Aloysius X.L. Pendergast is a Special Agent of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in New Orleans (Louisiana). He is a man who cannot fit particularly well in hierarchies and is troubled by the problems associated with these. He also has very few friends in the police and the FBI. Pendergast is not a so-called team player. He prefers conducting individual investigations, with only very few assistants, whereby his investigative methods meet his eccentric character. Because he is a very good investigator, however, his superiors largely give him free hand so he can choose his cases himself and always take over a case arouses his interest. Primarily, these are cases involving serial killers or murders under very mysterious circumstances.

Special Agent Pendergast owns an apartment in the factual Dakota Building, an exclusive apartment building on the corner of 72nd Street and Central Park West in New York. Moreover, he lives in an (external) dilapidated mansion on Riverside Drive 891 near the Hudson River, a slightly iffy neighbourhood in the Bronx. The library in this house comprises thousands of books, and it is here where his ward, Constance Green, lives, a cautious and highly educated young woman. The house has extensive, catacomb-resembling basements, through which one can get to Hudson.

Pendergast is highly intelligent, very rich, and regards social etiquette and impeccable manners with great seriousness. He completed his studies at Harvard University summa cum laude in 1982 and then studied history and philosophy at Oxford University.

If not otherwise required, he wears tailored suits of black merino wool and white shirts with ties and handmade shoes from the London shoemaker John Lobb. He repeatedly pulls out equipment from the various pockets of his well-cut suit during investigations, for example, to study or secure forensic evidence, a flashlight or other items.

His appearance is reminiscent of a funeral director, and because of his blond, almost white hair and his pale blue eyes, he is sometimes initially thought to be albino. Although unrevealed by his looks, he is physically well trained.

To get around, the Special Agent has a 1959 Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith, driven by his butler, Proctor.

His weapon is a .45 Caliber Les Baer Government Model M1911 and in a novel a five shot Caliber .45 ??Colt Anaconda Double Action, whereby neither of these weapons actually exist in real life.

Aloysius X.L. Pendergast is the hero of Douglas Preston’s and Lincoln Child’s novels. His first appearance was in Relic. He is different from other series heroes. Well-built and eccentric, introverted and reserved, so you can rarely predict how he will behave. This is what makes him interesting, among other things.

Special Agent Pendergast’s Cases

Special Agent Pendergast’s cases are at least as eccentric as the investigator himself, focusing on the most brutal murders under sinister and / or mysterious circumstances. In the first novel, for example, Special Agent Pendergast investigates an evil South American monster that succeeded an expedition to the American Museum of Natural History in New York and is now murdering visitors and employees.

Generally speaking, the metropolis of New York and, more specifically, the American Museum of Natural History, are a recurrent scene of crime in the books by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.

The museum has grown steadily since its inception and now covers several buildings that were purchased by and by and integrated into the museum. The number of exhibits, extending from past times to present days, are stored in the numerous cellars and the storage areas is enormous. The area of ??the museum is larger than that of the Empire State Building, and no one knows exactly how many rooms and basements there actually are.

Books about Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast

Relic (1995)

Reliquary (1997)

The Cabinet of Curiosities (2002)

Still Life with Crows (2003)

Brimstone (2004)

Dance of Death (2005)

The Book of the Dead (2006)

The Wheel of Darkness (2007)

Cemetery Dance (2009)

Fever Dream (2010)

Cold Vengeance (2011)

Two Graves (2012)