Fever Dream

July 26, 2010
Rene Auberjonois continues his skilled narration of Preston and Child's suspense series featuring FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast. Twelve years ago, Pendergast's beloved wife, Helen, was killed by a lion in Africa, and her bizarre death still haunts him, but now he's discovered something extraordinary. Helen's death was no freakish accident, it was murder. Accompanied by his good friend, NYPD detective Vincent D'Agosta, Pendergast travels halfway around the world to investigate his wife's killing. Auberjonois perfectly captures the mysterious and suspenseful tone of the authors' story. His character portrayals are spot on as he slips from one diverse set of characters to another. This particular adventure provides him with a stronger emotional range in regard to the usually unflappable Pendergast who is more passionate and impulsive than we've seen in the past, and Auberjonois embraces this opportunity to show a deeper, more human side of the agent. A Grand Central hardcover (Reviews, Mar. 8).

Starred review from March 8, 2010
Preston and Child up the emotional ante considerably in their 10th thriller featuring brilliant and eccentric FBI agent Aloysius Pendergast (after Cemetery Dance
), one of the best in the series. For 12 years, Pendergast has believed that the death of his wife, Helen, in the jaws of a ferocious red-maned lion in Zambia was just a tragedy, but his chance examination of the gun she carried on the fateful day reveals that someone loaded it with blanks. Pendergast drags his longtime NYPD ally, Lt. Vincent D'Agosta, into a leave of absence that includes travel to Africa as well as the American South. The motive for Helen's murder appears to be linked to her fascination with John James Audubon and her quest for a mysterious lost Audubon painting. Once again, the bestselling authors show they have few peers at creating taut scenes of suspense. Their restraint in the book's early sections make the payoffs all the more compelling.

Odd but brilliant, Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast returns in this fascinating thriller. Still mourning the death of his wife 12 years earlier while on safari in Africa, Pendergast now discovers the killing was not an accident. Narrator RenÄ Auberjonois is equally adept at portraying Pendergast's upper-crust Southern origins and New York cop Vincent D'Agosta's brusque directness. With Auberjonois's consistent narration, the quirky threads of the story--which include a disease carried by rare parakeets, a lost painting by John James Audubon, and corruption in Africa--eventually come together to create an intriguing premise. As Pendergast discovers that his beloved wife kept a myriad of secrets, Auberjonois's characterization dramatizes the special agent's confusion over his wife's loyalty. N.M.C. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine