Constance Greene sat at the harpsichord, brows furrowed in concentration, when she heard a small intake of breath from A.X.L. Pendergast. She let her hands drop from the keyboard and glanced over. Her guardian was sitting in a comfortable leather chair by the fire, glass of sherry on a nearby table, a curious expression on his face. He’d been opening the mail that Proctor recently carried in on a silver platter. She noticed Pendergast was holding a black-edged card he’d just removed from a thick cream envelope…
And thus opens a remarkable and brand-new Pendergast story, entitled:
The Strange Case of Monsieur Bertin
We were chatting the other day about the dark histories of certain Pendergast family members, when we suddenly had a fabulous idea for a story—one featuring Special Agent A.X.L. Pendergast and an old, old friend.
We started plotting it with great excitement. It seemed tailor-made for Pendergast fans: more detail about his mysterious past, with a setting in his home town of New Orleans. And though it’s a short story rather than a novel, when completed it ended up being not so ‘short’ at all.
But then we asked ourselves: what are we going to do with this story? Should we sell it, as with others we’d written such as Extraction? Should we give it to our literary agency and see if they could perform some kind of Hollywood magic?
Nah, we said. Why sell it when we can give it away?
We’re going to give it away. But only to our special readers, as a thank you for their loyalty and support. As a newsletter subscriber, you’re one of those special readers. And this June, all current newsletter subscribers will get a free, exclusive e-copy of“The Strange Case of Monsieur Bertin” along with that month’s Pendergast File.
As some of you may recall from Cemetery Dance, Monsieur Gaspard L. Bertin was the childhood tutor of both Aloysius Pendergast and his brother, Diogenes. He is a man who knows many family secrets. He was also present that day when Rochenoir, the Pendergast ancestral home in New Orleans, burned to the ground.
The story will be made available free to readers everywhere in the world. Because we’re not selling the story, Pendergast fans across Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Americas can enjoy it. (We love you all.) Again, the only requirement is that you are currently subscribed to the Pendergast File at the time the issue is emailed out, sometime in June.
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If you have friends who might also want to receive this Pendergast story, please feel free to forward this email to them, so they too can sign up for the newsletter.Here is a handy link.
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To make sure you receive our newsletters, consider putting the following email address in your address book or approved email list: dougandlinc@prestonchild.com. Once somebody has unsubscribed, or the email has been rejected several times by a spam filter, we cannot re-add that same email again: sorry, but our newsletter mailing service hates spam as much as we do.
Excellent. Most excellent.
A few other items of importance for our readers:
–If you’re looking for an early Father’s Day present, or a unique birthday present, there are still a few hundred double-autographed, first-edition copies of VERSES FOR THE DEAD available from the Poisoned Pen Bookstore. You can get one here.
–Finally, we are pleased to announce the launching of a new series of novels, starring our recurring characters Nora Kelly and Corrie Swanson! The first book in the series, entitled OLD BONES, will be published August 27. Nora is directing the archaeological excavation of an old Donner Party encampment in the Sierras of California—a site where horrific cannibalism occurred. At the same time, rookie FBI Agent Corrie Swanson is looking into a bizarre grave-robbing and murder in New Mexico. The two women soon cross paths—and their solo investigations quickly morph into one terrifying ordeal. (Those of you who aren’t familiar with the tragic and gruesome story of the Donner Party can read about it here.)
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I signed up…Thanks!!
You're welcome, Gram! I'm interested in their forthcoming book about the Donner party.
I'm already a subscriber.
To be honest, I'm not a big fan of Constance. I don't need to read the phrase "You forget who I am." in every book.
I get emails about their books, but I couldn't remember if I subscribed to their newsletter. So, thank you, for pushing me to subscribe. Done!
Interesting, Glen. I don't read the Pendergast books, so I haven't "met" Constance. We'll see what I think when I do. It's the Donner Party aspect I'm actually interesting in reading.
You're welcome, Bonnie.