Review of "Pendergast, The Beginning: An FBI Special Agent Pendergast Thriller" by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

  

This novel is a prequel to the long-running series featuring FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast, who's known for his impeccable appearance, platinum blonde hair, and silver blue eyes. Pendergast has unique methods of conducting investigations, with tactics that are off the beaten path but successful. In this book, we finally learn about Pendergast's colorful background.



*****

Aloysius Xingu Leng Pendergast (aka A. X. L. Pendergast) learned many of his unique skills in the U.S. military's Ghost Company, a secret division no one talks about.



When the Ghost Company disbanded, Pendergast trained at Quantico, and now - in 1994 - Agent Pendergast is beginning his FBI career in the New Orleans Field Office (FO). Pendergast is partnered with FBI Special Agent Dwight Chambers, who's told to mentor the new agent.



Unfortunately, Chambers isn't up to the task. Chambers' longtime FBI partner was injured and assigned to a desk job, and Chambers' wife was recently killed in a collision with a methed-up truck driver. Chambers is grieving and sleep-walking through his job, and when Chambers meets Pendergast, he gives his 'peculiar new partner' his pick of cases to cull through on his own.



Leaving Pendergast to his own devices leads to an incident that infuriates SAC Estevez, the special agent in charge of the New Orleans FO. Estevez tells Chambers and Pendergast, "Get the hell out....Grab some rat-shit investigation that will take you both far out of town. I don't want to see your sorry asses in here for at least seven days."



The 'rat-shit' investigation Pendergast chooses is an incident in Diamondhead, Mississippi, sixty miles from New Orleans. A man's body was found on a table in a storage facility, with his right arm amputated.



When Chambers and Pendergast arrive at the crime scene, Pendergast climbs onto the table where the body lay, and arranges himself exactly as the corpse had been found. Chambers thinks this is absurd, but Pendergast explains he's using a form of meditation called 'Chongg Ran' to intuit information about the victim, the killer, and the crime.

Pendergast determines the perpetrator is a disturbed serial killer who murders well-built men and cuts off one of their arms. Chambers and Pendergast's search for the killer takes them to Tulane University and its PSI (psychic phenomena) program, where they gather more clues.





In the meantime, the serial killer has abducted and locked up a man called Proctor, and descriptions of Proctor's imprisonment are dispersed through the book.



As the story unfolds, more bodies and amputated limbs show up, and Chambers and Pendergast's pursuit of what turns out to be multiple criminals puts them in dangerous life-threatening situations.



Through all this, Chambers finds himself completely bewildered by Pendergast. Pendergast is exceptionally intelligent and knowledgeable; he's old-money rich; lives in a mansion; has a Rolls Royce Silver Wraith and a Spyder roadster.



Pendergast usually wears expensive black tailored suits; has a Patek Phillippe chronograph pocket watch; never perspires or gets rumpled - even in the hottest weather; and uses investigative methods reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes.





As far as his background, Pendergast is a New Orleans native, and his entire family, going back generations, was an assortment of mountebanks, criminals, quack doctors, madmen, and murderers.







A mob burned down the family mansion and killed both Pendergast's parents, and Pendergast's brother Diogenes built a working model of a steamboat, launched it with a Pekingese named Wiggles, and blew it up.



Despite all these things, Pendergast chose to be an FBI agent, perhaps to make amends for his notorious ancestors and family.



There's plenty of action and adventure in this thriller, and it's a great place to start the series if you're a newbie, and fills in some blanks for long time fans. Highly recommended.

Thanks to Netgalley, Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child, and Grand Central Publishing for an ARC of the book.

Rating: 4 stars 

Review of "Dry: A Memoir" by Augusten Burroughs

 

Augusten Burroughs

Augusten Burroughs is an American writer who's perhaps best known for his memoir "Running With Scissors", which documents his strange, abusive childhood. In brief, Augusten's parents divorced when he was young, and his unstable mother gave him to her Massachusetts psychiatrist, Dr. Finch. Augusten lived with crazy people in the doctor's filthy home, never went to school, and became the obsession of a pedophile that lived in a barn behind the house. The book was adapted into a 2006 movie.


Augusten Burrough's first memoir, "Running With Scissors"


Movie poster from the film "Running With Scissors"

"Dry" picks up a decade or so after "Running With Scissors", when Burroughs is a successful twentysomething copywriter in New York City, pulling down a six-figure salary. Burroughs is a talented advertising man but his personal life is a mess. He can't handle responsibility, doesn't pay his bills until they go into collection, and (despite being well off) sometimes loses his phone service and utilities. Burroughs is also a serious drunk who's frequently late to work, and often shows up stinking of alcohol.

