#Special Agent Corrie Swanson

[mydearaloysius]

Laaadiiiies…

[swede1952]

Good morning, friends. 🌸💮🪷

12 September 2023

I'm off to a late start this morning, I was up late reading a book by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, titled Dead Mountain. I haven't finished it yet. It's the fourth book in the Nora Kelly series. The series is a spin off from the Pendergast series. Nora Kelly, a archaeologist, who appeared in at least one of the Pendergast boos is the main character but FBi agent Corrie Swanson, also a character who appeared in the Pendergast series, regularly teams up with Kelly.

If you're not familiar with the Pendergast series, the first book is "The Relic" which was made into a movie without the character Aloysius Pendergast, a FBI Special Agent. Anybody who's read the Pendergast series can't imagine why they would leave him out.

“Don’t you love that phrase, a person of interest? So rich with dark suggestion, so full of murky hints—without actually saying anything. at all.” - Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

[esonetwork]

'The Scorpion's Tail' Book Review By Ron Fortier

New Post has been published on https://esonetwork.com/the-scorpions-tail-book-review-by-ron-fortier/

'The Scorpion's Tail' Book Review By Ron Fortier

THE SCORPION’S TAIL By Preston & Child Grand Central Publishing 401 pgs

This is the second thriller in the Special Agent Pendergast spin-off series starring two of his best supporting characters. The first being Archeologist Nora Kelly who was around from the first Pendergast adventure teaming up with his young protégé, newly minted FBI Agent Corrie Swanson. Though why the publisher opts to label this the “Nora Kelly” series is beyond my logic. It really should be the “Kelly – Swanson” series. Oh well, the eccentricities of publishers.

Like the first, this one also focuses on historical mysteries with these set in the western state of New Mexico. A young, extremely likeable town Sheriff named Homer Watts encounters a would-be looter at work in a high mountain ghost town. When he confronts the fellow, the perp tries to shoot him. Much to his dismay as Watts is a fast draw crack shot and wounds the varmint. But that isn’t what sets alarms off. Rather it is the fact that the two-bit artifact thief was in process of uncovering a dead body; a dead body buried on government land. Enter the FBI and Agent Corrine Swanson.

Realizing the excavation of a body is beyond her considerable expertise, Corrie recruits Nora Kelly to assist her and pretty soon the trained archeologist finds herself pulled into the mystery. Not only is the corpse weirdly mummified, but in his possession is an ornate, bejeweled cross that dates back to the days of the Spanish conquistadores. Could the dead man have been hunting lost Spanish gold mines rumored to be hidden in those mountains? And what connection does the dead man have to the White Plains Desert Military base; home to the first atom bomb test?

Once again, Preston and Child weave an intricate, pretzel-twisty plot that mushrooms multiple new questions whenever one is answered. Enough to keep both Nora and Corrie hopping back and forth from one end of the state to the other looking to solve not one, but several historical puzzles all seemingly intertwined. Along the way, they encounter some truly colorful Western characters ala Sheriff Watts and a descendant of Geronimo. In the end, “The Scorpion’s Tale” is another grand Preston & Child outing and one we heartily recommend. Kelly and Swanson may not be Pendergast, but they sure are the next best thing

[bethnalgreen]

Dead Mountain preview chapters

So, the new novel in Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's Nora Kelly (and Corrie Swanson) series is out in about a week. I ordered my copy from the Poisoned Pen because I want the collectible cards. (Sorry, guys, don't really care that it's an "autographed" first edition.) I used to be a B&N bookseller, so I know people who order from there or Amazon tend to receive the book on the release date, while I'll have to wait a week or two. Fortunately, Amazon has a sample available online that I can obsess over in the meantime.

Spoilers for the new book (and previous books in the series) ahead!

Chapter 1: It's late October. Two frat guys get stuck in the snow in the New Mexico mountains. They proceed to get drunk and stoned, crawl into a cave for shelter, and find human remains.

Chapter 2: She's back! My favorite character, Special Agent Corinne/Corrine Swanson, appears. (Has Hachette fired all their proofreaders? Come on, it's kind of essential that you figure out how the first name of your co-heroine is spelled.)

