Review: Old Bones

Old Bones by Douglas Preston
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Spinning off from Preston and Child's famous Agent Pendergast series is this, the first novel in twenty years or so to feature Nora Kelly - and also, as a major character, newly minted FBI Agent Corrie Swanson of the Albuquerque Field Office. Remember when she was Lisbeth Salander before Lisbeth Salander was Lisbeth Salander? A punk hacker type living in the cornfields of Kansas as far back as Still Life with Crows? Now she's official, thanks in no small part to Pendergast's mentorship. It's too bad that Corrie wasn't the main character of this book, because I feel like were she the primary instead of the secondary to Nora - and were she connected to Nora geographically a lot sooner - this book would be significantly improved for it. That said, though, its connection to the historical tragedy of the Donner Party is of great interest to this Californian, and while the Big Bads' plot is pretty easy to predict early on, what you don't expect is who one of the Big Bads really is. No spoilers though, but hopefully there'll be other, and better, Nora Kelly and Corrie Swanson stories in the future.

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