Looking Over My Shoulder

I may be paranoid, but there is a book, Dance of Death, that has been following me for over a year now. I first saw it in a magazine on a page that I cut out to use as a bookmark. Then, after throwing it away and forgetting about it, I was surprised to find the same ad in that little ad space on yahoo email. As soon as I seemingly put it in the back of my mind, I would again see some sort of ad for it! I finally bought the book the first time I came across the actual thing one day this past January and it has been sitting on my shelf ever since. I feel a bit guilty for giving in to the promotions, but ever since I bought it, those encounters have stopped. Phew.

Well, I finally started reading it, and let me tell you, the inner cover is misleading. I thought it would be about a genius detective hunting down his evil genius twin, but noooooo. [SPOILER ALERT] The genius detective is dead. That’s how it starts out. And some schmuck of a lieutenant, an average Joe, gets the job of hunting down this elusive mastermind. I’m 6 chapters in and desperately hoping that Pendergast (genius detective) didn’t really die, just like his twin didn’t really die. If I wanted to read about realistic people, I wouldn’t. They are all around me. I want the fantastical.

And it just so happens that this book is the 2nd in a trilogy of Pendergast thriller/detective novels. Fantastic.