The Wheel of Darkness (48 page)

The monk’s smile deepened. “I do not speak of you. I speak of the child you carry.”

Pendergast’s surprise redoubled. He turned toward Constance, who was looking at the monk, an unreadable expression on her face.

“Child?” Pendergast said. “But you went to the Feversham Clinic. I thought—I assumed . . .”

“Yes,” Constance replied. “I went to the clinic. But once there, I found I couldn’t go through with it. Not even . . . knowing it was
his
.”

It was Tsering who broke the silence that followed. “There is an ancient prayer. It say:
Lead me into all misfortune. Only by that path can I transform the negative into the positive
.”

Constance nodded, one hand drifting unconsciously across the slight swell of her waist. And then she smiled: a smile that seemed half secretive, and half shy.

We are very frequently asked in what order, if any, our books should be read.

The question is most applicable to the novels that feature Special Agent Pendergast. Although most of our novels are written to be stand-alone stories, very few have turned out to be set in discrete worlds. Quite the opposite: it seems the more novels we write together, the more “bleed-through” occurs between the characters and events that comprise them all. Characters from one book will appear in a later one, for example, or events in one novel could spill into a subsequent one. In short, we have slowly been building up a universe in which all the characters in our novels, and the experiences they have, take place and overlap.

Reading the novels in a particular order, however, is rarely necessary. We have worked hard to make almost all of our books into stories that can be enjoyed without reading any of the others, with a few exceptions.

Here, then, is our own breakdown of our books.

The Pendergast Novels

Relic
was our first novel, and the first to feature Agent Pendergast, and as such has no antecedents.

Reliquary
is the sequel to
Relic
.

The Cabinet of Curiosities
is our next Pendergast novel, and it stands completely on its own.

Still Life with Crows
is next. It is also a self-contained story (although people curious about Constance Greene will find a little more information here, as well as in
The Cabinet of Curiosities
).

Brimstone
is next, and it is the first novel in what we informally call the Diogenes trilogy. Although it is also self-contained, it does pick up some threads begun in
The Cabinet of Curiosities
.

Dance of Death
is the middle novel of the Diogenes trilogy. While it can be read as a stand-alone book, readers may wish to read
Brimstone
before
Dance of Death
.

The Book of the Dead
is the culminating novel in the Diogenes trilogy. For greatest enjoyment, the reader should read at least
Dance of Death
first.

The Wheel of Darkness
, which you presently hold in your hands, is a stand-alone novel that continues to follow Pendergast and takes place after the events in
The Book of the Dead
.

The Non-Pendergast Novels

We have also written a number of self-contained tales of adventure that do not feature Special Agent Pendergast. They are, by date of publication,
Mount Dragon, Riptide, Thunderhead
, and
The Ice Limit
.

Thunderhead
introduces the archaeologist Nora Kelly, who appears in most of the later Pendergast novels.
The Ice Limit
introduces Eli Glinn, who appears in
Dance of Death
and
The Book of the Dead
.

In closing, we want to assure our readers that this note is not intended as some kind of onerous syllabus, but rather as an answer to the question
In what order should I read your novels
? We feel extraordinarily fortunate that there are people like you who enjoy reading our novels as much as we enjoy writing them.

With our best wishes,