Search - Reliquary

This was a good sequel to the first in the series, Relic. I was glad that Pendergast was in this was as well, and thought his entrance into the book was pretty funny.

I found the Wisher woman truly annoying. It's amazing how self-righteous the rich get when one of their own is killed, but can easily look the other way when it's the poor. I wonder if these type of people ever consider that while they tie up the police with their protests (such as in the book) that they prevent them from doing their jobs elsewhere?

The story also has a continuation of morons in the upper chains-of-command with the police and officials who only see and hear what they want to. They once again manage to ignore evidence brought before them by key characters and go on with their own agendas leaving the reader smacking their forehead over their stupidity.

On a side note. Why would someone use lily-pad plants as packing material? Wouldn't they be a poor choice, since as a water plant they'd have to be dried out before being used or they'd go to rot in crates? I know it's essential to the story, but wouldn't a grass-type plant, similiar to what's used for straw, have made more sense?

The main villain in the story may, or may not, be a surprise. Especially since, in my opinion, it was a bit Scooby-Doo on the unveiling.

A year ago, I read the prequel to this book, Relic. I shouldn't have waited so long to read The Reliquary but I could remember enough of the basic facts from the first book so I wasn't lost. To my disappointment, Agent Pendergast wasn't introduced until almost half way through the book. I like the other characters but I didn't think they were strong enough to carry that first half. The "yellow" journalist Bill Smithback was just flat out obnoxious as was most of the upper echelon of the police department. That had a stereotypical or cliche-ish feel to it that I didn't like. You have to suspend belief in reality in several places throughout the book. Sometimes that was annoying; sometimes it was amusing. When I looked back at what I wrote about the first book it seems that I enjoyed it much more than this one. I really like the Pendergast character so I'm looking forward to the next two books--I think he's supposed to be the "star" in those...I hope so!

There is one thing that I appreciated in this book: the authors focused a lot on the issues of the homeless living underground in New York City. Many are veterans of our wars or are mentally ill; I liked the fact that the authors humanized them and brought attention to their needs.

This was a great read.

Excellent follow-up to Relic...couldn't put the book down!

Huge fan of Agent Pendergast novels - he rocks