Thunderhead

Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

After a strange encounter at her family's abandoned ranch house, Nora Kelly receives a letter from her father. He's been dead for 16 years. The letter had just been mailed a few days earlier...

In his letter Padraic Kelly relates how he believes he has made the greatest find of the Anasazi civilization in the Southwest United States. He gives just enough information that Nora, now an archeologist, has to follow her father's dream. She is able to get some radar information from the JPL in California that helps prove her theory. Next, she is able to convince the institute where she works to fund an expedition on horseback in a remote area of the Utah mountains to locate the Anasazi city, Quivira.

Her small expedition includes the owner of the institute's archeologist daughter, two other imminent older archeologists, a trail chef, a young man from the JPL to run the communication and GPS equipment, the trail boss and his horses, and a reporter from the New York Times. The group is kept small and the expedition put together quickly to keep it quiet. This could prove to be a find on par with King Tut's tomb or the discovery of Troy.

After the group is on the trail Nora is able to leave the strange occurrences she experienced after receiving the letter. Everything is fine other than the difficulty of the trek itself. If it had been easy, Quivira would have been found decades before. Nora is able to establish herself as the leader immediately despite the two men with years of experience and fame in the field and the obvious knowledge of the money man's daughter. She doesn't know that her authority is threatened in a different way. Someone doesn't want Quivira, if it exists, found.

Thunderhead is an excellent suspense yarn. Douglas Preston has studied the Southwest Native American cultures and legends. With their skills and research, he and Lincoln Child bring this tale to life, from the ruggedness of the countryside, the dangers including desert and flash floods, the characters, and the archeological artifacts. The twists and turns of the story almost match those of the expedition carried out. Thunderhead is another example of the quality of stories the two can tell.

Brimstone by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
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