Bloodless

By: Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child

Narrated by: Jefferson Mays

Length: 13 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's Summary

INSTANT number one New York Times best seller: Agent Pendergast faces his most unexpected challenge yet when bloodless bodies begin to appear in Savannah, GA.

A fabulous heist:
On the evening of November 24, 1971, D. B. Cooper hijacked Flight 305—Portland to Seattle—with a fake bomb, collected a ransom of $200,000, and then parachuted from the rear of the plane, disappearing into the night...and into history.

A brutal crime steeped in legend and malevolence:
Fifty years later, Agent Pendergast takes on a bizarre and gruesome case: in the ghost-haunted city of Savannah, Georgia, bodies are found with no blood left in their veins—sowing panic and reviving whispered tales of the infamous Savannah Vampire.

A case like no other:
As the mystery rises along with the body count, Pendergast and his partner, Agent Coldmoon, race to understand how—or if—these murders are connected to the only unsolved skyjacking in American history. Together, they uncover not just the answer...but an unearthly evil beyond all imagining.

©2021 Douglas Preston (P)2021 Hachette Audio

Critic Reviews

"Leave it to the imaginations of Preston and Child... Spooky and surreal [and] wonderful fun." —Kirkus

Sadly, Audiobook Pendergast Is Gone

The biggest problem with this one boils down to narration. The narrator has a fine voice and I can see what’s being attempted with the characters, but it’s not working for me. Pendergast himself sounds like stock Louisiana money character. Constance is jarring because we have transatlantic Katharine Hepburn oozing out, which just doesn’t work. Coldmoon is a relatively new character to the series so no true opinion, but does sound to me like stock Native American guy. Every performer must interpret characters based on their own perception, but that being said, not for me.

Will be returning this audiobook and purchasing a hardback. As I’m reading I will hear character voices done in the definitive way Auberjonois performed.

New narrator, listen to the sample

Bloodless is the 20th novel in the addictive Pendergast series of Mystery Thrillers by best-selling duo of authors Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.

I’ve been listening to these audiobooks since the beginning, when the narrators were Dick Hill and Scott Brick, both of them fantastic voiceover artists, but for the past decade, the stories were brought to us by the extremely talented actor Rene Auberjonois. He ended up re-recording even a few previous novels and, to date, only the first three audiobooks in the series are not performed by him.

Jefferson Mays recorded Crooked River last year and now we have a new narrator. William DeMeritt is the new artist for this audiobook and he reads in a pleasant voice, assigns different accents to the main characters, and tries to keep the listener entertained. Sadly, some of the voices are really annoying and there are huge volume level differences between the scenes. I’m sure that it will take some getting used to for fans of this series, so I suggest that you listen to the sample before purchasing the audiobook. I am sure that he did his best.

From my time with Bloodless, I realized that this story is as well written as others in the series, but sadly the narration took away most of the enjoyment.

Hopefully next year we will see a more suitable narrator picking up this series.

Happy listening, everyone!

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Terrible Narration

I have listened to every Pendergast book and usually enjoy them. The problem with Bloodless is the narration. The voices just don’t work especially Constance. The Narrator also continually changes in volume from an almost whisper to overly loud. It is annoying and draws you out of the story. It is sadly disappointing, This is the first Preston-Child book I’ll be returning.

Narrator kills book!

After Rene Auberjonois died, I wondered who would be narrating the Pendergast series. Jefferson Mays I thought did an excellent job. this book is narrated by William de Merritt., Who has turned these beloved characters into caricatures.
i’ve read and then listened to all of the Preston and child books, including standalone novels.

somewhere along the line I became legally blind and switched to audible books, which I play through an Echo. This narrator goes from a bellowing Special Agent Cold Moon to a whispering , almost inaudible Pendergast. Comstance has received a personality transplant and is unrecognizable. I do not have the option of switching over to text as I said I am legally blind.. Mr. de Merritt has a pleasant voice, but definitely not a good choice for these idiosyncratic characters.

