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Searching... Beale Memorial Library (Kern Co.) | Searching... Unknown | Large Print Fiction | LP FIC PRESTON DOU | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
From the #1 New York Times bestselling authors: Racing to uncover the mystery of several severed feet found floating in the Gulf of Mexico, Agent Pendergast is faced with the most inexplicable challenge of his career.
A startling crime with dozens of victims . Appearing out of nowhere to horrify the quiet resort town of Sanibel Island, Florida, dozens of identical, ordinary-looking shoes float in on the tide and are washed up on the tropical beach--each one with a crudely severed human foot inside.
A ghastly enigma with no apparent solution . Called away from vacation elsewhere in the state, Agent Pendergast reluctantly agrees to visit the crime scene--and, despite himself, is quickly drawn in by the incomprehensible puzzle. An early pathology report only adds to the mystery. With an ocean of possibilities confronting the investigation, no one is sure what happened, why, or from where the feet originated. And they desperately need to know: are the victims still alive?
A worthy challenge for a brilliant mind . In short order, Pendergast finds himself facing the most complex and inexplicable challenge of his career: a tangled thread of evidence that spans seas and traverses continents, connected to one of the most baffling mysteries in modern medical science. Through shocking twists and turns, all trails lead back to a powerful adversary with a sadistic agenda and who--in a cruel irony--ultimately sees in Pendergast the ideal subject for their malevolent research.
Author Notes
Douglas Jerome Preston was born on May 20, 1956 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He received a B.A. in English literature from Pomona College in 1978. His career began at the American Museum of Natural History, where he worked as an editor and writer from 1978 to 1985. He also was a lecturer in English at Princeton University.
He became a full-time writer of both fiction and nonfiction books in 1986. Many of his fiction works are co-written with Lincoln Child including Relic, Riptide, Thunderhead, The Wheel of Darkness, Cemetery Dance, and Gideon's Corpse. His nonfiction works include Dinosaurs in the Attic; Cities of Gold: A Journey Across the American Southwest in Pursuit of Coronado; Talking to the Ground; and The Royal Road. He has written for numerous magazines including The New Yorker; Natural History; Harper's; Smithsonian; National Geographic; and Travel and Leisure. He became a New York Times Best Selling author with his titles Two Graves and Crimson Shores which he co-wrote with Lincoln Child, and his titles White Fire, The Lost Island Blue Labyrinth and The Lost City of the Monkey God.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
When more than a hundred shoes containing severed human feet wash ashore on Florida's Sanibel Island in Preston and Child's exciting 19th Pendergast novel (after 2018's Verses for the Dead), eccentric FBI agent Aloysius Pendergast, who's vacationing in nearby Fort Myers with his ward, Constance Greene, joins the investigation. The arrogant Coast Guard commander in charge is sure the shoes belong to convicts executed at a Cuban prison, but Pendergast thinks otherwise and enlists the aid of oceanographer Pamela Gladstone to analyze currents in the Gulf of Mexico to determine their source. The stakes rise as it becomes clear that a mole within the investigation is tipping off those responsible for the crime. Pendergast and Gladstone wind up captured by some nasty villains, and a handful of Pendergast's friends, including the resourceful Constance, must rush to the rescue in an extended, nail-biting climax. After a string of so-so entries in this bestselling series, Preston and Child have returned to the quality storytelling they're known for. Agent: Eric Simonoff, WME. (Feb.)
Kirkus Review
FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast finds evil afoot in his latest action-filled adventure (Verses for the Dead, 2018, etc.).Imagine Florida beachcombers' shock when they discover a shoe with a severed foot inside. Soon they see dozens more feet, all in identical shoes, bobbing toward the beach. Police and FBI ultimately count more than a hundred of them washing up on Sanibel and Captiva Islands' tranquil shores. Pendergast teams up with the junior Special Agent Armstrong Coldmoon to investigate this strange phenomenon. Oceanographers use a supercomputer to analyze Gulf currents and attempt to determine where the feet entered the ocean. Were they dumped off a ship or an island? Does each one represent a homicide? Analysts examine chemical residues and pollen, even the angle of each foot's amputation, but the puzzle defies all explanation. Attention focuses on Cuba, where "something terrible was happening" in front of a coastal prison, and on China, the apparent source of the shoes. The clever plot is "a most baffling case indeed" for the brilliant Pendergast, but it's the type of problem he thrives on. He's hardly a stereotypical FBI agent, given for example his lemon-colored silk suit, his Panama hat, and his legendary insistence on working aloneuntil now. Pendergast rarely blinksperhaps, someone surmises, he's part reptile. But equally odd is Constance Greene, his "extraordinarily beautiful," smart, and sarcastic young "ward" who has "eyes that had seen everything and, as a result, were surprised by nothing." Coldmoon is more down to earth: part Lakota, part Italian, and "every inch a Fed." Add in murderous drug dealers, an intrepid newspaper reporter, coyotes crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, and a pissed-off wannabe graphic novelist, and you have a thoroughly entertaining cast of characters. There is plenty of suspense, and the action gets bloody. Great storytelling, a quirky hero, and a quirkier plot make this a winner for adventure fans. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Picking up shortly after the events detailed in Verses for the Dead (2018), the new Aloysius Pendergast thriller pits the rebellious FBI agent against the person or persons responsible for the dozens of dismembered feet washing up on a Florida beach. Unfortunately for Pendergast, solving this mystery will require him to do battle with some of his colleagues, law-enforcement people with their own ideas of how to go about catching a killer. Red herrings and dead ends abound in this especially intricately plotted entry in the Pendergast series, which is also noteworthy (as usual) for its finely drawn characters and its writing style, which overlays contemporary storytelling with a lightly ornate flavoring. Pendergast remains a thoroughly engaging maverick, working within the rule-bound FBI but always going his own way, and this fine novel showcases his intelligence, determination, and tolerate-no-idiots investigative style.--David Pitt Copyright 2020 Booklist