Reliquary (Pendergast, Book 2)

Reliquary picks up where the epilogue of Relic left off. And I must say right of the bat, that this book was much better than Relic.

It begins with two skeletons being discovered in the Harlem River. Both skeletons are found headless, just like Mbwun did to his victims. At first the police do on pick up on the connection, but when Sergeant Laura Hayward points out that a large number of similar murders were occurring to the Mole People (homeless individuals living under New York, in an underground society) and Captain D’Agosta & Captain Waxie realize that the situation may be bigger than they first assumed. Captain D’Agosta sees a number of similarities between the original Mbwun killings and the current murders and calls in the original team to take a look.

The Captain calls in Margo Green and Dr. Frock (both assisted in the original defeat of Mbwun), who agree to look into this new string of murders with the assistance of Agent Pendergast from the FBI.

Realizing that the Mole People have been dealing with these attacks for far longer than the citizens and Police of New York city, Agent Pendergast disguises himself and goes underground to meet with Mesphisto, the leader of the Central Park underground community.

Mesphisto had already taken it upon himself to reach out to the police about the killings but when that failed, he contacted Bill Smithback, the journalist who published the book on the New York Museum monster. Mesphisto told Smithback about a mysterious group of beings, they dubbed the Wrinklers that had been terrorizing the Mole People for months.

It is not long before Margo Green & Pendergast realize that the “Wrinklers” were actually a modified version of the Mbwun monster. They uncover that Gregory Kawakita had adapted the Mbwun plant into a drug and had been testing it on people who soon realized that the drug was not only giving them an addictive high, but transforming them into monsters. The Wrinklers killed Kawakita after he developed a conscious for what he had done to those people and they destroyed his lab.

However, Green & Pendergast now have to figure out who is leading the Mole People now, where the drug is being developed now that Kawakita is dead and his lab destroyed, and how to kill the Wrinklers who are just as fast and intelligent as Mbwun.

I, personally, enjoyed this book much more than Relic. It was more action packed and quick. Relic, at times, seemed to drag, but Reliquary keeps you reading with its twists and turns. I must admit that I did not see the ending coming, and I am usually good at guessing those things, but this one…caught me off guard!