Pendergast: The Beginning (Agent Pendergast Series)
4.8 | 200 ratings
Price: 14.99
Last update: 02-01-2026
Product details
- ASIN : B0D7ZKQGPX
- Publisher : Grand Central Publishing
- Accessibility :
- Publication date : January 27, 2026
- Language : English
- File size : 2.1 MB
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 380 pages
- ISBN-13 : 978-1538765777
- Page Flip : Enabled
- Best Sellers Rank:#61 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
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- Customer Reviews:4.74.7 out of 5 stars(12)
Top reviews from the United States
- smallpoxxIt's pendergastThe wait is over. The real is back.
- Donald Jay WidenerPendergast prequelPendergast by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Pendergast #23
4.2⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice: 0.1/5
Cursing: min
Format/Source: ebook from NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing
Genres/Tropes: thriller, mystery, serial killer
Audience: Adult
Setting: Louisiana
Characters: Pendergast, Chambers, Proctor, Wickman, Telligren, Magnus
???? short chapters, multi POV, well developed characters, storyline, serial killer, psych rep
???? cursing
Description:
It only took six months for the life of Special Agent Dwight Chambers to crumble around him. First, he lost his partner, and then, tragically, his wife. Returning to work at the New Orleans Field Office, Chambers is dismayed to find himself saddled with mentoring a brand new FBI agent—a certain A. X. L. Pendergast. As Chambers tries to pull himself together, his enigmatic and exasperating junior partner pulls an outrageous stunt that gets both of them suspended.
Pendergast welcomes the banishment, because it gives him the opportunity to investigate a peculiar murder in Mississippi that has captured his fancy. Chambers grudgingly goes along. What starts off as a whimsical quest swiftly turns into a terrifying pursuit, as Chambers and Pendergast uncover a string of grisly, ritualistic killings that defy any known serial killer profile.
Thanks in large part to Pendergast’s brilliance and unorthodox methods, they solve the case and find the killer… and that is when the true horror begins.
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel especially the very different characters. I would recommend it to anyone who likes serialkiller thrilles.
#bookstagram #booklovers #fantasybooks #booktok #netgalley #serialkiller - A. StrongAnother fantastic Pendergast adventure that takes us all the way back to the beginning.Pendergast is back, or rather, he's only just getting started. Because this is a prequel that fills in the blanks of the stoic and stranger FBI agent's beginnings with the bureau. And what a start it is. Pendergast and his mentor, an affable senior agent who has lost his spark thanks to a personal tragedy, come across the baffling case of a serial killer with a predilection for arms. And I don' mean weapons. I mean actual human arms. And of course, because it's a Pendergast novel, the killer's motives are anything but normal, and border on the supernatural. I won't give anything away here but suffice to say that it's not hard to see from this book how Pendergast ended up dealing with the Bureau's strangest cases.
But this isn't just a Pendergast origin story. We finally get a peek into his enigmatic jack-of-all-trades chauffeur/butler/right hand man, Proctor. Although I do feel that Proctor's story was somewhat limited in that he really only appears in the first quarter of the book, and again at the end, and doesn't really have any part to play in the core excitement. It would have been nice to see him a little more involved.
And then there's Pendergast. He's young here. A rookie new to the FBI, but he appears to have arrived cut from whole cloth. He's the same old Pendergast that we know and love from the rest of the series, with no real youthful exuberance or inexperience. He meditates and deduces and grasps the true implications of clues while those around him get it wrong. And while we do get some new information regarding his life prior to the FBI, it's not as much as I expected when I started the book. One thing I thought worked very well was the New Orleans setting, which made a perfect backdrop for the book. The big easy is such a mysterious place, and a fitting place of origin for a man like Pendergast.
All in all, the book is a wild ride, full of weirdness and murder with a dash of the supernatural. Fans of the series will no doubt wholeheartedly enjoy this installment. Five stars. - She Treads Softlyvery highly recommended investigative thrillerPendergast: The Beginning by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child is the very highly recommended investigative thriller It is the origin story of Agent A. X. L. Pendergast and the 23rd novel in the series featuring him. Those following the long-time series will want to read this account of his first case as a rookie while anyone who wants to start the series will enjoy this introductory novel.
Special Agent Dwight Chambers of the New Orleans Field Office is grieving and spiraling into depression after his wife's death. When he returns to work, Chambers is dismayed to find himself assigned to mentor brand new FBI Agent Pendergast. The two find themselves banished from the office after Pendergast pulls a brilliant coup that exposes corruption. They are encouraged to find an obscure case to work on and Pendergast has just the case: a man in Mississippi found dead missing his right arm. The case soon spirals into something more that indicates a serial killer is at work.
As expected, it features a fast-paced, well written, intricate, interesting, and compelling plot. Those new to the series can easily enjoy this beginning story without having any previous knowledge of the characters. Yes, it is a Pendergast story, but it is also an exceptional investigative thriller. This story is set in 1994, when computers and other technological advances were relatively basic compared to today.
The plot will be exactly what fans of Preston and Child expect to encounter while simultaneously encountering a young agent Pendergast. Much of his personality is present here, including his extraordinary intelligence and maverick methods, but this is before his well-developed and legendary lore. Fans will certainly recognize the early Pendergast and be pleased to see the early story of Proctor. Also included is a tie in to Relic, the first novel Pendergast was in as a character.
Pendergast: The Beginning is a perfect choice for anyone who enjoys thrillers and fans of Pendergast. Thanks to Grand Central Publishing for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.