Just days before the grand opening of a massive gala exhibition at the New York Museum of Natural History, people are turning up dead inside. Is it the work of a serial killer, or is something far more sinister at play?This was an exceptionally gripping thriller; I found it incredibly hard to put down. The setting was fantastic – a sprawling museum filled with countless dark, creepy rooms packed with rare artifacts, dinosaur skeletons, and a labyrinth of winding tunnels beneath it all. I particu...

Didn't anyone tell them to leave the haunted, bloodsoaked cult object back in the jungle? Sigh. Mystical element It's not as big as one might expect from the title, more focused on the museum and protagonists, but it perfectly fits to show characters' motivations, career ambitions, and investigation methods. Maybe the whole thing is more about establishing the whole Pendergast series than delivering a compelling horror thriller, which feels a bit fake, but at least it's a good fake. Characters...

I absolutely loved Relic (A Special Agent Pendergast Novel) and I'm already planning to dive into more books in this series. From the very first page to the last, Relic (A Special Agent Pendergast Novel) was utterly entertaining and suspenseful! It was completely riveting, with the tension just ratcheting up higher and higher. I was practically flipping pages as fast as I could.What made it so good:The creature was smart, devious, and genuinely terrifying – enough to totally freak you out! Plus,...

Ever read a book so intense and absorbing that you race through parts and then wonder, "Did I actually read all of that?" That's "Relic (A Special Agent Pendergast Novel)" by Douglas Preston. This is definitely one of *those* books. I owe Matthew a thank you for recommending this one. "Relic (A Special Agent Pendergast Novel)" was a thoroughly enjoyable thriller for me. Having worked in an art museum before, both as security and later as a curator, I could really immerse myself in the setting. ...

Sometimes I just really crave a greasy burger. I don’t care if it’s made with questionable cuts of meat or loaded with enough salt to dehydrate a small village. I just want to sink my teeth into that juicy patty, let the savory, guilty-pleasure flavor wash over me, even as the excess grease drips down my chin. That’s how I feel about thrillers sometimes. I don’t read them constantly, but every so often, the mood hits, and I just want—nay, NEED—one. It doesn’t matter if it’s full of clunky dialog...

20224.5⭐!A crate filled with ritual objects, field notes, and a figurine from an abandoned Amazonian hut gets shipped to the New York Museum of Natural History. Whittlesey wants to study the local plants, but short on time, he uses them as packing material for later examination. One scientist from Whittlesey's expedition is missing, so he stays behind to search for him.Relic (A Special Agent Pendergast Novel) ticks all my boxes! It's a mystery-suspense thriller with horror and sci-fi vibes. Befo...

A solid blend of science and suspense that really brought Michael Crichton to mind. Exceptionally thrilling, with plenty of twists I genuinely didn't anticipate while reading Douglas Preston's *Relic (A Special Agent Pendergast Novel)*. If you enjoy a good thriller book review, this one's a winner.

"Every sixty to seventy million years or so, life starts getting very well adapted to its environment. Too well adapted, perhaps. There is a population explosion of the successful life forms. Then, suddenly a new species appears out of the blue. It is almost always a predatory creature, a killing machine. It tears through the host population, killing, feeding, multiplying. Slowly at first, then ever faster.” The Amazon has always been an attractive source for exploration for the scientific co...

Relic (A Special Agent Pendergast Novel)Some thoughts.Now, this isn’t really a review, simply because too much time has passed since I actually read the novel to form any objective and cohesive opinion on its literary merit. What I would like to focus on is what remained with me.I’m sticking to my original rating. This novel is one of the few that my wife and I still discuss on a rather regular basis, even after all this time. Relic (A Special Agent Pendergast Novel) ticked quite a few of the ri...

This is another book (or rather, series of books) that my late wife introduced me to. We were married for 34 years before she passed, so we shared quite a few books, sometimes to each other's surprise. I got her into epic fantasy, and she got me into authors like Preston & Child, and Koontz. I'm honestly surprised not only that I liked *Relic (A Special Agent Pendergast Novel)* by Douglas Preston, but that I decided to give it 4 stars. It's a surprisingly absorbing read, and the Pendergast chara...