As a blind person, the narrator can make or break an audiobook for me.

The storyline is somewhat incoherent at first But picks up steam after the middle of the book, and as a 72 year fan of HP Lovecraft and other weird fiction, I found it quite amusing. however, I do get the feeling that more than one person wrote the book which of course is true but it’s very very obvious here.

so, I guess this is my very last Preston and child audiobook. What a sad ending For a long running series and looked forward to a new Preston and Child book each summer.

Sob, sniff. 😥

Blindly dictated to a dyslexic iPad

Deliver me from bad narration of good books

The southern accents were all bad Gone With the Wind and the others rang false with a little Jack Nicholson thrown in to really spoil a story that had already been ruined by the voice of Constance which made her sound her actual age…100 plus.

can't get past the horrible narrator

made it to chapter 4 of the audiobook. The narrator makes Constance Green sound like Katherine Hepburn. previous narrators have done wonderful with the character. Returning the audio version and buying in hardback.

Jefferson Mays IS BACK/MAJOR EDIT!!!

This is MAJOR EDIT!
Jefferson May’s re-recorded this book AND IT IS SO MUCH MORE ENJOYABLE! All the voices are so incredible. I can fall back in love Agent A. X. L. Pendergast. It’s a suspenseful story and a wonderful listen.
I had returned the previous narrator’s book because it was horrible, I didn’t even finish it but IDK why, I checked this books ratings and found Jefferson Mays was the narrator. I once again purchased it and am about 1/2 thru and it is wonderful. I’ve enjoyed all of Agent Pendergast’s stories and am so happy now. Thank You Jefferson Mays!!!
What follows is original review.

I was so relieved when I heard Crooked River. No one has the melodic, hypnotic voice of Rene Auberjonois but Jefferson Mays did a fine job.
But William DeMerrit just does not do it. He’s a fine professional reader but he’s not the correct one for the Agent Pendergast series.
The story is good but DeMerrit’s extremely stereotypical interpretation of these characters, makes it painful to listen to. The nuances of this series are obliterated. No Southern smooth charm and it takes place in Savannah!
I’ll finish (I didn’t, couldn’t) because it’s Agent Pendergast but if this is the long term reader, I’m done.
Not sure if I’ll return it, I’m only 1/3 way through, we’ll see.
I just had to let fans of this series know.

The voices do not fit

I cannot get beyond the voices in this book, they are too far off what is part of my imagination. I will be returning and purchasing a physical copy.

Disappointed in narrator.

I feel compelled to review the narration after a long commute in which I attempted to listen. Pendergast’s voice is spot on. Constance’s voice was like nails on a chalkboard. I didn’t like it but I could live with it. What really disturbed me was the change in volume between the dialogue and the narrative portion of the reading. At times I could barely hear the narrator. No one can replace Rene Auberjonois. I did feel Jefferson Mays did a nice job. I enjoyed the book.

Still going ghoulishly strong!!!!

When first the bodies of two men are found with every drop of blood drained from their bodies. Then the body of a dog is located within minutes of being heard barking. The dog’s body looks as if it had been killed over a period of time yet it’s already known that this could not be. The investigation lead by Pendergast is looked as scornfully by his new partner Agent Coldmoon. Coldmoon disdains almost all of Pendergast’s procedures. It sickens him when Pendergast picks up the dog’s severed head to examine the decapitating wounds and secretly hopes that he will not be asked to examine it himself. Meanwhile there is an author in town writing a book exposing a producer of a documentary currently being filmed in town that will expose the truths and fallacies of the legendary hauntings surrounding Savannah, Ga. The producer really only cares about how high the ratings on his documentary will be, not about truth or fiction.
The narration by William DeMeritt is really very good. I know people miss Rene Auberjonois but unfortunately he has passed and there is no one like him. I think it was very smart of the authors to choose someone with their own style rather than try to find a voice replacement which would have failed spectacularly.
This book has my HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION.
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