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51-524: Aloysius Xingu Leng Pendergast is a fictional character appearing in novels by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child . He first appeared as a supporting character in their first novel, Relic (1995), and in its 1997 sequel Reliquary , before assuming the protagonist 's role in the 2002 novel The Cabinet of Curiosities . Pendergast is a special agent with the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He once worked out of

102-553: A call for a new name for the profession in the US to distance itself from the title undertaker , a term that was then perceived to have been tarnished by its association with death. The term mortician was the winning entry. People's need to respect the dead and their survivors is as ancient as civilization itself, and death care is among the world's oldest professions. Ancient Egypt is a probable pioneer in supporting full-time morticians; intentional mummification began around 2600 BC, with

153-590: A customized .45 ACP Les Baer Government Model M1911 pistol. In Relic he carried a .45 Colt Anaconda double-action revolver . He owns a Signature Grade Colt 1911 in .45 ACP tuned by pistol smith Hilton Yam (now owner of 10-8 Consulting). Pendergast maintains an apartment at The Dakota in New York City, and later inherits and renovates a Beaux Arts mansion near Harlem from his great-granduncle in The Cabinet of Curiosities . In his Dakota apartment, which

204-525: A disdain for the lobster roll , but will consume convenience store staples, like beef jerky, when tasks require such expediency. His interests encompass a wide variety of vastly differing walks of life, yet all focus on the enlightenment of the human mind, body, and soul. He spent a year in Tibet studying the deep meditative art of Chongg Ran, taught to him by the monks of the Gsalrig Chongg monastery. Pendergast

255-545: A hunting accident while in Africa (mauled by a lion), but reappears in the "Helen Trilogy". Pendergast is generally described as being stoically aloof and eccentric, though his ineffable politeness and unerring intellect imbue him with an irresistible charm or enigmatic sense of danger if the occasion should call for it. Well-learned in many subjects , he converses easily with doctors, scientists, intellectuals, vagabonds, highly specialized masters of specific disciplines, and people of

306-428: A preparation room for embalming, a chapel , and a casket selection room. They usually have a hearse for transportation of bodies, a flower car , and limousines . They also normally sell caskets and urns . Licensing requirements in the US are determined at the state level. Most require a combination of post-secondary education (typically an associate's degree ), passage of a National Board Examination, passage of

357-400: A star throwing a thunderbolt at a cat's eye with the number nine as its pupil, symbolizing the nine lives [its] members [...] were alleged to have..." The motto was " Fidelitas usque ad mortem " (Loyalty unto death). Most of his military records are classified and unknown. A number of years before the series began, Pendergast was married to Helen Esterhazy Pendergast. She was presumed killed in

408-445: A state board examination, and one to two years' work as an apprentice . A funeral director in the UK will usually take on most of the administrative duties and arrangement of the funeral service, including flower arrangements, meeting with family members, and overseeing the funeral and burial service. Embalming or cremation of the body requires further training. In the UK no formal licence

459-434: A television adaptation of the novels Relic and Cabinet of Curiosities . The adaptation, simply titled Pendergast , would air on Spike TV . The first season would focus on "Pendergast investigating a present-day crime mimicking a century-old mystery — that links to his own family's dark past." On November 8, 2017 Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child posted on their Facebook page that the series, under development at Paramount,

510-515: A variety of hidden tools, such as lock picks , flashlights of various sizes, test tubes, syringes, and forensic chemicals. Officially, much of the Pendergast's family wealth came from pharmaceuticals , and the family was sufficiently old and established in New Orleans to conduct themselves as aristocracy . However, the fortune actually came from patent medicine (" snake oil "), from which some of

561-513: A week in Kuwait and Iraq , marking "the first time in the USO's 69-year history that authors visited a combat zone." Of the experience, Preston said, "As always, we learn a great deal from all of the amazing and dedicated people we meet." In 2014, during a disagreement over terms between Hachette Book Group and Amazon.com, Inc. , Preston initiated an effort which became known as Authors United. During

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612-405: A wide variety of language and culture alike. He is a master of psychological manipulation , disguise, and improvisation. Pendergast appreciates the finer things in life, including expensive cuisine and wines. Food and drink he enjoys include Château Pétrus wine, antipasto, green tea of only the purest and most spiritual kind, gelato, and steak tartare . He has a great distaste for opera , and

663-463: A writer, editor, and manager of publications. He served as managing editor for the journal Curator and was a columnist for Natural History magazine. In 1985 he published a history of the museum, Dinosaurs In The Attic: An Excursion into the American Museum of Natural History , which chronicled the explorers and expeditions of the museum's early days. The editor of that book at St. Martin's Press

