Review by Seeley James
Gideon’s Corpse – Authors Preston and Child, ~100,000 words, $26.99
Gideon’s Corpse is the second novel in the new series by the fabulous team of Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child. You know them from the fantastic Aloysius Pendergast series. The first, Gideon’s Sword (Feb-2011) introduced us to the character, Gideon Crew. Both books are exceedingly well written.
The writing from this duo is exceptional. I can still smell the pine in his New Mexico cabin. I can still taste the lemon pepper trout he cooked in the first book. But somehow, I don’t find Gideon sympathetic. He’s a genius, has a grad degree from MIT, he works at Los Alamos, and he’s a reformed art thief (how else you gonna pay for MIT?). So why can’t I relate to him? Why don’t I feel bad that his dad was murdered by a traitorous General? Why don’t I feel sad that he’s going to die in a few months from some odd disease? Maybe it’s because he never seems to have an emotional moment. Not one that resonates anyway. Worst of all, I don’t know why he doesn’t resonate. I felt for Aloysius when he discovered shocking things about his dead wife in that series. I’m not suffering from thriller-cynicism. Maybe it’s because he never has an interior worry. He’s dying but he never cries out, why me?
OK, great authors, so I got over it.
In the first book, Gideon Crew was recruited to work for Effective Engineering Solutions, Inc. A purposely ill-defined company that gets involved in stuff. What stuff? You might ask. Just things and stuff. Y’know, like, failure analysis. Failure Analysis. Brilliant. When it comes to shadowy organizations, the basic ingredient of thrillers, Preston & Child have come up with the perfect company. In this sequel, Gideon is done with his first mission and heading home when an acquaintance from Los Alamos goes berserk and holds a family hostage. Gideon is conscripted to work with the FBI negotiator.
From there, things go scarier and wilder.
The story ratchets up in detail and promise, keeping the reader fully engaged as a terrorist plot to blow up a major US city is uncovered. Whoa. Nuclear threat? Isn’t that a bit cliché. As in: tacky? Yes. And Preston & Child deftly take the reader through that process and into the uglier scenario. What could be worse than nuclear holocaust? Read the book. It’s an interesting twist. Actually, I shouldn’t call it a twist, more of a jerk. You will not see it coming. When you do figure it out, it flows because it makes sense. In the hands of lesser writers, the plot would be a reader’s WTF? moment. But Preston & Child are at the top of the writing food chain and pull it off brilliantly.
When I read mysteries and thrillers, I keep notes about who I think the bad guy is on various pages. This one took me closer to the end than most. We read thrillers for the surprises, the puzzles, the tension—and this one delivers in spades. Not because of the way-out-there scenarios, and these are way-out-there, but because of the writing. Preston & Child are the finest writers in the genre today.
Peace, Seeley James
