“Two Graves” by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child – At the Heart of Evil
However, the story takes another, very sudden turn when Pendergast actually discovers that his wife is alive, but seconds before they could unite, she gets kidnapped.
This chain of events forces Pendergast to leave everything behind and chase the kidnappers across the country. However, as it becomes apparent, the kidnapping is only a precursor to much darker and sinister events, relating to a serial killer who has been operating with superhuman efficiency in New York.
Along the way, Pendergast makes many surprising discoveries about himself, his wife and the killer, eventually forcing him to venture in the jungles of South America to confront the evil which has plagued his life, face-to-face.
Written by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, Two Graves is a bit of an unusual crime mystery seeing as how two main storylines become intertwined: the actual case of the New York serial killer, and Pendergast’s journey to meet his wife once again and put an end to the misfortunes which have been plaguing his life without respite.
While it generally isn't easy to write a fully-developed and interesting story without being complicated while following this kind of structure, Preston and Child have done an exceptional job in my opinion. I never once found myself to be at loss or unable to follow the course of events, and I guess that is mainly attributable to the lack of fluff and superfluous text.
The descriptions are a bit longer and more vivid where they need to be, but rest assured you won’t find yourself reading a 20-page description of a curtain. The pace is quite brisk, with some kind of curious twist at every corner. From a technical perspective, this is definitely an achievement to be proud of.
But what about the story itself? To start things off, I have to say that both storylines have a lot to give to the reader. In other words, they are both quite interesting in their own ways.
As you can guess, the storyline with the serial killer hinges on more classical devices, such as the killer’s identity, his motivation, and the method through which he will be caught (hopefully). It’s an intriguing cat-and-mouse game between two intellectually-proficient players.
As for the other story, I found it to be a very touching exploration of the main character’s mentality. There are a lot of things about Pendergast the reader doesn't know about, and this storyline basically touches on what made him into the person he is.
As you can guess though, it doesn't just look at his past, but also how he chooses to deal with the present, how his quest for revenge slowly twists his mind and takes control of his actions. In the end, both stories merge for a fantastic finale which I couldn’t help but notice had shades of Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.
All in all, I don’t have a single complaint about this book; it delivers on all fronts without dragging itself down in any way. I definitely recommend this to absolutely anyone who is even remotely interested in murder mysteries, especially ones which are borderline surrealistic.
 | Douglas Jerome PrestonPersonal site Douglas Preston is an author of American origin who has, so far, made a career from writing technological thrillers and horror novels. Six of his works were penned alone, while the rest were written alongside with Lincoln Child. His solo works include his sole fiction novel in that category, Jennie, as well as non-fiction novels such as The Monster of Florence. His collaborations with Lincoln Child have, for one, given birth to the famous Agent Pendergast series. |
 | Lincoln ChildPersonal site Lincoln Child is an American author who has authored a number of technological thrillers as well as horror stories. Six of his works were written alone, four of those being books in the Jeremy Logan series, while the rest were co-authored with Douglas Preston, and those include the famous Agent Pendergast and Gideon Crow series. |
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