It appears that Corrie has spent the past few months on boring FBI assignments after the shit-show that wrapped up Diablo Mesa. I find the mention of debriefings and lie detector tests reassuring; I wondered how much she told her superiors about what happened. Apparently, she told them everything. Unfortunately, it looks like she's gotten screwed over again with regards to commendations, promotions, etc. because of the case's classified nature. Typical. (Can't FBI agents get commendations or decorations for classified work? It seems like Pendergast has a few of those in his jacket.)

Her boss now has a case for her, and introduces her to her new mentor, Agent Sharp. (RIP, Hale Morwood.) Corrie notices that his clothes and haircut are better than typical FBI issue. He's pretty quiet, has an accent she can't quite place, and has a reputation for being somewhat of a lone wolf. Hmm, reminds me of someone ...

Anyway, her boss assigns her the human-remains-in-the-mountains case, and Corrie and Sharp leave posthaste.

Just a small rant here. This chapter states Corrie's been at the Albuquerque FO for about a year. Excuse me, it's been ALMOST TWO YEARS. She started her assignment in ABQ in January 20xx. The meat of the story in Old Bones took place in May/June. The events of Scorpion's Tail took place three months later (fall of 20xx). Diablo Mesa took place six months after that (spring of the next year). Dead Mountain explicitly starts four months later, on Halloween. That's nearly two years. Her probationary period should almost be up already. Sometimes I wonder if the authors are deliberately messing with the timeline to keep Corrie in stasis, or whether they just can't be bothered with consistency.

Chapter 3: We begin with another inconsistency. We're told that Morwood was forced into a mentoring role by an "injury," but it was actually his interstitial lung disease.

Corrie learns a little more about the Manzano Mountains region and gets snarky about the "need" for hundreds of nuclear weapons. Sharp seems to appreciate the sarcasm.

We're introduced to a deputy for Torrance County, who reminds Corrie of her "friend," Sheriff Watts of Socorro County. She wonders what Watts is up to. This is interesting ... he asked her out in Diablo Mesa, and she pretty much accepted. It's now four months later, she obviously hasn't been too busy, and they haven't gone on that date yet? In fact, it doesn't even sound like she's really kept in touch with him. Maybe later chapters will clarify this situation and explain how in the world he's surviving with only one of his Colt Peacemakers.

The deputy seems decent enough, but the big kahuna himself, Sheriff Hawley, is yet another of the male LEOs that Corrie runs into all too often. Calls her "young lady" even after she's identified herself as FBI and refuses to leave the scene (which he's stomping all over without protective gear) until the MALE FBI agent threatens him. Sigh.

Side note: I got an email from Poisoned Pen, which refers to an "evil sheriff" in this novel. Does Hawley have something to do with the "Dead Mountain" cold case that Corrie and Nora are going to investigate? On the other hand, one Goodreads review says that the plotline with Nora, Skip, and the sheriff goes nowhere. Is he just evil for evil's sake, then?

Anyway, Corrie goes into the cave and sees the human remains. And there the preview abruptly ends.

I feel like there's a lot of unpack here, and we don't even know what's going on with Nora and her billionaire boyfriend!

As much as I bitch about continuity errors in these books (I guess you never stop being a copy editor) I almost always really enjoy them. I expect I'll devour Dead Mountain as fast as I can, give it a chance to digest, and then read it again for things I missed the first time. And I'll definitely login to watch Preston and Child's appearance at the Poisoned Pen on publication day.

Anyone who reads this, feel free to speculate on what might happen in the book. I have a feeling the next few weeks are going to drag ...

[writeknit]

Book Review: The Scorpion's Tail

Book Review: The Scorpion’s Tail

By Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child Rookie FBI Special Agent Corrie Swanson is assigned a case involving someone trying to dig up relics from a ghost town in a remote region of New Mexico. She is dispatched to meet up with the local sheriff, Homer Watts, who has been wounded in a shootout with the looter. The biggest concern is the dead body that was dug up along with the relics – one of them…

[marjaystuff]

Guest Review:  The Scorpion’s Tail by Preston and Child

The Scorpion’s Tail (Corrie Swanson and Nora Roberts Book 2)

Preston & Child

Grand Central Publlishing

January 12th, 2021

Mystery/thriller

9781538747278

The Scorpion’s Tail by Preston & Child is an intriguing story. It is a welcome relief since it can be classified as a modern-day western with shoot-outs and a cowboy sheriff.

