Book Review: Still Life With Crows

Reviewed By: Pat Reid - RAM

Still Life With Crows     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Douglas Preston , Lincoln Child
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Thriller
Series: Special Agent Pendergast
Warner Books, 2003, 435 pps.

This book takes place in Medicine Creek that is a small fictitious town in Kansas. I picture it as being located approximately where Medicine Lodge, Kansas is actually located. The contrary old Sheriff of Medicine Creek goes out on a dead animal call to check out why the turkey buzzards are flying over a large cornfield. After tramping through the cornfield he finds a clearing where a woman's body is arranged in a gruesome still life. He is glad his young inexperienced deputy is not along with him. He calls in the state police who arrive and proceed to stomp all over the place destroying evidence. Then the head officer of the state police announces that the site of the murder is a few miles within the city limits of Medicine Creek and the murder is the responsibility of the Sheriff. Later back at the Sheriff's office with a hoard of press out in front the bus pulls into town and lets out a pale stranger in a dark suit who turns out to be FBI. But the Sheriff learns that the agent is not in town officially. Having heard of the murder he takes vacation and comes to town to assist the Sheriff with the investigation. Hope I haven't given away too much of the story but this just takes us up to approximately page 28.

The FBI agent is Special Agent Pendergast who immediately hires Corrie Swanson, an eighteen-year-old misfit from Medicine Creek as his assistant. The woman in the cornfield is not the first death nor will it be the last. This is a very exciting book and as soon as I finished it I ordered The Cabinet of Curiosities and Brimstone. Cabinet is the first book in this series, then Still Life with Crows and last Brimstone. I am so sorry I didn’t discover these books sooner but certainly intend to read all of the Preston/Child books I can find.

Pat Reid - RAM

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Pat Reid - RAM