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
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