This co-written novel by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child is a fictionalized account of an actual event that took place in 1959--the disappearance and death of nine experienced winter hikers-- that has yet to be solved. Preston wrote an article about this story and it was later collected into his book, The Lost Tomb. The authors have moved the action from the Ural Mountains of Russia to the present day and the Manzano Mountains of New Mexico . This book is the 4th of a series by Preston and Child featuring archaeologist Nora Kelly and rookie FBI agent Corrie Swanson.
Swanson and Kelly are called in after a pair of fraternity brothers on a drunken joy ride crashed their car and took shelter in a cave; there they discovered an ancient skeleton and petroglyphs. When the forensic team and the archaeologists arrive, they discover that in addition to the native American artifacts, there are two relatively recent skeletons in the back of the cave that turn out to be two of the nine the students who went missing back in 2008 while on a winter hiking trip. That leaves just one body, so the case records show, who is yet to be located. Multiple complications arise as Nora works with the nearby tribe to whom the relics should be returned for a sacred burial. And then Nora's brother Skip gets cross-wise with a vengeful local sheriff who is seeking re-election and cares only about the publicity this discovery will bring him. Moreover, as they get closer to figuring out where the last body--the trip's official journalist and photographer --might be, powerful people and institutions do everything to stop them, including killing them if necessary.
No comments:
Post a Comment