Review: Angel of Vengeance

Angel of Vengeance by Douglas Preston
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Leng Quartet (as it were) comes to its conclusion in this latest Pendergast novel, which goes full Alienist with its near total immersion in the 1880s setting for most of our favorite characters. All respect to the late Caleb Carr, though, but Preston and Child outdo Dr. Laszlo Kreiszler with the typical hypercompetence of the Pendergast brothers - both Aloysius the agent and Diogenes the devil, the latter having well established himself as a serial killer and identity thief of rich men from many continents, and in at least one case a holy man, ironically enough.

But Diogenes is still the far lesser evil compared to his and Aloysius's ancestor Dr. Leng, who has some sinister designs on the future that call to mind a certain pale undercut-haired villain once played by Johnny Depp. Hell, the ending of this book is something I'll remember just for how much I laughed out loud reading it - and how unbelievable I would've found it ten years ago with what was known then about Diogenes, before P&C started redeeming him.

While this book does leave at least one or two major modern day story arcs from The Cabinet of Dr. Leng untouched, hopefully these will be brought up again in the next book, because I particularly need to know what Agent Coldmoon is up to in the present day now...

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