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Cemetery Dance is the ninth book in the Agent Pendergast series. Released on May 12, 2009, it was the first Preston-Child novel to be published by Grand Central Publishing, the new name of the Warner Books subsidiary of the Hachette Book Group. It is the thirteenth collaborative Preston-Child novel, and debuted in its peak spot of #2 on the New York Times Best Seller list on May 31, 2009.

Plot Summary[]

Pendergast—the world's most enigmatic FBI Special Agent—returns to New York City to investigate a murderous cult. William Smithback, a New York Times reporter, and his wife Nora Kelly, a Museum of Natural History archaeologist, are brutally attacked in their apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Eyewitnesses claim, and the security camera confirms, that the assailant was their strange, sinister neighbor—a man who, by all reports, was already dead and buried weeks earlier. While Captain Laura Hayward leads the official investigation, Pendergast and Lieutenant Vincent D'Agosta undertake their own private—and decidedly unorthodox—quest for the truth. Their serpentine journey takes them to an enclave of Manhattan they never imagined could exist: a secretive, reclusive cult of Obeah and Vôdou which no outsiders have ever survived.

-Publishers synopsis

Returning Characters[]

Mentioned: Margo Green, Skip Kelly,

First Appearance[]

  • Kyoko Ishimura
  • Monsieur Bertin
  • Dr. Beckstein (Medical Examiner)
  • Primus Hornby (Anthropology Curator)
  • Caitlyn Kidd (Westsider Reporter)
  • Andrew Getz (Head of Anthropology Department)
  • Alexander Esteban (Movie Director)
  • Marty Wartek (Housing Authority)
  • Richard Plock (Executive Director of Humans for Other Animals)
  • Eugene/Etienne Bossong (Ville Community Leader)
  • Morris Pulchinski (Animal Control)
  • Charriere (High Priest at the Ville)
  • Deputy Chief Harry Chislett
  • Inspector Minerva
  • Lucas Kline (Software Developer/Billionaire)
  • Colin Fearing (Nora/Bill's Neighbor)
  • Mr. Ogilby (Solicitor of the Pendergast Family)

Timeline[]

  • It has been about 5 years since the events of Thunderhead and the one year anniversary of Nora And Bill
  • D'agosta is not yet divorced in this book
  • D'agosta comments on Pendergast's Extended trip to Tibet last Summer/difficult Ocean Crossing The Wheel of Darkness
  • At the end of this book, Nora Kelly brings her husbands ashes to Lake Powell, in Arizona, around where they first met during the events of Thunderhead
  • At the end of Cemetery Dance, Nora has returned to Santa Fe, Taking a position at the Santa Fe Archaeological Institute, where she had worked before. She is still working there at the start of her new series of books Old Bones

Notes[]

  • Comissioner Karl Rocker is caught through a wire tap taking a bribe from Lucas Kline, a billionaire Software developer. A 5 million dollar bribe towards a task force, as long as he didn't hire Laura Hayward, who was expected to get the position. Rocker and Kline were both caught.
  • Laura is now working in the Police Commissioners office, and is no longer a Homicide detective

Locations[]

Antagonists[]

  • Alexander Esteban (Killed)
  • Lucas Kline (Jailed)
  • Colin Fearing (Killed)

Deaths[]

Body Count: 8+ | several animals.are sacrificed, Lamb's, Colts, Chickens, etc.

(More may have died during the Catastrophe at the Ville)

🥀William Smithback, Jr. - IN PACE REQUIESCAT 🥀 "Good-bye Dear Friend" - Nora Kelly

Other Deaths: Caitlyn Kidd, Colin Fearing, Marty Wartek, Richard Plock, Alexander Esteban, Unnamed Researcher, and Zombii/Protector of the Ville

Colin Fearing: Killed Smithback and Kidd (hired by Esteban)

Alexander Esteban: Killed Marty Wartek, Colin Fearing and a library Researcher

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