I’ll probably always be more partial toward the mystery-oriented Pendergast series than the action-leaning Gideon Crew series, but Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child step up their game in a big way with the third Crew entry, “The Lost Island” (August, hardcover). And it looks like there’s more good stuff to come in this series.
The first two entries, “Gideon’s Sword” (2011) and “Gideon’s Corpse” (2012), had some over-the-top action sequences, with Gideon covering huge swaths of the globe in short periods of time. The first book reminded me of James Bond, and the second called to mind “24” – they were well-done for what they were, but they weren’t totally my thing. Also, I didn’t completely warm up to Gideon, a terminally ill former art thief now working on a case-by-case basis with entrepreneurial magnate Eli Glinn. But while keeping Gideon and Glinn and action sequences prominent, “The Lost Island” mixes in the globetrotting we often see in the authors’ solo work and a science-based riddle that calls to mind the Pendergast classic “Still Life with Crows” (2003).
The geographical point of interest here is the Caribbean Sea, notably the drug-runner-populated coasts and volcanic islands along Columbia and Nicaragua. The historical point of interest is the notion that Christopher Columbus and the other folks from our elementary-school textbooks were not the first Europeans to discover the New World. Rather, the authors posit that Homer’s “Odyssey” was not a fantasy yarn, but rather an account of the discovery of one-eyed creatures and healing lotus roots in the New World.
Additionally, we get a great new character – Amy – who is a nice complement to Gideon in that she’s also a highly intelligent, risk-taking loner with a troubled past. True, I’m not as big on the high-seas adventure as some readers, but I admit that these sequences are evocative. And the authors never lose sight of the story’s central mystery, which plays out both on the duo’s Caribbean adventure and back at the New York City laboratory of Glinn and his hired geniuses, who pore over an ancient text looking for clues to help Gideon and Amy.
Speaking of Glinn, he was also apparently the mastermind behind the attempt to unearth an asteroid in South America way back in 2000’s “The Ice Limit” (I’ve forgotten the details about that book – except for recalling that I liked it — and Glinn isn’t mentioned in the synopsis, so perhaps this is some sort of retcon. Which is OK.) Apparently, there is more story to be told regarding that asteroid, and Preston and Child pepper hints about a future “Ice Limit” sequel into “The Lost Island.”
So after two decent-but-forgettable false starts, the Gideon Crew series has delivered a great read with “The Lost Island” and — between Gideon, Amy, Glinn and the “Ice Limit” sequel possibilities — has built up momentum that could make this a long-running series on par with the Pendergast books.
