The Pendergast universe is quite complex, but the author is even more !! As much in the adventures of Myron Bolitar (see Harlan COBEN) we are reminded constantly, that's who, who does what, who lived what, as with Preston and Child, read in sequence while taking notes. Reminder, here is the chronology of reading it seems to me that we must respect: - The chamber of curiosities, Relic, The violin of the devil, Dance of Death and The Book of the Dead.
Otherwise, Dance of Death is a little bit to the style of the House of curiosities that had been abandoned in the Devil Violin. It's still an original universe.