This is the sixteenth novel in Preston & Child's Pendergast series.
If you're already familiar with the series, then you'll know what to expect: good plotting and writing, character growth, and some good mystery/thriller/action.

If you've not had a chance to try this series, yet, then I would certainly recommend it -- especially if you're a fan of authors like James Rollins, Matthew Reilly, Vince Flynn, Kyle Mills, et al.

A solid entry in the Pendergast series, and Preston and Child lived up to expectations.

In this book you are taken around the world and each time you are surprised by the outcome. First by what happens with Proctor, then whether Pendergast is alive, and what is Constance going to do without Pendergast? These questions along with many, many more are answered along with other characters being brought in to help the story along in not only finding these people but also Pendergast brother who is also in the book. With all of the twists and turns the story does work for me. Without giving too much away it was a good read and I found it to be very entertaining to go along with the series. Overall a good book with a surprise at least for me at the end.

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

The more Pendergast books I read, the more I LOVE him!! He is absolutely the perfect man! He is clean, quiet, unobtrusive, thoughtful, smart, freakishly strong, and rich. What more could a girl want? He is also an FBI Special (VERY SPECIAL) Agent. He does have this troublesome brother, but he is dead, right? Well, not quite. And thus lies the problem.

As the book begins, Aloysius Pendergrast is dead, drowned off the coast of Massachusetts, and his body has not been recovered. The household in in mourning, none more than Constance Greene, his ward.

His brother, Diogenes, thought to have died in a volcano, is suddenly back. Back and wanting Constance.

I actually enjoy this series but this is just an old and been done please no more dysfunctional family drama the series is really to good for that

The Obsidian Chamber by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child; published by Grand Central Publishing (October 18, 2016); ISBN 9781455536917

I'm kind of on the fence with this one. Don't get me wrong, I liked The Obsidian Chamber and enjoyed how the storylines seemed to come full circle, bringing back that feeling I had when reading the original, early Agent Pendergast novels. My issue is with the fact that there just wasn't enough of the great Agent Pendergast!

Without giving too much away, in The Obsidian Chamber, three key storylines that were the basis of the entire series to date, converge to provide very satisfying closure. It almost feels like a reset, wiping the slate clean in preparation for new adventures.

If you haven't read any Agent Pendergast books, I wouldn't recommend you start with this one as it involves many plot points and characters from previous novels. For fans of the series, The Obsidian Chamber was an enjoyable and entertaining addition to the Agent Pendergast sphere.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for providing me an advanced digital copy in return for an honest, unbiased review.

For the most part, it's not necessary to read the Pendergast books in any particular order, however in this case I do think it's best to have read "Crimson Shore" before reading this book. "Obsidian Chamber" picks up shortly after the end of the 15th book in the series. I feared that in the prior book the authors had written themselves into a corner with the relationship between Pendergast and his ward Constance, but I should have had more faith in the authors, because they have resisted the urge to make them a couple. Constance has a very interesting backstory (established in my favorite book of the series "The Cabinet of Curiosities"), but I'd be happy to have her gone from the series for a while.

In this book Pendergast is presumed dead and Constance is abducted from Penergast's mansion on Riverside Drive. If you have read earlier books in this series you will immediately know the identity of the kidnapper. This kidnapping provides the opportunity for the authors to turn Proctor into an action hero. Before this book, I had never seen Proctor described as a "bodyguard", he was basically Pendergast's butler and chauffeur, so I didn't realize that he was heavily armed and had a skill set that includes torture and fighting lions. Proctor was fun in this book and he should add some variety to future books.

It was a little disturbing that the only women in this book were two mentally unbalanced women scorned, but I liked the book a lot anyway.

I received a free copy of the e-book from the publisher, however I wound up borrowing and listening to the audiobook from the library.

I have been a fan of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child and their unique hero, A.X.L.Pendergast, for years. I was happy to get a review copy of the 16th book staring Pendergast, “The Obsidian Chamber,” and gladly sank back into story where the previous novel had left off.

When Pendergast was lost off the coast of Exmouth, Massachusetts, and he is presumed dead, Constance Green feels lost and alone. In her grief, she retreats to a secret retreat beneath the family’s house to cope with her loss and determine what her future holds. Pendergast’s longtime bodyguard, Proctor, watches over her from the other side of a locked door and is spurred into action when he witnesses Green’s kidnapping on the house’s security monitors. He begins an international chase to rescue Constance only to find that all is not what it seems.

