THE OBSIDIAN CHAMBER Pendergast, Book 16

Narrator Rene Auberjonois offers his usual cool, unruffled approach to Preston and Child’s sixteenth A.X.L. Pendergast adventure. For those familiar with the series, nothing that happens will be as surprising as the behavior of Pendergast’s manservant-cum-bodyguard, Proctor, and Pendergast's ward, Constance Greene. Pendergast is presumed dead after being wounded and falling into the sea. Meanwhile, back at his Manhattan mansion, it appears that Constance has been abducted. In a wild chase across continents, Proctor follows the kidnappers, hiring planes, boats, and SUVs until he’s finally left stranded, on foot, in the Kalahari Desert. Auberjonois gets it all just right as one hair-raising escapade follows another, and, with a few red herrings and more melodramatic revelations than usual, he keeps the improbable suspenseful and the listening entertaining. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPTEMBER 2016]