Still Life With Crows
Agent Pendergast Series, # 4
By Douglas Preston and Lincoln Childs 

     Enter Medicine Creek, Kansas. It is a small rural town, surrounded on all sides by tall corn and consisting of two blocks of businesses that have not changed for many years. The turkey processing plant is big business and farming is a way of life. Medicine Creek is indeed a dusty and boring little town.

     But all that is about to change when local Sheriff Hazen discovers a horrific murder in the surrounding cornfields. The body is brutally murdered and arranged in a ritualistic and bizarre way. As the sheriff begins his investigation, a tall stranger, all dressed in black, steps down from a Greyhound bus.

     FBI Agent Pendergast has arrived on the scene and is offering his services. A strange man, and hard to get to know, this agent Pendergast puzzles the sheriff and soon the entire little community.

     Soon another murder is discovered and the sleepy little town must face the fact that a serial murderer is in their midst. Neighbors and friends look at each other in a suspicious way. Houses that are always open are locked at dusk in spite of the stifling heat.

     Pendergast recruits a local teenaged outcast to help him and further alienates the sheriff. The FBI agent realizes that he must dig into the secrets of this weary little town if he is to discover the identity of the killer and stop the murderous rampage.

     This book was a page-turner from the very beginning. I have been a fan of the Preston/Child's writing team since I stumbled onto "Relic" and Still Life with Crows was not a disappointment.

Reviews of other titles in this series

The Cabinet of Curiosities, #3    [audio 1 ] [audio 2 ]
Still Life With Crows, #4     [book] [audio]
Brimstone, #5    [audio 1] [audio 2] [book]
Dance of Death, #6    [book]
Book of the Dead, #7    [audio]
Wheel Of Darkness, # 8    [book] [audio]
Cemetery Dance, #9    [book] [audio]
Fever Dream, #10    [book] [audio]
Cold Vengeance, # 11 [audio]