Thriller Book Review: Bloodless by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

Thriller Book Review

Title: Bloodless
Author: Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
Publication Date: August 17th 2021

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Genres: Thriller

What an over-the-top mess and utterly absurd disappointment. I've always appreciated how Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child walk the fine line of plausibility, always challenging the willing suspension of disbelief, but they not only crossed that line with Bloodless, they stomped all over it.

The worst part is, for the first 60%, this is a solid Agent Pendergast outing with a few fun mysteries intertwined. There's a callback to the hijacking of D.B. Cooper, suggestions of a vampire serial killer, the Gothic trappings of haunted Savannah, eccentric society widows, a kinky occult cult, and a great subplot about paranormal documentaries and those who debunk them. The fact that there was so much potential in that struggle between two very different sides of sensationalism makes the ultimate betrayal even harder to take.

BEGIN SPOILER . . .

Normally, I avoid spoilers in my reviews, but I can't talk about why this was such an absurd disappointment without explaining why. The whole plot culminates in a ridiculous story about quantum computing, glimpses into the future, parallel universes, and mosquito monsters. As if that weren't bad enough, Pendergast physically steps into one of those universes for a short jaunt through a bizarre nightmare landscape, and it gets even more bizarre from there . . . with an ending that's an even bigger disappointment.

. . . END SPOILER

Apparently, Bloodless is the opening to a new trilogy, so with this having been the worst of the 20 books so far, I'm afraid it'll be a couple of books before I sit down to indulge in the magic of Preston & Child again.

Rating: ♀ ♀ 1/2