Pendergast Series

This series follows the unusual and brilliant agent Aloysius Pendergast, who becomes embroiled in various mysteries and murders. His unorthodox methods and brilliant deduction make him a unique detective unafraid to confront dark forces and dangerous adversaries. The stories combine thriller, horror, and mystery elements, and Pendergast's character is marked by his charisma and intellect. The series is known for its surprising twists and gripping plots.

Recommended Reading Order

2
Reliquary
Douglas Preston
480 pages
17 hours of reading
4.1(1791)Add rating
Hidden deep beneath Manhattan lies a warren of tunnels, sewers, and galleries, mostly forgotten by those who walk the streets above. There lies the ultimate secret of the Museum Beat. When two grotesquely deformed skeletons are found deep in the mud off the Manhattan shoreline, museum curator Margo Green is called in to aid the investigation. Margo must once again team up with police lieutenant D'Agosta and FBI agent Pendergast, as well as the brilliant Dr. Frock, to try and solve the puzzle. The trail soon leads deep underground, where they will face the awakening of a slumbering nightmare... in Reliquary, from bestselling coauthors Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.
3
The Cabinet of Curiosities
Douglas Preston
560 pages
20 hours of reading
4.3(42919)Add rating
Pendergast is drawn to the remains of a 19th-century charnel house, unearthed at a construction site in New York and finds himself investigating a copycat killer.
4
Still Life With Crows
Douglas Preston
4.2(33120)Add rating
In Medicine Creek, Kansas, an old-fashioned small town where nothing ever changes, the community is terrified after a series of grisly murders takes place. Even more alarming, the bodies are displayed in bizarre tableaus. FBI Agent Pendergast arrives from New Orleans to investigate.
5
Brimstone
Lincoln Child
4.2(34930)Add rating
In the wake of a series of bizarre murders in which claw prints are found near each of the victims, agent Pendergast teams up with officer Vincent d'Agosta in an investigation with apparent ties to the supernatural.
6
Dance of Death
Douglas Preston
4.2(28180)Add rating
Two brothers bound by blood, divided by hate . . .
7
The Book of the Dead
Douglas Preston
640 pages
23 hours of reading
4.2(32331)Add rating
The New York Museum of Natural History receives their pilfered gem collection back ... ground down to dust. Diogenes, the psychotic killer who stole them in Dance of Death, is throwing down the gauntlet to both the city and to his brother, FBI Agent Pendergast, who is currently incarcerated in a maximum security prison. To quell the PR nightmare of the gem fiasco, the museum decides to reopen the Tomb of Senef. An astounding Egyptian temple, it was a popular museum exhibit until the 1930s, when it was quietly closed. But when the tomb is unsealed in preparation for its gala reopening, the killings--and whispers of an ancient curse--begin again. And the catastrophic opening itself sets the stage for the final battle between the two brothers: an epic clash from which only one will emerge alive
8
The Wheel of Darkness
Douglas Preston
528 pages
19 hours of reading
3.9(514)Add rating
A luxury ocean liner on its maiden voyage across the North Atlantic, awash in wealth and decadence... An ancient Tibetan box, its contents unknown, sealed with a terrifying warning... An FBI agent destined to confront what he fears most--himself...
9
Cemetery Dance
Douglas Preston
4.0(24197)Add rating
Pendergast, the world's most mysterious FBI Special Agent, investigates a murderous cult in New York City that no one has ever survived. William Smithback, a New York Times reporter, and his wife Nora Kelly, a Museum of Natural History archaeologist, are brutally attacked in their apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Eyewitnesses claim, and the security camera confirms, that the assailant was their strange, sinister neighbor--a man who, by all reports, was already dead and buried weeks earlier. While Captain Laura Hayward leads the official investigation, Pendergast and Lieutenant Vincent D'Agosta undertake their own private--and decidedly unorthodox--quest for the truth. Their serpentine journey takes them to an enclave of Manhattan they never imagined could exist: a secretive, reclusive cult of Obeah and vodou which no outsiders have ever survived.
11
Cold Vengeance
Douglas Preston
4.1(857)Add rating
The dramatic second novel in a three-book story arc starring enigmatic FBI Agent Pendergast on his search for his long-lost wife, Helen. Devastated by the discovery that his wife, Helen, was murdered, Special Agent Pendergast must have retribution. But revenge is not simple. As he stalks his wife's betrayers - a chase that takes him from the wild moors of Scotland to the bustling streets of New York City and the darkest bayous of Louisiana - he is also forced to dig further into Helen's past. And he is stunned to learn that Helen may have been a collaborator in her own murder. Peeling back the layers of deception, Pendergast realizes that the conspiracy is deeper, goes back generations, and is more monstrous than he could have ever imagined - and everything he's believed, everything he's trusted, everything he's understood . . . may be a horrific lie.
12
Two Graves
Lincoln Child
496 pages
18 hours of reading
4.1(392)Add rating
NEW YORK TIMES bestselling authors return with another page-turning adventure thriller.
13
White Fire
Douglas Preston
384 pages
14 hours of reading
4.2(483)Add rating
Forensic pathologist Corrie Swanson investigates a brutal crime from 136 years ago. The key to the crime may just lie in a lost Sherlock Holmes story, a tale allegedly so horrifying that its author never dared publish it.