“We wrote Sheriff Watts as Roy Rogers at the age of twenty-five, Corrie’s age.  Movie star handsome even with parts of both ears shot off.  He has this awesome cowboy hat that covers all the damage and two Colt gun peacemakers inherited from his grandfather.  He is a sharpshooter and can be considered easy going until someone crosses his line. We hope the shoot-out scene is realistic with the good guys overpowered by the number of bad guys. We wrote it as a David versus Goliath with the two good guys versus the nine bad guys.”  

The essence of the plot begins with newbie FBI Agent Corrie Swanson assigned to a case that appears to be a throw away. A mummified corpse, over half a century old, is found in the cellar of an abandoned building in a remote New Mexico ghost town. She brings archaeologist Nora Kelly to excavate the body and lend her expertise to the investigation, and together they uncover something unexpected and shocking: the deceased apparently died in agony, in a fetal position, skin coming off in sheets, with a rictus of horror frozen on his face. Hidden on the corpse is a 16th century Spanish gold cross of immense value.

Corrie has come a long way from when she was first introduced.  Basically, a rebel without a cause.  She was a teenager angry with everything including herself.  Special Agent Pendergast turned her around and got her interested in law enforcement.  Now she is doing her two-year probationary period in New Mexico as she learned to channel that anger and vast intelligence into solving cases.  She is growing. But because the FBI is still male dominated, she encounters backlash because she is capable, strong, and competent. There is always the question, since she is a woman, how is she going to react to pressure. She pushes back on that male mentality.”

It is interesting how the authors are able to connect a Wild West mining ghost town with the halls of government bureaucracy to the grounds of the White Sands Military Reserve, the site of the infamous Trinity nuclear test.

“The cite in New Mexico is where the nuclear bomb was created. There is still atomic glass around the cite if you look closely. But do not pick it up and put it in your pocket or you might grow two heads because it is still radioactive.  This was the perfect spot for the story. Regarding the ghost town, it is based it on a privately owned town in New Mexico called Cabezon. It is incredibly well preserved as is Guadalupe with its two-story hotel made out of adobe. The ghost town in the story, High Lonesome is a typical ghost town where the buildings were preserved and picturesque, almost like a movie set.”

As with all their books the stories are always original and involve some kind of conspiracy.  This book is no different.

[aabey458-blog]

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Westie Abey's insight:

Read White Fire (Pendergast, #13) by Douglas Preston Book Online PDF / Epub

[mydearaloysius]

All grown up.

[marjaystuff]

Elise Cooper’s Author Interview of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Verses for the Dead by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child brings back the return of their beloved character FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast. There is a slightly new recipe for this famous crime solver with a new boss, partner, and medical examiner.

A welcome relief in this story has the authors moving away from anything supernatural and deciding to stick to crime-solving, understanding that the story and characters are riveting by themselves. In this old-fashioned mystery, a Florida woman while visiting her husband’s grave has her dog find a human heart with an apology note. The current victims are women whose throats have been slit and breast bones split open to remove their hearts, all in quick and expert fashion. The killer leaves notes at the graves of women who committed suicide and signed it “Mister Brokenhearts.” As other body counts mount up it becomes apparent that the notes left have a tinge of literary verses from T. S. Eliot to Romeo & Juliet.

Unlike his past supervisor Pendergast must now deal with Walter Pickett, an FBI assistant director recently assigned to the New York City field office, who is determined to keep this maverick agent under his control by assigning him a partner, Special Agent Coldmoon. The new partner is expected to report back on any of Pendergast’s deviations from the rules. Both Agents are a contrast of each other.  Coldmoon is part Lakota Indian and part Italian.  Pendergast dresses like an undertaker, and always seems to have more money than the average FBI agent preferring the luxuries of a fine hotel, private jet, and nice car. Soon Coldmoon realizes his partner is astute, smart, observant, and has a way of looking outside the box. They enlist the help of the medical examiner who is willing to go against her supervisor to find clues.

Sorting through betrayals, lies, and deceptions, readers are treated to a unique storyline that is highly volatile.  An added treat is the humorous banter between the characters that is both refreshing and amusing.  

Elise Cooper:  How did you both decide to write together?

Lincoln Child:  I was an editor for St. Martins where my job was to find new properties.  I specialized with non-fiction that included the sciences. I visited the Museum of Natural History in New York and saw peculiar objects, a bizarre history, with eccentric people. I thought this is worthy of an Indiana Jones movie.  I did some research and found the guy who wrote most of the historical articles.  We became friends after I edited his first non-fiction book.  

