Cemetery Dance

March 2, 2009
Bestsellers Preston and Child kill off a regular supporting character at the outset of this suspenseful tale of urban terror, their ninth to feature FBI special agent Aloysius Pendergast (after The Wheel of Darkness
). William Smithback, a New York Times
reporter, and his wife, Nora Kelly, an anthropologist with the New York Museum of Natural History, are celebrating their first anniversary when Smithback is fatally stabbed in their Manhattan apartment, apparently by a creepy neighbor, Colin Fearing, an out-of-work British actor. Given eyewitness descriptions of the killer, including one from Kelly herself, as well as surveillance footage showing a blood-stained Fearing emerging from the apartment building right after the crime, the case appears to be open and shut—until Pendergast and his NYPD ally, Lt. Vincent D’Agosta, learn that Fearing died almost two weeks earlier. This taut page-turner can only add to the authors’ growing fan base. 8-city author tour.

Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child have a reputation for writing sinister horror stories set in New York City. This one does not disappoint. Mysterious FBI agent Pendergast returns to solve the murder of NEW YORK TIMES reporter William Smithback, whose killer is plainly visible on a security camera. The only trouble is: The killer had died two weeks before the murder. René Auberjonois, who played the alien Odo on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" and the grim Paul Lewiston on "Boston Legal," lends the proper air of gravitas to his performance. With the underlying story featuring zombies and the undead, it takes the sober Auberjonois to help maintain the credibility of the plot. His sincere delivery is perfect for a strange story that is more than a little creepy. M.S. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine


Fearless Vincent D'Agosta and quirky Aloysius Pendergast are front and center in this thriller involving urban terror. William Smithback, a NEW YORK TIMES reporter, and his wife, Nora Kelly, an anthropologist at the Museum of Natural History, are attacked in their apartment, seemingly by their creepy neighbor, Colin Fearing. However, Fearing's body was found floating in the Harlem River 10 days earlier. Scott Brick narrates with restraint and convincingly finds good regional accents for the characters. With skillful pauses he ratchets up the tension in just the right spots. A religious cult that practices animal sacrifice and reanimation of the dead is made real by Brick's matter-of-fact narration. S.C.A. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine