Fever Dream (Special Agent Pendergast Series #10) »

Douglas Preston is the co-author with Lincoln Child of a bestselling thriller/adventure series. He also writes novels and nonfiction books of his own and is a frequent contributor to magazines like National Geographic, The New Yorker, Natural History, Smithsonian, Harper's, and Travel & Leisure.

At the old family manse in Louisiana, Special Agent Pendergast is putting to rest long-ignored possessions reminiscent of his wife Helen's tragic death, only to make a stunning-and dreadful-discovery. Helen had been mauled by an unusually large and vicious lion while they were big game hunting in Africa. But now, Pendergast learns that her rifle-her only protection from the beast-had been deliberately loaded with blanks. Who could have wanted Helen dead...and why?

With Lieutenant Vincent D'Agosta's assistance, Pendergast embarks on a quest to uncover the mystery of his wife's murder. It is a journey that sends him deep into her past where he learns much that Helen herself had wished to keep hidden. Helen Pendergast had nursed a secret obsession with the famed naturalist-painter John James Audubon, in particular a long-lost painting of his known as the Black Frame.

As Pendergast probes more deeply into the riddle-the answer to which is revealed in a night of shocking violence, deep in the Louisiana bayou-he finds himself faced with an even greater question: who was the woman he married?

Publishers Weekly

Rene Auberjonois continues his skilled narration of Preston and Child's suspense series featuring FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast. Twelve years ago, Pendergast's beloved wife, Helen, was killed by a lion in Africa, and her bizarre death still haunts him, but now he's discovered something extraordinary. Helen's death was no freakish accident, it was murder. Accompanied by his good friend, NYPD detective Vincent D'Agosta, Pendergast travels halfway around the world to investigate his wife's killing. Auberjonois perfectly captures the mysterious and suspenseful tone of the authors' story. His character portrayals are spot on as he slips from one diverse set of characters to another. This particular adventure provides him with a stronger emotional range in regard to the usually unflappable Pendergast who is more passionate and impulsive than we've seen in the past, and Auberjonois embraces this opportunity to show a deeper, more human side of the agent. A Grand Central hardcover (Reviews, Mar. 8). (May)