After Burroughs misses an important meeting with a client his boss gives him an ultimatum: Go to rehab or get fired. Burroughs decides on rehab, and confides the news to his two closest friends: Jim - an undertaker and drinking buddy who's shocked at the news; and Pigface - a banker and former lover who's glad to hear it.

This kind of story can be grim but Burroughs tells his tale with humor.....and affection for the collection of misfits he meets along the way. 😎🧡

Burroughs (who's gay) chooses to go to rehab at the Pride Institute in Minnesota - a clinic that specializes in treating addiction in the LGBTQ community. Burroughs pictures the facility as resembling an Ian Schrager boutique hotel - with gourmet food, a pool, a spa, etc. Thus the author is brought up short when he arrives and sees a plain setting that assigns three patients to a room and serves fish cakes for lunch.



Therapy at the facility is a regimented affair, with constant meetings: group meetings, individual meetings, affirmation meetings, and so on - all directed at 'sharing.'

During Burroughs first group meeting he hears addicts talk about the harmful results of their drinking: car accidents; facial lacerations; and - worst of all - a paralyzed mother. One of Burroughs' roommates, a psychiatrist (who Burroughs thinks of as Dr. Valium), later admits that he came to the point of stealing ALL his patients' Valium, and replacing it with aspirin. Dr. Valium is now in danger of losing his medical license....and frets that all his expensive education will go to waste.

Burroughs thinks: "I'm DEFINITELY in the wrong place. This is for hard-core alcoholics; rock-bottom, ruined-their-lives alcoholics. I'm an advertising alcoholic, an eccentric mess."

It takes some time for Burroughs to admit he really DOES belong in rehab, that he's had unrelenting substance abuse problems since childhood.....when he started taking pills and drinking wine at Dr. Finch's house. The feeling is reinforced when Burroughs thinks about the current condition of his New York apartment, where "300 empty Dewar's bottles occupy all the floor space not already occupied by a bed or chair." Previously, when Burroughs used to drink beer, he once collected 1,452 beer bottles.



Burroughs does his obligatory 30 days in rehab, which - he makes clear - is the easy part of 'recovery.' The real work begins afterwards, when there's no built-in professional support system and the addict is once again exposed to all the old temptations. In Burroughs' case, this includes friends like Jim the undertaker, who parties hard every night.

Once he's out of rehab - and back in New York - Burroughs is supposed to go to group meetings AND individual meetings for six months, and to attend Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings EVERY SINGLE DAY for the rest of his life. Of course this is easier said than done, and Augusten immediately begins to make mistakes.

First Augusten develops a relationship with a fellow group therapy patient - a stunningly handsome South Carolinian named Foster - who has a great body, black hair, and blue eyes. Any romantic relationship directly after rehab is discouraged, and hooking up with a fellow addict is verboten - but Augusten can't help himself. On top of that, Augusten takes in a roommate he met at the Pride Institute - an intelligent, British music editor called Hayden, who's addicted to crack cocaine and alcohol. Thus, instead of avoiding addicts, Burroughs gets embedded with them.

Worse yet, Pighead - who's the (unacknowledged) love of Augusten's life - tests positive for the HIV virus. Burroughs starts to feel depressed and realizes he misses alcohol, the loss of which "is like dealing with a death in the family."

Burroughs also faces issues at work, where a hostile colleague, Rick, plots to get him drinking again; a 'Nazi-like' German client insists on an ill-advised advertising campaign; and his female work partner, Greer, is resentful of his (supposed) newfound insights about life.

The ensuing drama with Foster, Hayden, Rick, Greer, and the advertising firm - and most especially Pighead's illness - upend Augusten's life. After a prolonged 'hiccupping' illness, Pighead is in a hospital bed hooked up to machines, and Augusten helps to care for him, change his diapers, keep him company, and so on. This takes a great toll.



Burroughs struggles, falls, and eventually recovers, but it's a long hard slog that's well worth reading about....for the insights and the laughs (if you can believe it 🙂).

I should mention that Burroughs acknowledges 'fictionalizing' some elements of the story. He says: "This memoir is based on my experiences over a ten-year period. Names have been changed, characters combined, and events compressed. Certain episodes are imaginative re-creation, and those episodes are not intended to portray actual events." The fictionalization doesn't bother me because I think most memoirists do it to some extent.

