Cemetery Dance is the name of a novel by Douglas Preston

Douglas Preston

Douglas Preston is an American author who has written seventeen popular techno-thriller and horror novels, four alone and the rest with Lincoln Child...

 and Lincoln Child

Lincoln Child

Lincoln Child is an author of seventeen techno-thriller and horror novels. He often writes with Douglas Preston. Many of their novels have become bestsellers, and one, Relic, was adapted into a feature film...

. During production, it was known by the pre-release title Revenant. The preceding novel is The Wheel of Darkness

The Wheel of Darkness

The Wheel of Darkness is a 2007 novel by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. It entered The New York Times Best Seller list at number two on September 16, 2007, and remained on the list for five weeks.-Plot summary:...

.

Plot

Pendergast returns to NYC in New York Times bestselling authors Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's newest novel featuring the enigmatic FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast.

After celebrating their first anniversary, William Smithback, a NY Times reporter, and his wife Nora Kelly, a Museum of Natural History archeologist, return home from a romantic dinner. Kelly slips out to pick up a pastry from the local shop, but upon her return to their apartment in the Upper West

Upper West Side

The Upper West Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, New York City, that lies between Central Park and the Hudson River and between West 59th Street and West 125th Street...

 side of Manhattan

Manhattan

Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

, she finds the door ajar, Smithback dead, and is attacked as she approaches. Eyewitnesses claim, and the security camera confirms, the attacker seen leaving the building was an individual who lived in the apartment building along with Smithback and Kelly. The twist: the man that witnesses believe is Smithback's murderer was pulled from the river dead, after committing suicide, two weeks before the attack. D'Agosta

Vincent D'Agosta

Detective Lieutenant Vincent D'Agosta is a fictional character appearing in the novels of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. He is an Italian New Yorker and a main character in several different storylines.-Fictional character biography:...

, a homicide detective, leads the official investigation, while FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast's and Kelly's involvement leads to a less traditional quest for the truth. Their serpentine journey takes them into a part of Manhattan they never imagined could exists: a secretive and deadly hotbed of Obeah

Obeah

Obeah is a term used in the West Indies to refer to folk magic, sorcery, and religious practices derived from West African, and specifically Igbo origin. Obeah is similar to other African derived religions including Palo, Voodoo, Santería, rootwork, and most of all hoodoo...

, the West Indian Zombi

Zombi (African god)

Zombi is the name of a snake-deity in some cults of West African Vodun and Haitian Vodou . Zombi is a Creole word, thought to be derived from Nzambi, supreme god of the Bacongo people of Angola. The deity is connected with water and appears in different impersonations, one being Zombi-Damballah,...

cult of sorcery and magic. It is here they find their true peril is just beginning.