By far, one of my favorite books in this great series! This book was quite a page turner from beginning to end, with constant action and no shortage of clues and theories. I loved Pendergast and D'Agosta together and the ending has me looking forward to the next book in this series.

FBI agent Pendergast and NYPD dectective D’Agosta struggle with a series of decapitated bodies. Theories abound but nothing quite fits. ARC from NetGalley.

A thrilling mystery that telegraphs the villain a little too well, but is still an enjoyable read. I found FBI Special Agent Pendergast getting a little too cocky but he is good at what he does. The chase scene at the end requires a little suspension of belief, but the story closes well.

Followers of Pendergast will consume this book with delight. Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child continue to fascinate us with this character. We get glimpses into his incredible mind.

Another great Pendergast novel by Preston and Child. Without giving anything away, I had my doubts that the series would continue due to the plot line. In the end, it all worked out and I cannot wait for the next book in the series. I'm left wondering if Constance will return home? Thank you for the advanced copy. Our library will definitely purchase.

This is one of my favorite series! My brother and I are always eagerly awaiting the latest installment. So I want to give a huge thank you to hachete and netgalley for allowing me to read and review The City of Endless Night!

I felt this book really went back to the roots of the earlier Pendergast novels. SA Pendergast is in deep trouble with the FBI after his recent exploits. He is assigned a seemingly pointless case which turns in to much more? Who is the killer stalking NYC elite? Is he/she more than he can handle? Read to find out!

When headless bodies start showing up in New York City, the police are thrilled to have the help of FBI Special Agent Pendergast to help. Especially when the bodies belong to some of the wealthiest and most tightly guarded of the city's elite: the daughter of a tech billionaire, a mob lawyer, a Russian business mogul rumored to be an arms dealer. The fact that these individuals could be killed is one matter; the fact that they were decapitated and their heads now missing is another. 

Add to that pressure a series of newspaper articles speculating that it's New York's one percent that are being targeted by this serial killer, "The Decapitator," and the police feel stymied. Agent Pendergast doesn't believe that the killer is motivated by the net worth of his victims, but he hasn't shared his alternate theories with the NYPD, and Lieutenant Vincent D'Agosta feels like he's about to lose his head finding this killer. 

City of Endless Night is the latest in the Agent Pendergast series, and the first one I've gotten a chance to read. Based only on this book, I'm not sure I'd read more of this series. As a stand-alone, I thought this was awkward. Mostly, I didn't get a chance to know Pendergast as well as I had hoped, as most of his work was left off the pages and he refused to Lieutenant D'Agosta what he was thinking as the investigation went on. I know Douglas Preston from other books, and I've read what other reviewers thought of this novel (they're mixed) and about the series in general (there is so much love for it), so I will definitely give this series another try. I look forward to finding out more about Agent Pendergast and his Sherlock Holmes-like methods of solving crime.

While I had some issues with this novel, it was also incredibly well written and tightly plotted. I especially liked the commentary on modern journalism, and I thought that story line was particularly well done. 

I decided to try the audio version of City of Endless Night, and that I will recommend very highly. It is narrated by Rene Auberjonois, who I have loved since my childhood, watching him on Benson. I didn't stay very long for Deep Space Nine, but I will still watch any episode of Boston Legal I stumble across. He is an accomplished actor, and now he is also my new favorite audio book narrator. And I realized as I heard him introduce himself that I have never heard anyone else say his name correctly (I know I can't). But his narration is spot on and the reason I binged the almost 11-hour book in two days. 

If you're already a fan of the Pendergast series, read on, knowing you may be a little disappointed. If this is your first foray into the series, I'd recommend starting somewhere else. But if you do want to read City of Endless Night (which you should read), try the audio version. It's a beautiful experience. 



Galleys for City of Endless Night were provided by Grand Central Publishing through NetGalley, with many thanks, but I bought the audio version myself, thanks to Audible.

Back to Pendergast basics, this book is a regular murder mystery. Pendergast gets back to his roots, solving crime. There's nothing supernatural here, folks. It was an enjoyable murder tale, getting Pendergast back to basics.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced digital copy of this book in exchange for a review. Here is my review:

Pendergast never disappoints. But sometimes even he is outwitted and does not immediately recognize the evil he is seeing. It all begins with a morbid scene of a headless corpse in an abandoned building. But not just any corpse. this one has been beheaded. And the body is that of the daughter of one of New York's richest and most powerful men, a tech billionaire.

