompts the starving guest to suggest that Constance ask Aloysius about the story involving teeth from his childhood.  That's the set-up and what follows is a wonderful little appetizer of a story about the local customs concerning the Tooth Fairy in New Orleans when Aloysius was 9 and Diogenes was 6.This is a stand-alone bit, only 15 or 20 pages long, but it gives a glimpse into the personality of Pendergast as a young boy and also his father, whom I don't recall ever being featured in any of the Pendergast novels.  Great fun for a buck.Recommended for any fans of the series but also as a nice little piece that would be perfectly at home in a horror anthology.J.M. Tepper