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Medicine Creek, Kansas, has been slowly dying for the last century. A small, quiet place, the primary occupation is still farming, Main Street is a stretch of old and dusty businesses, and the nearest mall is 200 miles away. In a town where nothing changes, the community is terrified after a series of grisly murders takes place. Even more alarming, the bodies are displayed in bizarre tableaus. With the entire town in shock, FBI Agent Pendergast arrives from New Orleans to investigate. From the fields to the local caves, Pendergast discovers the remnants of a Prohibition-era moonshine operation and the truth behind one of the town's greatest mysteries: who was behind the Medicine Creek Massacre of 1865. Now, Pendergast must discover the twisted secret hiding within a four-generation Kansas family – before someone else is murdered.
Medicine Creek, Kansas, has been slowly dying for the last century. A small, quiet place, the primary occupation is still farming, Main Street is a stretch of old and dusty businesses, and the nearest mall is 200 miles away. In a town where nothing changes, the community is terrified after a series of grisly murders takes place. Even more alarming, the bodies are displayed in bizarre tableaus. With the entire town in shock, FBI Agent Pendergast arrives from New Orleans to investigate. From the fields to the local caves, Pendergast discovers the remnants of a Prohibition-era moonshine operation and the truth behind one of the town's greatest mysteries: who was behind the Medicine Creek Massacre of 1865. Now, Pendergast must discover the twisted secret hiding within a four-generation Kansas family – before someone else is murdered.
Due to publisher restrictions the library cannot purchase additional copies of this title, and we apologize if there is a long waiting list. Be sure to check for other copies, because there may be other editions available.
Due to publisher restrictions the library cannot purchase additional copies of this title, and we apologize if there is a long waiting list. Be sure to check for other copies, because there may be other editions available.
About the Author-
Douglas Preston writes about archaeology for the New Yorker and National Geographic magazines, as well as novels and nonfiction works (such as The Lost City of the Monkey God). With Lincoln Child, he writes international #1 bestselling thrillers, including the Agent Pendergast adventures.
Reviews-
September 26, 2011 When a Kansas farming community is beset by a series of unusual murders, eccentric FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast finds himself navigating cornfields and dealing with hostile local cops in order to unmask the killer in this fourth installment in the thriller series from Preston and Child. Although narrator Scott Brick takes a little while to hit his stride—some of the voices he lends to supporting characters are generic and his Midwestern accents are at times questionable—his narration proves effective and many of the characters he creates are colorful and appropriate. Among the highlights are his chilling depiction of the book’s mysterious killer and his rendition of an arrogant scientist researching genetically modified corn. While not every aspect of this production qualifies as a home run, Brick’s significant talents shine through and make for an enjoyable listening experience. A Grand Central paperback.
June 2, 2003 That FBI Special Agent Pendergast, one of the most charismatic thriller heroes in memory, dominates this latest novel from Preston/Child is the good news; that he's working the least interesting case of his literary career (other outings include The Cabinet of Curiosities and Reliquary) is the bad. An unusual serial killer is wreaking havoc in a small corn-growing town in Kansas; he leaves outlandish signatures, such as a mutilated body within a circle of crows on stakes and a ring of broken corn stalks. On his own initiative, Pendergast, no stranger to bizarre murders, shows up to investigate, and the authors make much hay from the contrast between the lean, infinitely refined and impossibly erudite Pendergast, a distinct descendant of Sherlock Holmes, and the down-home milieu he finds himself in. As if to emphasize his ancestry, the authors give Pendergast a Watson here: one Corrie Swanson, a rebellious, pierced and tattooed teenage girl whom he hires as his driver and guide. Further killings occur, which rumor and Pendergast tie to a 19th-century massacre of a band of outlaws by Indians. (As Pendergast explains to Corrie, he arrives at this conclusion through a "form of mental concentration, one of my own devising, which combines the memory palace with elements of Chongg Ran, an ancient Bhutanese form of meditation.") Not surprisingly, the relatively hick local cops don't like Pendergast, nor do the local politicians, who hope their town will be chosen for a lucrative experiment in genetically modified crops. When Corrie is dragged off to the killer's hideaway in a massive cave system, however, cops and Pendergast unite in an extended underground cat-and-mouse chase that will entertain readers despite their likely disappointment at the absurd, even ludicrous, identity of the villain. This may be minor Preston/Child, but it is major Pendergast; those for whom he's the cup of tea will drink deep.
October 6, 2003 This latest Preston and Child thriller, even in abbreviated form, offers gore galore, mutilations, bizarre ritual murders, an obstreperous sheriff, a young woman in jeopardy, a town consumed by terror and a spooky local legend—in short, an abundance of traditional suspense novel ingredients. Compensating for this apparent lack of imagination is the thriller's remarkable hero, Special Agent Pendergast, who's on leave from the FBI. This somewhat ethereal, cerebral specialist in macabre murders is a cross between Sherlock Holmes and Mulder of The X-Files , but with his courtly Southern manner and combat expertise, he's very much his own man. Narrator Auberjonois, a familiar stage and screen presence, uses an appropriately silky accent and a playfully sarcastic tone for Pendergast. Auberjonois is equally successful with the other characters, especially the hard-headed but good-hearted Sheriff Dent Hazen, who emerges as a Wilfred Brimley minus the bluster; 18-year-old town rebel Corrie Swanson; and the killer, whose method of communication would challenge any vocal interpreter. Equally important, Auberjonois narrates the tale with the sort of mesmerizing intensity that can, and does, turn a fairly familiar yarn into a scary campfire chillfest. Simultaneous release with the Warner hardcover (Forecasts, June 2).
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