What
Do Grave-Robbing and Murder Have in Common?
Grave-robbing
and murder. Those two crimes are perhaps not the most common of bedfellows, but
they make for some fascinating reading in Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child’s
new series, Old Bones. The hero of this new set of tales is familiar—at
least for readers of the Pendergast series by the same authors—Nora Kelly, archaeologist. When she is
approached by Clive Benton, Stanford-educated historian, to lead an
archaeological expedition in search for the “Lost Camp” of the ill-fated Donner
Party, a compelling historical setting is added to the story (the Donner Party
was believed to have resorted to cannibalism to survive when they became snow-bound in the California mountains
in 1847). But to sell the expensive archaeological expedition to Nora’s
boss, Benton adds evidence that one of the party was carrying gold, now worth
20 million dollars. That, of course, is sufficient motive for murder, but wait.
Two murders occurred before the expedition even started. And both happened in
the context of grave-robbing where all that was apparently taken was part of a
skeleton. Since when is a skull worth killing for? That question remains until
the final pages of the novel.
It
is via one of these murders at a grave site that a second, familiar name is
added to the tale. Corrie Swanson, an angry, bullied teenager when first
introduced in the Pendergast series is now a freshly minted FBI agent. And when
one of the grave-robbers is executed on federal land, she is given the case—her
first. She finds another similar murder and a disappearance, all connected
because they were the descendants of a Donner Party member, Albert Parkin.
Convinced that Nora Kelly’s expedition is just a cover for robbing Parkin’s
grave, Agent Swanson joins the archaeological team on site. Sparks fly between
the women, Swanson believing she is on the trail of a crime, it’s exact nature
unknown, while Kelly sees the agent as nothing but a waste of time and money.
But then, things start getting deadlier.
Preston
and Child are exceptional story-tellers and this novel is no exception. The
pace is good, the mystery compelling, the characters developed. There were a
few places when relatively minor events were dealt with in greater detail than
necessary to advance the plot, but these were rare. About my only concern of
any significance is the way the authors linked the quite disparate crimes of
stealing a skeleton and killing. To do so required two, quite dissimilar
approaches to a single objective. In other words, the twist felt a bit
strained.
Overall,
Old Bones is a solid start to a new series and I look forward to the next
installment. Let’s see what Nora gets herself into next time.
See
on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2GAeUvK
(I am a participant
in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program
designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and
affiliated sites.)