714-492: Is polyglot , demonstrating mastery of French , Italian , Latin , Greek , and Cantonese , and appears semi-fluent in Mandarin . He also has some knowledge of Japanese and Portuguese . He communicates with one of his housekeepers, who is deaf and mute, using American Sign Language . Pendergast is always described as being tall and slender. He is fit, graceful in movement and physically powerful despite his slight frame. His skin

765-453: Is about Amazon's bullying tactics against authors. Every time they run into difficulty negotiating with a publisher, they target authors' books for selective retaliation. The authors who were first were from university presses and small presses... Amazon is going to be negotiating with publishers forever. Are they really going to target authors every time they run into a problem with a publisher?" In 2015, Preston took part in an expedition into

816-427: Is actually three apartments combined, there is a full zen garden where Pendergast performs the tea ceremony and sometimes meditates. Though he is a scrupulously scientific man, he wears a talisman or amulet on a chain, that consists of his own modified version of the Pendergast family crest: a lidless eye over two moons, one new and one full , with a phoenix (the original version featured a lion). Pendergast carries

867-455: Is irrelevant. A master of disguises, he has fooled even close acquaintances on several occasions. Pendergast owns a 1959 Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith (he used to have two but sold one). His chauffeur and personal assistant is a mysterious man named Proctor. All of Pendergast's suits are custom-made in Italy , and his shoes hand-made by John Lobb of London. Pendergast's personal sidearm is usually

918-580: Is required to become an undertaker (funeral director). There are national trade organizations such as the British Institute of Funeral Directors (BIFD), the National Association of Funeral Directors (NAFD) and the Society of Allied and Independent Funeral Directors (SAIF). The BIFD offers a licence to funeral directors who have obtained a diploma-level qualification; these diplomas are offered by both

969-402: Is very pale and many people refer to him as "corpse-like" or as an "albino". He has platinum blond hair, and eyes that are most often described as silver or gray. Pendergast religiously dresses in black, bespoke suits (of Italian design) made of a special blend of wool made only in the 1950s, thus he is often described as looking like an undertaker . In many cases, Pendergast's normal appearance

1020-578: The New York Times bestseller list and won a number of journalism awards in Europe and the United States. It is being developed into a movie by 20th Century Fox , produced by George Clooney . Clooney will play the role of Preston. Preston has criticized the conduct of Italian prosecutor Giuliano Mignini in the trial of American student Amanda Knox , one of three convicted, and eventually cleared, of

1071-572: The COVID-19 pandemic , which he described as "as though they looted a bookstore and started handing away books to passersby." Preston supported a lawsuit brought by publishers against the Internet Archive over the latter's collection of e-books. Funeral director A funeral director , also known as an undertaker or mortician ( American English ), is a professional who has licenses in funeral arranging and embalming (or preparation of

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1122-542: The International Thriller Writers organization. With his frequent collaborator Lincoln Child , he created the character of FBI Special Agent Pendergast , who appears in many of their novels, including Relic , The Cabinet of Curiosities , Brimstone , and White Fire . Additional novels by the Preston and Child team include Mount Dragon , Riptide , Thunderhead , and The Ice Limit . Later,

1173-540: The Amanda Knox Case in 2013 as a Kindle Single eBook. In 2010, Preston participated in the first USO tour sponsored by the International Thriller Writers organization, along with authors David Morrell , Steve Berry , Andy Harp , and James Rollins . After visiting with wounded soldiers and giving away books at National Navy Medical Center and Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the group spent over

1224-525: The BIFD and NAFD. The British Institute of Embalmers (BIE) offers embalming training and qualifications. All of the national organizations offer voluntary membership of "best practice" standards schemes, which includes regular premises inspection and adherence to a specific code of conduct . These organizations help funeral directors demonstrate that they are committed to continuing professional development , and they have no issue with regulation should it become

1275-618: The Monkey God: A True Story , which became a No. 1 New York Times bestseller. Preston was one of many on the expedition who contracted an aggressive parasitic disease, called mucocutaneous leishmaniasis , in the lost city. In 2019, he was elected President of the Authors Guild . In his capacity as president of the Authors Guild, Preston criticized the Internet Archive 's National Emergency Library programme, launched in 2020 in response to

1326-553: The Mosquitia mountains of Eastern Honduras, which he chronicled in a nonfiction book, The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story . On that expedition he and other expedition members contracted a potentially lethal tropical disease known as cutaneous leishmaniasis , for which he received treatment at the National Institutes of Health . In 1989 and 1990 he taught nonfiction writing at Princeton University . He has been active in

1377-523: The Mosquitia mountains of Honduras that penetrated one of the last scientifically unexplored areas on the surface of the earth. The expedition, led by Steve Elkins and sponsored by Benenson Productions, the Honduran government, and National Geographic magazine, explored a previously unknown pre-Columbian city built by a mysterious civilization that had been influenced by the Maya, but was not Maya itself. The city

