Books Without Limits

Douglas Preston can usually be relied upon to deliver solid, interesting mystery stories. I was surprised when thisone fell short of the mark. The idea behind the story, that there is a full, intact, well-preserved Tyrannosaurus Rexburied in the desert that holds a secret people would kill for is a good one. Good science and archeology basedmysteries are few and far between, so I was quite excited to pick this book up.

The story begins with a moon landing, and is followed by the death of what we think is a prospector. In rapidsuccession we are introduced to two main characters through a solid action scene. So far so good. Then the storyseems to meander off a bit, losing the momentum it had started with. Don’t get me wrong – the story is never “bad”,it just has trouble keeping the mystery tight occasionally.

I think that the story was considerably marred and thrown off track repeatedly by the introduction of one tritecharacter, Detective Willer. How many times must writers abuse the stock “inept rural detective” character beforethey find a new plot device? It felt as if we were being beaten about the head and neck with Willer’s ineptitudethroughout the novel, only to have him suddenly “smarten up” in the last few pages. That messed up the flow ofthe whole book for me, and it’s a shame that it kept derailing such a good plot.

Another twist was the introduction of Robbie without ever really bringing her in as a character beyond a few setpieces at the end. I kept expecting her to appear and be integral to the plot because of the way her name wasdropped, but she never really materializes. Even in the final scenes when she does suddenly appear, she seemsto be the “stock artist” character without the depth I’d been expecting to round out the story.

Overall the book was acceptable but not outstanding for me. I enjoyed the characters Broadbent and Ford quite abit, though they seemed to be working from two seperate scripts at times. The fact that the entire plot wasmasterminded by a scientist on the bottom tier of a museum food chain, including a mysterious parolearrangement, seemed far fetched to me but was easier to swallow than the stock characters and dropped storylines.

All in all I’ve enjoyed other books by this author more. Two that come to mind as recommended reading instead ofthis one would be Relic and The Book of the Dead.

Get your own copy here.

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