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STILL LIFE WITH CROWS transports readers to the cornfields of Medicine Creek, Kansas as it bakes in the fiery heat of the dusty month of August. In a mysteriously cleared section of a field "
the broken stalks carefully stacked to one side, leaving an area of dirt clods and stubble perhaps forty feet in diameter
[the sheriff] found himself marveling at the geometric precision" of the site. Surrounded by what looked like a ritualistic array of bizarre artifacts laid a mutilated body that had been so grossly and sadistically defiled that the sheriff merely guessed the corpse was that of a woman.
This savage act is the first homicide in this backwater, dying little town since 1931. Not only is it a horrendous killing, it is stylized to resemble rituals ascribed to local myths and old legends attributed to the Native Americans who inhabited that land long ago. And the self-important, bombastic, thoroughly narrow-minded sheriff is too ornery to admit he is in over his head. While blustering his way through a news conference the morning after the hideous remains were found, "
[his] voice faltered as the figure [of a man] in black [approached the group and spoke], his voice wasn't loud, [but it had the 'mellifluous accent of the deepest South' and] somehow it seemed to dominate the crowd." He is a stranger and immediately falls under suspicion.
An opening like this is a real hooker. How can a reader resist? Shades of the gothic novel, shadows of horror fiction, and double doses of suspense are the elements that hold this story together. The crimes committed in this book are far from ordinary. The town and its people are depicted in raw detail with all of their flaws and endearing qualities, if they have any. Kansas, like many states, has its share of Native American legends, stories of bootleg whiskey and battles lost or won, but how could any of these have a link to "the inexplicable movements of a serial killer" in the twenty-first century? Of course, many books that take place in small rural towns populated with inbred residents sometimes take on a seamy quality, but STILL LIFE WITH CROWS escapes this flaw because it rises above the ordinary even as it closes in on the killer.
As it happens, the man in the black worsted suit is an FBI agent named Pendergast, who has appeared in other Preston-Child collaborations. He is a modern day Holmesian-like sleuth with an astounding memory and the amazing ability to rattle off arcane facts just as easily as he takes care of ordinary common sense business. We don't learn much about him
and readers may find themselves asking at the end of the book, "Who was that man dressed in black?"
Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child each have successful writing careers as solo artists, but when they put their heads together to create a novel, the result is usually a four-star event. These writers know their stuff and don't hold back when it comes to limning the depravity of those who would kill or the qualities that make people good. They let readers wander the landscape of the plot and examine a clue here or a bit of "inside" information there
and this makes reading their books fun.
STILL LIFE WITH CROWS is a terrific whodunit and a page-turner that takes readers on a strange trip through a part of America that is slowly dying out. Fans of the suspense/horror/thriller genre(s) will find themselves thoroughly captivated. Enjoy!
--- Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum
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