As events unfold around Constance and Proctor, they soon learn that the dead do not rest peacefully. Constance finds herself drawn back to a dark time in her life as she begins to wander down a road that she has tread before. Proctor’s chase jumps from continent to continent as he chases a specter from the past. Closer to home, an unexpected ally emerges that has the potential to set everything right. . .or destroy them all.

That summary of the novel is intentionally vague as I cannot figure out how to give a good summary of the novel without giving away too many spoilers. This is a fairly dense novel and not a good one for a new reader as it draws on a lot of history to craft the story. For a Pendergast novel, the book has little to do with the main character but rather focuses on other characters and themes that have surrounded the character in previous books. There is surprisingly little action in the novel but it works well overall. Rather than a thriller or action novel, Lincoln and Child instead focus on bringing together several threads that have been a part of the series and craft a story that really is a kind of gothic romance. There is a lot of familial intrigue, backstabbing, scorned lovers, and duplicity in the novel that the authors keep at a slow simmer throughout the novel before finally bringing the book to an explosive conclusion.

This is a Pendergast novel that is not really about Pendergast but rather about the characters that longtime fans are familiar with as supporting characters. While I often feel as if series building can bog down a story and make for slow reading, Lincoln and Child avoid this while they develop the world and keep the tension strong throughout. Constance Green shows that she is a strong enough character to carry a story and Proctor takes on a different role than what readers have come to expect from him. There are some twists and turns to the novel that I do not want to delve in to as I avoid spoilers but this novel is sure to be a delight for fans of the series. This is not a book for new readers (I would highly recommend jumping in by picking up the first book) but Lincoln and Child show that there is still much more to tell even through sixteen books in the series.

I would like to thank Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for this review copy. “The Obsidian Chamber” is available now.

The Obsidian Chamber by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child is book 16 in the Pendergast series and to date may be the most complicated of all of them. Which is saying something as Special Agent Pendergast is one of the most unique and well crafted characters in modern literature. The evolution of the Pendergast novels has gone from supernatural thrillers to science fiction noire with a healthy dose family dysfunction.

After the events of the last novel, Crimson Shore, Agent Aloysius X.L. Pendergast is presumed dead; washed out to sea. Unable to do anything to save her guardian, Pendergast's ward Constance Green returns to the family home in grief. She goes down into the cellars of the home and the tunnels underneath to hide herself away. What she does not realize is that she is not alone. Someone, a man long thought gone is down beneath the home with her. In a moment he takes her away and now Pendergast's longtime bodyguard, Proctor, must hunt the kidnapper down. Hunt down a man who should not exist and find Constance and bring her back safely.

But nothing is like it seems and Proctor soon learns that events may be far different than he realized. But is he too late? Too late not only to save Constance, but in turn, to save himself.

As for Pendergast, his fate is not what everyone believes. Agent Pendergast finds himself locked in the hold of a pirate ship, being kept for ransom. Can Pendergast escape? Can he find Proctor and Constance and will he unravel the clues that lead him to the kidnapper who everyone believes to be dead?

I am a huge Preston and Child fan, having first read The Relic well over a decade ago, and having followed the Pendergast novels religiously. They are one of the few storylines that shoot to the top of my TBR list the moment they are released. But for me The Obsidian Chamber is not a true Pendergast novel and going into it, expecting it to be a Pendergast tale, I am somewhat disappointed.

What it really is in fact, is a Constance Green novel, not an Agent Aloysius X.L. Pendergast novel. Green is the main focus of the tale and the driving force behind the novel. It is her actions and decisions that decide which course the other characters will eventually take. This doesn't necessarily make it a bad novel, in fact it is pretty good, but it's not Pendergast. It's like expecting a chocolate sundae and getting a caramel one instead. It's not bad, but its not chocolate.

The Obsidian Chamber is in fact a novel of growth, of a character who too often was a supporting character when whose past and abilities should make her so much more. This is Constance Green's tale and she literally breaks free here. But her character, her methods and her moral compass may leave some readers unsteady. She is in some ways, Frankenstein's monster. You will leave this book not sure if she is going to remain Pendergast's friend and ally or may become he greatest nemesis.

And for that alone, it will be worth waiting for the next tale.

After what I thought was a comparatively weak effort with "Crimson Shore," Preston and Child return to their usual great form with this edge-of-your-seat can't-put-down read. You definitely need to have read "Crimson Shore" to understand this story as it's truly a part-two of what might have been better as a single, longer book, so that became a redeeming quality for that one. As a one-two punch, I definitely recommend these two books!