Pendergast is a little off his game, maybe. After all, he was almost killed and is still recovering from his last adventure. And Constance has left him. Him and the house that meant so much to her.

Soon, other murders take place, but they are the murders of some of the best-protected people in New York. What, exactly is going on? I someone killing the one-percenters, as a newspaper columnist speculates?

This is a really good read. And the ending is both surprising and satisfying.

I love this series and have read everything these two authors have written. That being said I found this book to be disappointing.
In this story the characters were more like the characters in Relic,the first book of this series. This was more of a police procedural with Agent Pendergast (FBI) assisting the New York City Police Department with a bizarre murder mystery. The characters were flat stick figures of the rich character developments they have built through the series of books. The story itself was good and the plot moved to a satisfying conclusion with a few hints at the ongoing mysteries of the characters. I will still look forward to reading more for these authors both together and solo.

Another in the series of Agent Pendergast and friends as they search for someone who is beheading people. Located in New York City the authorities are baffled as to the motive as well as the selection of victims. A theory advanced by a newspaper reporter takes hold but may not focus on the true villain. Pendergast female companion has also left him for Europe and he tries to move forward.

While an enjoyable read, this volume seems to lack the usual mind twisting events. The ending so somewhat contrived almost like the authors just got tired of writing. If you're a fan don't miss it as the the relationships are defined by the end of the book.

City of Endless Night by Preston and Child is book #17 in the Pendergast series. By this time you would think that we have seen all that Agent Pendergast has to offer but in Endless Night, the authors take the unflappable agent onto a course that he is ill equipped for.

The missing daughter of a wealthy billionaire is found dead. Her head taken. The evidence at the scene alludes to two separate killers. The first who killed the young woman and the second who took her head. The case goes to New York Detective Vincent D'Agosta and FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast. It has been some time since Pendergast has been in his home city and not hunting killers and criminals across the globe. He has been solitary and distant since his ward Constance Greene has left him. Having only recently come back from being presumed dead, Pendergast is hoping for some stability in his life now. A murder may be just what he needs to take his mind off of what his life has become.

But as another body and another body begin to show up; Pendergast and D'Agosta may have a serial killer on their hands. A killer who is terrorizing New York. But as always, all may not be as it seems and for Pendergast, the answer may be much closer to his own soul than he is prepared for.

City of Endless Night is a departure from the path of Pendergast novels of late. His family and hidden past plays little into this tale. No secret societies or monsters or powers of supernatural origin play into here. There are not hidden gems of knowledge that unlock a great ancient power. No here there be monsters of another sort. A very human monster. A creature of human pain and anger. Here there is a throwback to something that may have been missing from Agent Pendergast novels in general. An actual murder mystery to be solved. A human killer doing horrible deeds and the why behind it all.

Pendergast, the character is going through changes. The loss of Constance Green has affected him in ways that he was not prepared for. Loss is a theme in the life of Pendergast. For all that he has he seems to constantly be in grief. His family, his wife, his son and his ward. Here, finally, we see the shell around him break and Pendergast may be saying enough.

The mystery of City of Endless Night is well written and detailed in research, which is to be expected from a Preston and Child book. This writing duo does not disappoint. It takes the reader a moment to realize that this is a murder mystery and that there is no deeper sinister plan at work as is the norm with Pendergast tales. This is a murder mystery. A police procedural as it were. A brilliant Detective pitted against a ruthless killer.

It is a really good read.

I love Preston and Child's Pendergast series, but I don't think that this was one of the stronger books in the series. There was just something about it that didn't do it for me.

In Preston and Childs’ latest in the series, (City of Endless Night, Grand Central Publishing, 2018) FBI Special Agent Pendergast finds himself in the doghouse with his superior yet again. Brilliance is always balanced with punishment, at least where he is concerned. Lieutenant-Commander Vincent D’Agosta had barely begun the perimeter search of a murder scene when he all but trips over Pendergast, who had been assigned a routine murder call-out in the unlikely possibility that interstate crime was involved. Old comrades, and as close to friends as Pendergast’s quirky personality could permit, the two of them set about searching for a serial killer who delights in beheading his victims.
What follows is one of the more grisly cases in the Pendergast series, albeit with surprisingly few characters. Lt. D’Agosta assumes a more prominent role than usual, and Pendergast himself is uncharacteristically distracted, at times alarmingly so. D’Agosta is understandably perplexed, but a little bit of Pendergast is worth more than a lot of most.
As the head count mounts and the public panics, thanks to sensational reporting by Bryce Harriman of the New York Post, himself a recurring character and full-time nemesis of the NYPD, Pendergast is forced to concentrate, and to focus on the niggling notion that he is missing something vital to the investigation.
Preston and Childs have spun yet another spell-binder, the seventeenth in the series, and have placed Pendergast and D’Agosta in a cat and mouse game that will either get the agent out of the doghouse or into something much worse. And as usual, the ending is totally unexpected. And then unexpected again. Can’t wait for the next one.