1428-795: The New Orleans Field Office of the FBI, but resides in New York City and works out of the New York Field Office; he frequently travels out of state to investigate cases which interest him, often those appearing to be the work of serial killers . Aloysius Xingu Leng Pendergast was born in early December 1960 and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. Pendergast retains his Southern manners and mellifluous Deep Southern accent . He studied anthropology at Harvard University (graduating summa cum laude ) and received two D. Phil. degrees, one in Classics and

1479-533: The US were owned by one of three corporations. The majority of morticians work in small, independent family-run funeral homes. The owner usually hires two or three other morticians to help them. Often, this hired help is in the family, perpetuating the family's ownership. Other firms that were family-owned have been acquired and are operated by large corporations such as Service Corporation International , though such homes usually trade under their pre-acquisition names. Most funeral homes have one or more viewing rooms,

1530-475: The United States and Europe. In 2000, Preston moved to Florence, Italy with his young family and became fascinated with an unsolved local murder mystery involving a serial killer nicknamed the " Monster of Florence ". The case and his problems with the Italian authorities are the subject of his 2008 book The Monster of Florence , co-authored with Italian journalist Mario Spezi . The book spent three months on

1581-416: The best-preserved mummies dating to around 1570 to 1075 BC. Specialized priests spent 70 full days on a single corpse. Only royalty, nobility and wealthy commoners could afford the service, considered by some to be essential for accessing eternal life; the poorer performed very basic intentional mummification or simply buried the body in a dry spot hoping it would naturally mummify. In every case, an intact body

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1632-744: The characters of Tom Broadbent and Sally Colorado. Tom and Sally return in Tyrannosaur Canyon , which also features the debut of Wyman Ford , an ex- CIA agent and (at the time) a monk-in-training. Following Tyrannosaur Canyon , Ford leaves the monastery where he is training, forms his own private investigation company, and replaces Broadbent as the main protagonist of Preston's solo works. Ford subsequently returns in Blasphemy , Impact , and The Kraken Project . In addition to his collaborations with Child and his solo fictional universe, Preston has written several nonfiction books of his own, frequently about

1683-405: The city's plazas, pyramids, and temples. It also discovered a cache of stone sculptures at the base of the city's central earthen pyramid. When excavated in 2016 and 2017, the cache revealed over 500 sacred objects which appeared to have been ceremonially broken and left as an offering at the time the city was abandoned. Preston wrote about that discovery in his 2017 nonfiction book, The Lost City of

1734-469: The contract dispute, books by Hachette authors faced significant shipment delays, blocked availability, and reduced discounts on the Amazon website. Frustrated with tactics he felt unjustly injured authors who were caught in the middle, Preston began garnering the support of like-minded authors from a variety of publishers. In the first open letter from Authors United, over 900 signatories urged Amazon to resolve

1785-488: The corpse in the coffin), and cossetting (applying any sort of cosmetic or substance to the best viewable areas of the corpse for the purpose of enhancing its appearance) with the proper licenses. A funeral director may work at a funeral home or be an independent employee. The term mortician is derived from the Latin word mort- ('death') with the ending -ician . In 1895, the trade magazine The Embalmers' Monthly put out

1836-572: The customers suffered permanent injury or even death from its effects. Pendergast also confides, to his shame, that a streak of insanity has afflicted his family for generations, such that many of them have been convicted of horrible crimes, and ended their lives in asylums. Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast appears in several stand-alone novels and stars in two trilogies. All of these books have been jointly written by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. On February 1, 2016, authors Preston and Child confirmed that producer Gale Anne Hurd would be heading

1887-459: The dead for the benefit of the living arose in the European Age of Enlightenment . Dutch scientist Frederik Ruysch 's work attracted the attention of royalty and legitimized postmortem anatomy . Most importantly, Ruysch developed injected substances and waxes that could penetrate the smallest vessels of the body and seal them against decay. Historically, from ancient Egypt to Greece and Rome to

1938-426: The deceased) involved in the business of funeral rites. These tasks often entail the embalming and burial or cremation of the dead, as well as the arrangements for the funeral ceremony (although not the directing and conducting of the funeral itself unless clergy are not present). Funeral directors may at times be asked to perform tasks such as dressing (in garments usually suitable for daily wear), casketing (placing

1989-404: The dispute and end the policy of sanctions, while calling on readers to contact CEO Jeff Bezos to express their support of authors. Not long after, a second open letter, signed by over 1100 authors, was sent to Amazon's board of directors asking if they personally approved the policy of hindering the sale of certain books. Describing the motivation behind the campaign, Preston explained: "This

