"The Wheel of Darkness" Falls Flat

Today, Smarty Pants reviews Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's latest Pendergast novel: The Wheel of Darkness.

In this thriller, Aloysius Pendergast and his ward, Constance Greene, go to a remote Tibetan monestary to heal the spiritual wounds they suffered at the hands of Pendergast's various evil relatives and acquaintances. Trouble is, an extremely dangerous object has been stolen from the monks, so naturally it's up to Pendergast and Greene to find it... even though they don't actually know what it is.

They track it down to a luxury ocean liner on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic. There, they have to contend with a viscious serial killer, a dangerous misanthropic Naval officer, a terrible storm, a mysterious ghostly phantom, and an Aloysius Pendergast gone crazy.

And yet, through all that, The Wheel of Darkness falls short of the successes that preceded it. The main reason for its failure is the authors' unaccountable decision to remove all the characters with whom the audience has the most empathy. It was with a great deal of disappointment that I realized this book would contain no hint of Vincent D'Agosta, Bill Smithback, Margo Green, Nora Kelly, or Viola Maskelene. This creates the problem that most of the character interaction is between Pendergast and Greene, whose personalities are far too similar for an interesting dialogue. This is in sharp contrast to Pendergast's interaction with characters like D'Agosta and Smithback. Unfortunately, the trouble doesn't end there.

If there's one thing Preston and Child almost never seem to get right, it's a good villain. Sure, Job from Still Life with Crows was fascinating, but he's the exception that proves the rule. Leng and Fairhaven were non-characters with barely a hint of personality, Frock was seriously underdeveloped, and Diogenes was nothing more than Pendergast with a sinister twist. Count Foscoe doesn't count because he was copied from Wilkie Collins. In spite of this marked shortcoming, the books in which these characters appear were excellent.

Yet in The Wheel of Darkness, this weakness reaches a high point. Preston and Child were simply unable to come up with anything resembling a good villain. Instead, they resorted lamely to a simple motif of harmful sensation.

Now don't misinterpret me. The Wheel of Darkness isn't great like most of Preston and Child's books are, but it is still a good read. It's interesting, rather than rivetting.

Smarty Pants Sez: Recommended, though not nearly as good as Still Life with Crows, Brimstone, Dance of Death, and Book of the Dead.

Caveats: While it's good by most standards, it's bad by Preston and Child standards. Fans of the series, prepare to be disappointed.