If you want a really really great thriller, don't buy this book. Go back to the beginning of the series, which was seriously amazing, and hope that the authors realize they are going to lose their readership soon unless they put some effort back into this series. Please start caring about Pendergast again.

In City of Endless Night by Preston and Child, we see another side of Pendergast. At the beginning of the tale, he comes across as apathetic to the case he has been assigned and we are left to deduce for ourselves the why behind this behavior. The case itself is different. There is a body of a woman sans head. And it would seem that there were perhaps two different people involved - one that did the actual killing and another that removed the head at a later date. Soon there are more headless bodies and the question is one killer or more? Vincent D'Agosta hopes that involvement in this case will put Pendergast back into his normal frame of mind.
It will, of course, take all of their wits to solve the case and stay alive.

This, the 17th entry in the Pendergast series, is not the strongest. It is slow in parts. And Pendergast's apathy is a little hard to take because it seems so out of character to me. The reason for it is eventually revealed. I will not reveal it here because spoilers.

The characters of D'Agosta and Pendergast are the most well developed. The reporter, Harriman, also is fairly well fleshed out. The killer we come to know through actions.

Some people have complained that they were able to deduce the killer(s) early on in the book as well as the motive. Not me. It kept my attention and kept me guessing until the reveal.

City of Endless Night was published January 16, 2018 from Grand Central Publishing.

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. Even though it was problematic in parts, overall it kept my attention and made me want to know who was responsible for the crimes and what their motivation might be. While it can be read as a standalone, I think it's better digested if you've read at least the previous book.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions herein are my own and freely given.

Another satisfying read in the Pendergast series. While it doesn't move the overall "mythology" of the series along, it does provide a complex thriller with further insights into Pendergast's character, and it can be read as a standalone, set in New York City, featuring the the extremely wealthy and the extremely not. Pendergast himself is strangely out of sorts as the story opens, having difficulty involving himself in solving the initial crime (perhaps due to developments at the end of the last book), showing a level of decreased insight lacking in his crime solving.

D'Agosta and Pendergast are teamed up again due to the discovery of a headless corpse, a crime scene involving one or possibly two distinct killers. And they soon learn that the victim is prominent and wealthy, though also notorious. Who would want her dead -- and in that way? The investigation begins but will become very complicated, eventually drawing Pendergast out of the fog surrounding him. But at what cost?

Recommended to Pendergast followers. You know who you are!

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

A lengthy read filled with plot twists. Well-developed characters who manage to stay true to their personalities no matter the situation thrown into. One plot line is based on a 1497 historical event and another, which most reviewers haven't seemed to notice, makes reference to a rather intriguing 1924 short story by Richard Connell. Scattered throughout are references to past storylines in the Pendergast series, without actually giving things away...even the epilogue is this way-making one want to read on.

Kind of felt like Preston/Child Light. A bit of a predictable plot and lackluster storytelling. I didn’t feel like the story went very deep or had many surprises. It kept my attention, but I couldn’t really get into it the way that I did with older Prendergast stories.

The superb writing style of Preston & Child, intricate plot twists, and quick pace make City of Endless Night an enjoyable, compelling read. It is not necessary to have read the previous volumes involving Lieutenant CDS Vincent D'Agosta and FBI Special Agent A.X.L. Pendergast. This installment in the series works as a stand-alone selection (although there are references to prior history that will inspire first-time readers to read the previous volumes). A series of gruesome murders that are seemingly unrelated have NYC on edge, and the NYPD brass and mayor want the perpetrator(s) brought to justice quickly. Unfortunately for D'Agosta, the evidence fails to reveal the murderer's identity and, one by one, promising theories prove fruitless until a lucky break sends D'Agosta chasing a lead . . . or is it a trap? Pendergast is the only one who can discern the truth, but can he do so in time? A tense, action-packed climax provides the answer and sets the stage for the next installment in the series.
(Thanks to NetGalley for the Advance Reader's Copy of the book.)