Preston & Child hop dimensions in ‘Angel of Vengeance’

Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child let their interest in 1881 New York run wild in “Angel of Vengeance” (August, hardcover), the 22nd Pendergast novel and the capper to their time-traveling Enoch Leng trilogy that started with “Bloodless” (2021) and “The Cabinet of Dr. Leng” (2023).

You might say this entry is like “Back to the Future Part III”: It’s almost entirely set in one time and place. But don’t worry, the experience is much better. For much of the saga dating back to 2002’s “Cabinet of Curiosities,” Leng, Diogenes and Constance had been mysterious, to delicious effect.

With “Cabinet of Dr. Leng,” though, we had now received completed biographies of all three. In “Angel of Vengeance,” it’s time for the big showdown, and a lot of times books like this are rote exercises in the expected; I’m thinking of something like the last “Harry Potter” book.

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P&C maintain a certain groundedness, though, as they explore 1881 culture and technology, from horse-drawn carriages to architecturally shaky slums with laundry strung between buildings. And it’s cool to see familiar locales such as the Riverside Drive mansion in a different era. D’Agosta – as always, our surrogate when observing the idiosyncratic Pendergast — worries about whether he’ll get back to the 21^st century and his wife, Laura. But the others, befitting their personalities big-picture priorities, do not.

As such, we can focus on the story rather than bizarre time-machine tech. Or even time-travel paradoxes, because from the start of this trilogy, the characters – unusually science-smart for this genre — have known that they are in an alternate timeline. Set aside “Back to the Future’s” rules: Nothing they do here will affect their own time.

High stakes in high times

However, the stakes are nonetheless high because: 1, They might be stuck on this timeline if Proctor can’t re-open the portal from the Riverside Drive basement in 2023, and 2, they have familial and emotional connections to people here. Constance hopes to predict her own younger self, Binky, and her siblings, Mary and Joe, from the evil experiments of Leng. The doctor wants to extend lifespans, but until he perfects his formula on someone, all subjects are expendable.

The pleasures of “Angel of Vengeance” are in seeing familiar characters do their thing: The title likely refers to Constance, avenging herself on Leng and his lackeys. (Interestingly, Leng is the reason for her long lifespan, but she’s never particularly seen that as a gift.) Constance is schemer and vicious action heroine; the cat and mouse games between her and Leng are delicious. I feel a pang of regret that – for reasons I’ll never understand – the screen rights for the Pendergast novels have not been gobbled up.

Pendergast knows how to work the local political system to get the alley with the time portal secured for use by him and his allies. Diogenes favors explosions and violence. In both cases, this is familiar but amusing stuff.

While we do get a fair look at the bustling, dirty and fragrant NYC of the era, the most interesting location is Mount Desert Island, where D’Agosta and Joe hide under the auspices of the Rockefeller family, whom Pendergast somehow has connections to.

The book encouraged me to do a bit of Wikipedia surfing on the side. Known then and now as a gorgeous home to the rich and a vacation spot for artists, Mount Desert Island is a neat location that P&C might perhaps explore further in future works. In this winter-set novel, we mainly wander through a grand old mansion – most of it freezing, as per this pre-central-heating age.

Clashing views of humanity

While the science and metaphysics of time travel aren’t focal points of “Angel of Vengeance,” historical trends are. A pair of compelling passages find Leng and his henchman Humblecut quizzing Pendergast and D’Agosta, respectively, about the developments of the 20^th century.

Leng is philosophical about human developments and depredations. It’s interesting to compare his cold, big-picture analysis of humanity (singular) with Pendergast’s warmer notion of humanity (plural, and diverse). It’s an old debate in philosophical sci-fi novels. And often the clashing POVs have real-world stakes in politics, when someone has enough power that it matters whether they have a collectivist or individualist view.

While Diogenes doesn’t participate in the debate, he takes a fascinating action in the denouement, aiming to send this alternate timeline down a different, better path than the one we’re familiar with. His clash with a historical figure is a wonderfully twisted, one-off chapter. Could it be that P&C will branch into alternate history via Diogenes?

Humblecut seems to have Biff Tannen’s outlook, as if he wants to travel forward in time and bet on games. He asks D’Agosta who wins the 2000 World Series. Although baseball existed in 1881, the first World Series was in 1901 so I wondered if Humblecut already had a view into the future somehow.

I’m guessing this is just a rare mistake by P&C, though. I had thought at times that “Angel of Vengeance” might go bigger with its time convolutions, but it is content to be a thrilling story with characters we already love set in an evocative place and time. The authors’ work always builds on what came before, though, so who knows what the future holds. Or the “futures.”

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