• Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2019 December #1
  Historian Clive Benton's search for a lost treasure leads to the Donner Party's lost camp. He persuades archaeologist Dr. Norah Kelly to locate and excavate the ruins hoping to find the gold. But things go awry when one of the crew vandalises the site and is found dead. Rookie FBI agent Corrie Swanson is sent to investigate the death and finds ties between a missing skull and a series of grave desecrations targeting the Parkin family, descendants of the original Donner Party. This is the first in a new series for Preston and Child, co-starring Kelly and Swanson. The narrative switches between the two women, and reader Farrell gives each enough personality to keep them separate and well-defined, Kelly sounding older and more seasoned and Swanson sounding young and green. Farrell deepens her tones to portray the male characters and handles the occasional foreign phrases with ease. The writers are veterans with a huge following, and the story, filled with suspense and insights into the world of archaeology and introducing a likeable pair of protagonists, is sure to be popular. Copyright 2019 Booklist Reviews.

The thrillers of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child "stand head and shoulders above their rivals" (Publishers Weekly). Preston and Child's Relic and The Cabinet of Curiosities were chosen by readers in a National Public Radio poll as being among the one hundred greatest thrillers ever written, and Relic was made into a number-one box office hit movie. They are coauthors of the famed Pendergast series and their recent novels include Verses for the Dead, City of Endless Night, The Obsidian Chamber, and Blue Labyrinth. In addition to his novels and nonfiction works (such as The Lost City of the Monkey God), Preston writes about archaeology for The New Yorker and National Geographic magazines. Lincoln Child is a Florida resident and former book editor who has published seven novels of his own, including such bestsellers as Full Wolf Moon and Deep Storm.