What Fiction are you reading this week, January 25, 2026?

[hermetic]

16. Pendergast

I belong to the Preston & Child fan club and get some marvelous emails. I thought you might enjoy excerpts from the most recent.

Through our long careers chronicling the cases of Special Agent Pendergast, one mystery in particular has continued to loom ever larger in our minds. It is the case that lies behind all the others, the original investigation that launched Pendergast on the fateful trajectory of his life. Vague references of it have surfaced now and then, offhand mentions, odd hints, only to vanish and leave us wanting more.

Pendergast always resisted our pleas to tell us his “origin story.” When out of desperation we finally appealed to Constance, she volunteered to help. We don't know what she said, but she succeeded, and Pendergast decided it was time to open up to us. Realizing how ephemeral this change of heart might be, we quickly sat him down and collected the full, the strange, the awful, the tragic story of his first case.

When we heard it, we finally understood why he was so reluctant to share the story with us and the world. And when you read it, you, too, will realize why.

PENDERGAST: THE BEGINNING just published.

Can't wait to read this one!