The Wheel of Darkness
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| Author |
Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Aloysius Pendergast |
| Genre | Thriller |
| Publisher | Grand Central Publishing |
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Publication date
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August 28, 2007 |
| Media type | Print, e-book, audiobook |
| Pages | 400 pp. |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 131068990 |
| Preceded by | The Book of the Dead |
| Followed by | Cemetery Dance |
The Wheel of Darkness is a novel by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child released on August 28, 2007 by Grand Central Publishing. This is the eighth book in the Special Agent Pendergast series. It entered The New York Times Best Seller list at number two on September 16, 2007, and remained on the list for five weeks.
This novel picks up shortly following the events depicted in The Book of the Dead.
Agent Pendergast and his ward, Constance Greene, are studying in Tibet with Buddhist monks; they are recuperating from the events depicted in the novel The Book of the Dead. An artifact is stolen from the monastery, and the monks ask if Pendergast can retrieve it. Pendergast pursues the thief and artifact through China, Rome, and London. He finds that the original thief was killed and the artifact stolen by someone else. He and Constance track the killer to a new luxury ocean liner, the Britannia which is headed to New York City.
Aboard the ship, Pendergast quickly eliminates all but a few possible suspects. He coerces the ships' guards to help him in exchange for helping them stop cheaters at the casino on the ship. The killer is murdering random people on the ship and everyone is panicking. There also a mysterious shadow thing being sighted and causing inevitable panic. The captain refuses to go to the nearest port which creates more problems.
Fearing the loss of a life over the loss of profit, the crew mutinies and puts a female commander in charge. Pendergast locates the artifact's thief. However, he actually looks at it and undergoes a mental change. It brings out his "evil side"; where he doesn't care about anyone but himself and to think that humans are pathetic and should be cleansed. Meanwhile, the new captain has tricked the crew out of the bridge and locked it down. She aims for 'Carrion Rock', a land mass that will easily sink the ship. It is later revealed she herself had looked at the artifact and had decided to kill everyone on board as revenge for not being promoted to what she believes is her rightful position.
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