Doug Preston:  I was sitting at my desk at the museum and this distinguished editor gave me a call asking me to lunch at the Russian Tea Room.  What struck me is that he appeared younger than I was; and impressively at the tender age of twenty something he was already a Senior editor.

EC:  How was Pendergast born?

DP:  I wrote the first few chapters of this novel that had two policemen.  Lincoln said that these two were essentially the same character.  He wanted to fold them into one character.  In about fifteen minutes Agent Pendergast was created.  When he arrives at the scene of a murder it becomes obvious he is not a conventional FBI agent, and looks more like an undertaker with his black outfits.

EC:  How would you describe Pendergast?

DP:  A person out of place and out of time.  A gentleman from the Old South, specifically New Orleans.  He is looked upon as a total freak. He does things off the books, unorthodox, wealthy, and an iconoclast. He is like a twisted, dark Sherlock Holmes.

LC:  We have fun writing him.  He is an over the top character that is eccentric.  He enjoys his comforts. He has become legendary to go rogue and work on his own.  

EC: How would you describe Agent Coldmoon?

DP:  He is one of the finest characters we have written.  Very iconic that keeps to himself. One scene we wrote in the book shows their different tastes.  Pendergast is a terrible coffee snob while Coldmoon likes camp coffee with that foul smell.  At a certain point Pendergast buys his partner a fine expresso coffee. Coldmoon takes one sip and pours it out.  This shows their differences, but they both end up respecting each other.

LC:  One thread of previous Pendergast books is saddling him with lazy and incompetent law officials that he had to work with.  Coldmoon is not a boring person and we hope he made an impression on the reader.  He looks like a Native American with long black hair and piercing eyes.  Quietly he shows Pendergast he is an equal with the same intelligence and observations.

EC:  There are many contrasts from loyalty to betrayal, the coldness of Maine to the hot humidity of Miami?

DP:  We like moving our characters into different places literally and figuratively to see how they would react.  Coldmoon is from South Dakota so the Maine coldness does not bother him, but he could not stand the Miami muggy heat.  On the other hand, Pendergast in Northern Maine is freezing to death, but from New Orleans is used to the Miami weather.  

LC: Regarding betrayal versus loyalty Coldmoon is assigned as Pendergast’s partner with a secret agenda.  As time passes he realizes it is wrong.  He must choose loyalty to his superiors or loyalty to his partner. Whoever he is loyal to the other will see it as betrayal.   

EC:  Another contrast is insubordination versus thinking outside the box?

DP:  The FBI has evidence gathering rules to collect for trial.  Pendergast has a high closure rate of his cases, but rarely do they reach trial because the perp is dead.  At first, Coldmoon is appalled by his partner’s tactics, and the treatment of the FBI rule book.  They have quite a bit of conflict about this.  

LC:  Pendergast only accepts one dollar a year because he is wealthy and is doing the job for the enjoyment of the work.  He thinks of it as solving a puzzle.  As the story progresses his new partner sees the reasons behind what Pendergast does.

EC: You have humorous banter?

DP:  We write it by playing off each other.  We keep re-writing it to make it funnier.  Sometimes our level of amusement gets out of hand and we have to take a step backwards. The author Joyce once said, “Tragedy is merely underdeveloped comedy.” We read what we write, books with a certain level of humor.

LC:  The partners try to one up themselves which can be humorous. Finally, there are scenes influenced by the setting.  For example, Coldmoon thinks he has a ten-minute drive, which turns into two hours because he got the name wrong.

EC:  Can you give a shout out about your next book?

LC: The next Pendergast book is out next winter.  We are discussing if Coldmoon will return in the next novel or sometime in the future.

DP:  We are starting a new series that will have two characters first introduced in the Pendergast books.  The recurring characters are Corrie Swanson, a newly minted FBI agent, and Nora Kelly, an archeologist. The two of them get tangled in a horrific case that has taken place in California’s Sierra Mountains.  This is where the Donner Party got stuck in the snow in 1847.  Half died of starvation, and half ate those bodies. In the present, Nora does an excavation of the campsite, and something happens that puts the party in mortal danger.  It will come out this summer and is titled Old Bones.

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