Tyrannosaur Canyon

Douglas Preston

Tom Broadbent is out riding in the mesa canyons one late evening when he hears gunshots. He discovers a dying old man who appears to be a prospector. His last words before dying is to ask Tom to give his precious notebook to his daughter. When Tom brings back the sheriff, the old man and his burro are gone. Under the smooth sand, though, is a large amount of blood, so he is believed.

Weed Maddox has a partnership with Dr. Iain Corvus back at the natural history in New York. He is to obtain the old man's notebook and samples. Corvus is sure the old man has found an acheological mother lode. Maddox was able to retrieve the sample. Now he must return to New Mexico and get the notebook from Broadbent.

Broadbent holds back the notebook from the police because he made a promise to get it to the man's daughter. Instead he enlists the aid of a cryptgrapher who has left the CIA and is joining the High Desert Monastary. Wyman Ford finds himself intrigued and pulled back in. He left the CIA after a personal tragedy. But the lure of the excitement seems to still be underlying his wish to pull away. He takes a private quest to see if he can find what the old man found.

After I finished this book I checked out the Publisher's Weekly review at Amazon. Tyrannosaur Canyon is panned as being contrived and ridiculous. Perhaps it is contrived, but it sucked me right in anyway. The writing is edge of the seat stuff and I got all involved with Sally Broadbent, Tom's wife. Douglas Preston's knowledge of the area and of dinosaurs is put to good use in the book and kept my interest. Admittedly, the action drug on longer than it should have (the contrived part) and easily could have been edited down, but I wasn't putting the book down nor was I skipping to the end.

Thunderhead by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child