Fantasy Book Critic: Book review: Pendergast: The Beginning

ABOUT THE AUTHORS: Douglas Preston is the author of forty books, both fiction and nonfiction, thirty-two of which have been New York Times bestsellers, with several reaching the number 1 position. He is the recipient of numerous writing awards in the US and Europe, including a shared Edgar Award and an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Pomona College. From 2019 to 2023 he served as president of the Authors Guild, the nation's oldest and largest association of authors and journalists.

Lincoln Child is the co-author, with Douglas Preston, of such highly-acclaimed thrillers as CROOKED RIVER, OLD BONES, VERSES FOR THE DEAD, CABINET OF CURIOSITIES, and RELIC, the latter two of which were chosen by an NPR poll as among the 100 greatest thrillers ever written. He has also published seven thrillers of his own, most recently the Jeremy Logan books FULL WOLF MOON and THE FORGOTTEN ROOM. 26 of his joint and solo books have become bestsellers, 3 of which debuted at #1 on the New York Times list. He lives in Sarasota, Florida.

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (January 27, 2026) Length: 384 p Formats: audiobook, ebook, paperback

I’ve been following this series for years, and I’m still eager to check a new Pendergast book out whenever it appears.

Pendergast: The Beginning isn’t a continuation of his latest adventures, but a prequel. Preston & Child go back to 1994 and watch Aloysius Pendergast start his FBI career in his hometown of New Orleans. He’s a rookie agent, and, as expected, already a problem for his superiors.

Pendergast’s new partner and mentor, Dwight Chambers, believes in procedure and paperwork. Pendergast believes in Pendergast. He goes undercover without clearing it and ignores protocol when it suits him. He also solves things no one else even sees.

They take the case of a corpse with its arm surgically removed. Soon there are more bodies and more missing arms. The case covers secret university experiments, psychic research, and a killer whose motives are rather peculiar.

For me, it was extremely fun. Pendergast himself is already fully formed. Pale, impeccably dressed, sharper than others. He’s also already driving his Rolls-Royce making Sherlock Holmes-level deductions while everyone else is still staring at the body. In other words, you won’t be getting a clumsy, uncertain young version of him. He arrives on the page exactly as we know him.

The villains lean toward the theatrical. The plot doesn’t try to be deep. You can often see where it’s heading, and while I guessed most of the turns, I didn’t mind.

If you’re already a fan, you’ll likely enjoy this return to the beginning. If you’re new, it’s an easy entry point since the end of the book leads directly to the events pictured in Relic 30 years ago.