After reading this book I think I understand addiction - and the stranglehold it gets on people - a little better. I'd highly recommend the memoir to anyone interested in the subject. 

Rating: 4.5  stars

Review of "Her Cold Justice: A Keera Duggan Mystery" by Robert Dugoni

In this 3rd book in the 'Keera Duggan' series, the defense attorney represents a young man accused of murdering two people. The book can be read as a standalone, but familiarity with the characters is a bonus.

*****

Keera Duggan, a defense lawyer in her family law firm, Duggan & Associates, has a reputation for winning in court.



Duggan & Associates was founded by Keera's father, Patrick (Patsy), but Patsy's alcoholism has taken a toll, and he's stepped back from trial work. Patsy is still a valuable resource for the firm, and functions as second chair in court when necessary.



The other family members at Duggan & Associates are Keera's sisters: Ella - the managing partner;



and Maggie - the office administrator. Maggie is a serial dater, which the family jokes about.



After Keera's last case, she took a short trip to Italy, to recharge her batteries. Keera enjoyed the sights, the Christmas atmosphere, the stores and restaurants, and the zeppole and struffoli sold on every block.



As soon as Keera is back in the office after her Italy trip, Maggie buzzes to inform her, 'Tall. Dark, and Handsome is here, and needs to speak to you ASAP'. Maggie is referring to JP Harrison, the firm's private investigator, who's Black and British as well as good-looking.



JP tells Keera his nephew, Michael Westbrook, has been arrested for drug possession, and will probably be indicted for a double murder. JP asks Keera to speak to Michael as a favor, and see if she can help him.



Michael is about to be accused of killing his boss, John Lockett and John's girlfriend Melissa Scott.



This is the situation: Michael Westbrook worked for John Lockett at an airfreight company called Flying Tigers. Michael and John worked the night shift, which ended at 4:00 A.M.



On the morning of the murders, Michael had no car, so Lockett gave him a ride home after their shift. Locket asked Michael to hold on to two Flying Tigers packages, which he said contained surprise gifts for Melissa.



Later that day, Lockett was shot and his girlfriend Melissa was bludgeoned to death. After examining the crime scene - and finding Michael's fingerprints - homicide detectives Billy Ford and Frank Rossi went to Michael's house to question him.



The detectives saw the two Flying Tigers packages in Michael's house, and got a search warrant. One package contained fentanyl and the other held $16,000 in cash. Michael was arrested for drug possession, and Seattle prosecutor Kim Tran decided to seek an indictment for the murders of John Lockett and Melissa Scott.

Tran has a reputation as Seattle's toughest prosecuting attorney. As a child, Tran saw her parents killed when their jewelry store was robbed, and she has no sympathy for lawbreakers, especially murderers.



Keera agrees to represent Michael, who insists he's innocent. Michael claims he had no idea what was in the packages, and his fingerprints were at the crime scene because he went to Lockett's house from to time, to watch the Seahawks or Mariners games.



Most of the novel is a courtroom drama, as Michael Westbrook is tried for two homicides, and Defense Attorney Keera Duggan faces off against Prosecutor Kim Tran.



The proceedings are especially harrowing because Tran doesn't play by the rules. Tran withholds discovery until the last second; mixes up the order of the witnesses without informing Keera; and uses jailhouse informants, who (as a rule) are notorious liars.

Keera is also disadvantaged because the case is being tried by Judge Ima Patel, a former prosecutor who has bad memories of facing off against Patsy Duggan, known as 'The Irish Brawler'. Keera fears Judge Patel will rule against the defense out of spite.



As the trial proceeds, it seems Tran has inside information about Keera's trial strategy, and (in my view) the explanation for this is obvious. I also feel the story is predictable, and there's insufficient accountability for wrongdoing. For those reasons, this novel is just so-so for me.

On the bright side, the Duggan family interactions are always entertaining, especially the mandatory monthly dinner overseen by the family matriarch. One of the dinners coincides with Maggie's birthday, and Keera plays a fun prank on her sister.



All that said, readers who like courtroom dramas, especially fans of Keera Duggan, would probably get an afternoon's enjoyment from this book.

 Thanks to Netgalley, Robert Dugoni, and Thomas & Mercer for an ARC of the book.

Rating: 3 stars