2040-474: The duo created the Gideon Crew series, which consists of Gideon's Sword , Gideon's Corpse , and The Lost Island . For his solo career, Preston's fictional debut was Jennie , a novel about a chimpanzee who is adopted by an American family. His next novel was The Codex , a treasure hunt novel with a style that was much closer to the thriller genre of his collaborations with Child. The Codex introduced

2091-455: The early United States, women typically did all of the preparation of dead bodies. They were called "layers out of the dead". In the mid-19th century, gender roles within funeral service in the United States began to change. In the late 19th century, the industry became male dominated with the development of funeral directors, which changed the funeral industry both locally and nationally. In 2003, 15 percent of corporately owned funeral homes in

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2142-512: The history of the American Southwest . He has written about archaeology and paleontology for The New Yorker magazine and has also been published in Smithsonian , Harper's , The Atlantic , Natural History , and National Geographic . In May, 2011, Pomona College conferred on Preston the degree of Doctor of Letters (Honoris Causa). He is the recipient of writing awards in

2193-515: The legendary Seven Cities of Gold . That thousand mile journey across the American Southwest resulted in the book Cities of Gold: A Journey Across the American Southwest . Since that time, Preston has undertaken many long horseback journeys retracing historic or prehistoric trails, for which he was inducted into the Long Riders' Guild . He has also participated in expeditions in other parts of

2244-579: The murder of British student Meredith Kercher in Perugia in 2007. In 2009, Preston argued on 48 Hours on CBS that the case against Knox was "based on lies, superstition, and crazy conspiracy theories". In December 2009, after the verdict had been announced, he described his own interrogation by Mignini on Anderson Cooper 360° on CNN . Preston said of Mignini, "this is a very abusive prosecutor. He makes up theories. He's ... obsessed with satanic sex." Preston published Trial By Fury: Internet Savagery and

2295-414: The other in philosophy, from Balliol College, Oxford . Pendergast once served with the U.S. Special Forces in the elite "Ghost Company", a spiritual successor to the "Blue Light" detachment (now Delta Force) with Michael Decker and Howard Longstreet, his superiors at the FBI, and Proctor, who later became his bodyguard and chauffeur. The symbol for this company was "a ghost on a blue field, decorated with

2346-433: The presence of the funeral procession by wailing loudly. Other paid actors would don the masks of ancestors and recreate their personalities, dramatizing the exploits of their departed scion. These purely ceremonial undertakers of the day nonetheless had great religious and societal impact; a larger number of actors indicated greater power and wealth for the deceased and their family. Modern ideas about proper preservation of

2397-583: The world, including a journey deep into Khmer Rouge -held territory in the Cambodian jungle with a small army of soldiers, to become the first Westerner to visit a lost Angkor temple. He was the first person in 3,000 years to enter an ancient Egyptian burial chamber in a tomb known as KV5 in the Valley of the Kings . Preston participated in an expedition that led to the discovery of an ancient city in an unexplored valley in

2448-798: Was cancelled. Douglas Preston Preston was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts and grew up in Wellesley, Massachusetts . A graduate of the Cambridge School of Weston in Weston, Massachusetts , and Pomona College in Claremont, California , Preston began his writing career at the American Museum of Natural History in New York . From 1978 to 1985, Preston worked for the American Museum of Natural History as

2499-546: Was considered paramount to access the afterlife. Across successive cultures, religion remained a prime motive for securing a body against decay and/or arranging burial in a planned manner; some considered the fate of departed souls to be fixed and unchangeable (e.g. ancient Mesopotamia) and considered care for a grave to be more important than the actual burial. In ancient Rome , wealthy individuals trusted family to care for their corpse, but funeral rites would feature professional mourners: most often actresses who would announce

2550-624: Was discovered in an area long rumored to contain a legendary "lost city" known as La Ciudad Blanca , the White City, or the Lost City of the Monkey God. The extensive archaeological site, in a remote valley ringed by mountains, had been discovered in 2012 in an aerial overflight by a team using the powerful technology of lidar (light detection and ranging), able to map the terrain under dense, triple-canopy jungle. The 2015 expedition explored and mapped

2601-606: Was his future writing partner, Lincoln Child. They soon collaborated on a thriller set in the museum titled Relic , published in 1995. It was subsequently made into a 1997 motion picture by Paramount Pictures starring Penelope Ann Miller , Tom Sizemore , and Linda Hunt . In 1986, Preston moved to New Mexico and began to write full-time. Seeking an understanding of the first moment of contact between Europeans and Native Americans in America, he retraced on horseback Francisco Vásquez de Coronado 's violent and unsuccessful search for

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