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Blue Labyrinth    by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child Amazon.com order for
Blue Labyrinth
by Douglas Preston
Order:  USA  Can
Grand Central, 2014 (2014)
Hardcover, CD, e-Book
* * *   Reviewed by Martina Bexte

After a couple of mediocre forays, Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast, the authors' embodiment of a modern day Sherlock Holmes, is back in fine form as he's forced to pursue yet another mystery surrounding his dark and many-faceted family tree.

This time around it involves the murder of one of his twin sons, Alban, whose existence Pendergast had only recently discovered and who, in short order, became the agent's most feared enemy. Now the young man's corpse lies unceremoniously dumped on Pendergast's doorstep, the only clue to the murderer's identity a piece of blue turquoise lodged in Alban's stomach.

Far from content with the NYPD's investigative techniques, Pendergast launches his own enquiry, the sole clue taking him to the west coast and to an abandoned turquoise mine at the edge of California's Salton Sea. It's here that he discovers a startling family secret, one that mires him ever more deeply into a clever killer's chilling game of revenge.

The authors may sometimes give their enigmatic hero some implausible powers of deduction, not to mention the nine lives of a cat, but when Pendergast is in full investigative mode, it's a pleasure to watch him work his magic.

Constance Green, Pendergast's mysterious and long-lived ward (first introduced in The Cabinet of Curiosities) also plays a substantial, and chilling, role once Pendergast is unable to continue his investigation. Also along for the ride are detective Vincent D'Agosta and anthropologist Margo Green, who, along with Pendergast, were first introduced in the series debut, Relic.

Blue Labyrinth is another edge-of-your-seat thriller that showcases a one-of-a-kind protagonist whose family and personal secrets might well need another dozen or so books to untangle!

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