THE WHEEL OF DARKNESS
Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Grand Central Publishing
Supernatural Thriller
ISBN: 9780446580281

• Read an Excerpt

The dynamic duo has done it again.

In THE WHEEL OF DARKNESS, their eighth supernatural thriller, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child give us another fast-paced, riveting mystery featuring the seemingly unflappable Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast and his young ward Constance Greene, and the elements of the unknown.

The book picks up in the aftermath of THE BOOK OF THE DEAD, with Constance recovering, we suspect, from an aborted pregnancy (the father: Pendergast's villainous younger brother). Constance and the good agent seek solace and solitude through escape. They are drawn to Gsalrig Chongg, a monastery in Tibet, where women historically have not been accepted as students. Recognizing something special about Constance, she becomes the exception to the rule and is welcome by the brotherhood. (Her name, it turns out, translates to "Green Tara," the moniker of the mother of all Buddhas. This revelation forecasts something big to come.)

It is, of course, no coincidence that the stoic agent and his frail ward end up amongst the monks. Instead of moving past the tragedy they had just survived, they find themselves drawn into yet another puzzling and harrowing mystery.

The monks' sacred trust for generations --- the Agozyen --- has been discovered missing during an annual ritual. Guarded daily and accessible by only a single key, its disappearance is mind-boggling. And terrifying. The treasure holds a deadly secret akin to Pandora's box being opened.

The trail of minimal clues leads to Jordan Ambrose, an American rescued and nursed back to health at the monastery when he appeared, half-dead, on the Nepalese border mountain range. Unable to describe the never-seen icon, the monks dispatch Pendergast to bring it back, warning that it is powerful if released and not to be reckoned with.

What ensues is pure Preston-Child magic. The maiden voyage of a transatlantic cruise ship is the terrifying setting of the search for the relic. And what could be more frightening than a claustrophobic ship, with its over-arching sense of being trapped in the middle of the ocean with an unknown, undefinable force preying on and menacing the entire crew and guests? Bodies are reduced to mush, others disappear whole-cloth. Panic sets in, mutiny is threatened and control of the ship is lost, all while Pendergast sets about his methodical unraveling of the mystery of the Agozyen and its all-encompassing powers.

THE WHEEL OF DARKNESS has the classic clash of good versus evil, the inescapable comparison of East versus West, and the unanswerable questions of coincidence versus fate. A surprise at the end will surely delight all fans of Pendergast and Greene, Preston and Child, and will leave us asking ourselves "What's next?" Surely, there has to be more from these two master storytellers!

    --- Reviewed by Roberta O'Hara

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