14
Blue Labyrinth
Douglas Preston
560 pages
20 hours of reading
4.1(16712)Add rating
When a longtime enemy shows up dead on Pendergast's doorstep, the murder investigation leads him into his own dark past as a vengeful killer waits in the shadows. It begins with murder. One of Pendergast's most implacable, most feared enemies is found on his doorstep, dead. Pendergast has no idea who is responsible for the killing, or why the body was brought to his home. The mystery has all the hallmarks of the perfect crime, save for an enigmatic clue: a piece of turquoise lodged in the stomach of the deceased. The gem leads Pendergast to an abandoned mine on the shore of California's Salton Sea, which in turn propels him on a journey of discovery deep into his own family's sinister past. But Pendergast learns there is more at work than a ghastly episode of family history: he is being stalked by a subtle killer bent on vengeance over an ancient transgression. And he soon becomes caught in a wickedly clever plot, which leaves him stricken in mind and body, and propels him toward a reckoning beyond anything he could ever have imagined . . .
15
Crimson Shore
Douglas Preston
4.0(13845)Add rating
Pendergast and his ward Constance Greene travel to the quaint seaside village of Exmouth, Massachusetts, to investigate the theft of a priceless wine collection. But inside the wine cellar, they find a bricked-up niche that once held a crumbling skeleton. Local legend holds that during the 1692 witch trials in Salem, the real witches escaped, fleeing north to Exmouth and settling deep in the surrounding salt marshes, where they continued to practice their wicked arts. But the sins of the past are still very much alive when a new corpse turns up in the marshes. The only clue is a series of demonic carvings that could lead to an ancient witches' colony, long believed to be abandoned
16
The Obsidian Chamber
Lincoln Child
403 pages
15 hours of reading
4.0(680)Add rating
A TRAGIC DISAPPEARANCE After a harrowing, otherworldly confrontation on the shores of Exmouth, Massachussetts, Special Agent A.X.L. Pendergast is missing, presumed dead. A SHOCKING RETURN Sick with grief, Pendergast's ward, Constance, retreats to her chambers beneath the family mansion at 891 Riverside Drive – only to be taken captive by a shadowy figure from the past. AN INTERNATIONAL MANHUNT Proctor, Pendergast's longtime bodyguard, springs to action, pursuing Constance's kidnapper through cities, across oceans, and into wastelands unknown. BUT IN THIS WORLD, NOTHING IS AS IT SEEMS And by the time Proctor discovers the truth, a terrifying mechanism has stirred – and it may already be too late...
17
City of Endless Night
Douglas Preston
368 pages
13 hours of reading
4.1(1121)Add rating
A body is discovered, without its head - two killers are on the loose. A pair of killers requires a team of equally talented investigators. Luckily both Vincent D'Agosta and Special Agent Pendergast are back in town.
18
Verses for the Dead
Head of Zeus
352 pages
13 hours of reading
4.2(1194)Add rating
FBI Special Agent Pendergast must confront a strange, otherworldly circumstance - a new partnership.
19
Crooked River
Douglas Preston
4.2(826)Add rating
"Appearing out of nowhere to horrify the quiet resort town of Sanibel Island, Florida, dozens of identical, ordinary-looking shoes float in on the tide and are washed up on the tropical beach--each one with a crudely severed human foot inside. Called away from vacation elsewhere in the state, Agent Pendergast reluctantly agrees to visit the crime scene--and, despite himself, is quickly drawn in by the incomprehensible puzzle. An early pathology report only adds to the mystery. With an ocean of possibilities confronting the investigation, no one is sure what happened, why, or from where the feet originated. And they desperately need to know: are the victims still alive? In short order, Pendergast finds himself facing the most complex and inexplicable challenge of his career: a tangled thread of evidence that spans seas and traverses continents, connected to one of the most baffling mysteries in modern medical science. Through shocking twists and turns, all trails lead back to a powerful adversary with a sadistic agenda and who--in a cruel irony--ultimately sees in Pendergast the ideal subject for their malevolent research."--Amazon
20
Bloodless
Douglas Preston
400 pages
14 hours of reading
3.8(9215)Add rating
Agent Pendergast faces his most unexpected challenge yet when bloodless bodies begin to appear in Savannah, GA, in this next installment of the #1 NYT bestselling series.
21
The Cabinet of Dr. Leng
Douglas Preston
4.2(350)Add rating
How can you stop a serial killer who has been dead for a hundred years? FBI Special Agent A. X. L. Pendergast always wants to protect his protegee Constance Greene from harm. But, against all odds, Constance has found a way to travel back in time. Heading to New York City in the late 1800s, Constance returns to the century of her birth to embark on a dangerous quest: stopping the era's most infamous serial killer, Dr. Enoch Leng, from bringing his nefarious plans to fruition. If Constance can stop Dr. Leng, she can finally prevent the events that led to the shocking deaths of her sister and brother... but can she survive herself, when up against one of the cleverest and most evil men of his age? 'Simply brilliant!' Lisa Gardner on Preston & Child The nail-biting new thriller in the #1 New York Times bestselling Agent Pendergast series, perfect for fans of Clive Cussler and James Rollins.