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Extraction by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (Pendergast #12.5)

Extraction is a short novella in the Special Agent Pendergast series by the famous author duo Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. It is #12.5 in the series and comes right before White Fire, a book that I have reviewed here not so long ago.

As the book is less than 50 pages, I read it within 10 minutes or so. Despite the fact that it is such a short novel, the plot is really well tided up with no loose ends, and without feeling that the book was incomplete, as it is so often the case with short novellas in general.

The story starts in present with Aloisious Pendergast, his protege Constance and his childhood tutor waiting for dinner to be served. The pasta got overcooked, which meant that they had to wait for another 30 minutes before the meal was served. In his annoyance, the tutor hinted at a story from Pendergast’s past, which prompted Constance to ask in her curiosity what was that all about.

Pendergast told her it was a rather sad story from his early years while living Diogenes back at home. Constance was insistent that he share, so Pendergast did this with reluctance as he knew that the story would not be a light hearted one.

The story Pendergast told Constance took us back to a time where Aloisius and his brother Diogenes were small – Diogenes about 5-6 and Aloisius about 9, living back in New Orleans as kids.

The story is really very short, so I won’t give any spoilers. It’s really a fun and suspenseful one and for merely 0.90 cents at Amazon it’s easy to read on the Kindle, which is what I did as well.

Except for the fact that I’ve read every single book in the Aloisius Pendergast series, this short novella also got me curiousbecause it involved Diogenes, whom we know from earlier books in the series (featuring prominentlyon Brimstone, Dance Of Death and The Book Of The Dead). We remember Diogenes with his horrible and very dangerous character. We also remember his connection with Constance – which slowly unravels throughout the rest of the books.

The Pendergast series is one of my most favorite series ever (along with the James Rollins Sigma Force books), so reading this short novella was just as rewarding as reading a long full fledged novel of 600 or so pages. As short as it was, it kept my attention throughout, gave me a further glimpse into the curious world of the Pendergasts, and gave me usual goosebumps that only a Preston/Child book can give me when reading.

Overall a very good novel which I loved, as short as it was. Having also read White Fire, the next book in the series, I’m now waiting for the latest offering, which incidentally was published today November 11.

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