While this one started out well I'm a bit dissatisfied with it. I really enjoy the Special Agent Pendergast novels, especially that they aren't a series, but they do have characters that overlap and reappear, even from the authors' non-Pendergast novels; this one did not feel like a stand alone. I just read that it is the second in the Helen trilogy (following Fever Dream), and it seems as if all the books are now becoming one large series and you must read the preceding books to understand the new one. As I said, I really enjoy these books, pretty much all the books by the Preston-Child team, and I feel very conflicted giving a somewhat negative review, but I'm definitely hoping for some redemption in their next installment. 
 The plot started out well and they gave you different pieces that were eventually woven together. D'Agosta, Corrie and Proctor are all in the story, but feel sort of thrown in there to me; they don't add much. The plot revolved around Pendergast, Judson Esterhazy and Constance for the most part with a character we've heard of but never met being brought in toward the end. The ending is definitely a cliffhanger, and while I do wish the next one was out so I could read it now, it mostly made me sort of cranky. 
 I also felt like Pendergast wasn't himself. Now, to some degree that was the point as there were revelations being made and events happening that certainly affected his state of mind and health, but I still felt like it was just a bit off. The eerie perfection of Pendergast was what made him such a great character and the turn away from that is disappointing. 
 (view spoiler)[At the end Corrie is captured, possibly about to be killed by someone from the Covenant, Helen is captured mere minutes after being reunited with Pendergast, Judson is shot multiple times and presumably dead, Constance is on her way back to Mount Mercy with D'Agosta and Pendergast passes out from blood loss. The next installment will have a lot to open with and resolve, but rather than a cliffhangar I sort of feel like they just stopped in the middle of the plot. (hide spoiler)]