What do you think?
Rate this book
The Pendergast Files:
This discounted ebundle includes: Relic, Reliquary
The books that introduced the world to Douglas Preston’s and Lincoln Child’s FBI Special Agent Pendergast. Hidden deep beneath Manhattan lies a warren of tunnels, sewers, and galleries, mostly forgotten by those who walk the streets above. There lies the ultimate secret of the Museum Beat.
Relic — Just days before a massive exhibition opens at the popular New York Museum of Natural History, visitors are being savagely murdered in the museum's dark hallways and secret rooms. Autopsies indicate that the killer cannot be human...
Reliquary —When two grotesquely deformed skeletons are found deep in the mud off the Manhattan shoreline, museum curator Margo Green is called in to aid the investigation. Margo must once again team up with police lieutenant D'Agosta and FBI agent Pendergast, as well as the brilliant Dr. Frock, to try and solve the puzzle.
Books by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
The Pendergast Series
Relic
Reliquary
Other books
Mount Dragon
Books by Douglas Preston
The Kraken Project
Impact
Blasphemy
The Monster of Florence
The Codex
Jennie
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
971 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 15, 2017
176 people are currently reading
198 people want to read
About the author
Douglas Preston
178 books13.4k followersDouglas Preston was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1956, and grew up in the deadly boring suburb of Wellesley. Following a distinguished career at a private nursery school--he was almost immediately expelled--he attended public schools and the Cambridge School of Weston. Notable events in his early life included the loss of a fingertip at the age of three to a bicycle; the loss of his two front teeth to his brother Richard's fist; and various broken bones, also incurred in dust-ups with Richard. (Richard went on to write The Hot Zone and The Cobra Event, which tells you all you need to know about what it was like to grow up with him as a brother.)
As they grew up, Doug, Richard, and their little brother David roamed the quiet suburbs of Wellesley, terrorizing the natives with home-made rockets and incendiary devices mail-ordered from the backs of comic books or concocted from chemistry sets. With a friend they once attempted to fly a rocket into Wellesley Square; the rocket malfunctioned and nearly killed a man mowing his lawn. They were local celebrities, often appearing in the "Police Notes" section of The Wellesley Townsman. It is a miracle they survived childhood intact.
After unaccountably being rejected by Stanford University (a pox on it), Preston attended Pomona College in Claremont, California, where he studied mathematics, biology, physics, anthropology, chemistry, geology, and astronomy before settling down to English literature. After graduating, Preston began his career at the American Museum of Natural History in New York as an editor, writer, and eventually manager of publications. (Preston also taught writing at Princeton University and was managing editor of Curator.) His eight-year stint at the Museum resulted in the non-fiction book, Dinosaurs in the Attic, edited by a rising young star at St. Martin's Press, a polymath by the name of Lincoln Child. During this period, Preston gave Child a midnight tour of the museum, and in the darkened Hall of Late Dinosaurs, under a looming T. Rex, Child turned to Preston and said: "This would make the perfect setting for a thriller!" That thriller would, of course, be Relic.
In 1986, Douglas Preston piled everything he owned into the back of a Subaru and moved from New York City to Santa Fe to write full time, following the advice of S. J. Perelman that "the dubious privilege of a freelance writer is he's given the freedom to starve anywhere." After the requisite period of penury, Preston achieved a small success with the publication of Cities of Gold, a non-fiction book about Coronado's search for the legendary Seven Cities of Cibola. To research the book, Preston and a friend retraced on horseback 1,000 miles of Coronado's route across Arizona and New Mexico, packing their supplies and sleeping under the stars--nearly killing themselves in the process. Since then he has published several more non-fiction books on the history of the American Southwest, Talking to the Ground and The Royal Road, as well as a novel entitled Jennie. In the early 1990s Preston and Child teamed up to write suspense novels; Relic was the first, followed by several others, including Riptide and Thunderhead. Relic was released as a motion picture by Paramount in 1997. Other films are under development at Hollywood studios. Preston and Child live 500 miles apart and write their books together via telephone, fax, and the Internet.
Preston and his brother Richard are currently producing a television miniseries for ABC and Mandalay Entertainment, to be aired in the spring of 2000, if all goes well, which in Hollywood is rarely the case.
Preston continues a magazine writing career by contributing regularly to The New Yorker magazine. He has also written for National Geographic, Natural History, Smithsonisan, Harper's,and Travel & Leisure,among others.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/dougla...
As they grew up, Doug, Richard, and their little brother David roamed the quiet suburbs of Wellesley, terrorizing the natives with home-made rockets and incendiary devices mail-ordered from the backs of comic books or concocted from chemistry sets. With a friend they once attempted to fly a rocket into Wellesley Square; the rocket malfunctioned and nearly killed a man mowing his lawn. They were local celebrities, often appearing in the "Police Notes" section of The Wellesley Townsman. It is a miracle they survived childhood intact.
After unaccountably being rejected by Stanford University (a pox on it), Preston attended Pomona College in Claremont, California, where he studied mathematics, biology, physics, anthropology, chemistry, geology, and astronomy before settling down to English literature. After graduating, Preston began his career at the American Museum of Natural History in New York as an editor, writer, and eventually manager of publications. (Preston also taught writing at Princeton University and was managing editor of Curator.) His eight-year stint at the Museum resulted in the non-fiction book, Dinosaurs in the Attic, edited by a rising young star at St. Martin's Press, a polymath by the name of Lincoln Child. During this period, Preston gave Child a midnight tour of the museum, and in the darkened Hall of Late Dinosaurs, under a looming T. Rex, Child turned to Preston and said: "This would make the perfect setting for a thriller!" That thriller would, of course, be Relic.
In 1986, Douglas Preston piled everything he owned into the back of a Subaru and moved from New York City to Santa Fe to write full time, following the advice of S. J. Perelman that "the dubious privilege of a freelance writer is he's given the freedom to starve anywhere." After the requisite period of penury, Preston achieved a small success with the publication of Cities of Gold, a non-fiction book about Coronado's search for the legendary Seven Cities of Cibola. To research the book, Preston and a friend retraced on horseback 1,000 miles of Coronado's route across Arizona and New Mexico, packing their supplies and sleeping under the stars--nearly killing themselves in the process. Since then he has published several more non-fiction books on the history of the American Southwest, Talking to the Ground and The Royal Road, as well as a novel entitled Jennie. In the early 1990s Preston and Child teamed up to write suspense novels; Relic was the first, followed by several others, including Riptide and Thunderhead. Relic was released as a motion picture by Paramount in 1997. Other films are under development at Hollywood studios. Preston and Child live 500 miles apart and write their books together via telephone, fax, and the Internet.
Preston and his brother Richard are currently producing a television miniseries for ABC and Mandalay Entertainment, to be aired in the spring of 2000, if all goes well, which in Hollywood is rarely the case.
Preston continues a magazine writing career by contributing regularly to The New Yorker magazine. He has also written for National Geographic, Natural History, Smithsonisan, Harper's,and Travel & Leisure,among others.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/dougla...
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 10, 2018
Finally! The first two books are out of the way and I can move on. I had this one figured out way before the big reveal. Can't buy the reovirus/drug changes and I'm glad it is over.
March 4, 2022
Easy to tell that this book was written decades ago, because it lacks the overused gimmicks of modern thrillers -- you know, the ones with the word 'Wife' in the title, or about a drunk lady acting as voyeur to a family that seems perfect but...gasp, IS NOT! Many have described this as a thriller, but it feels closer to a mystery, despite us having a good sense of who the murderer is from the beginning (which is a key element of a thriller).
This isn't a cheesy mystery; it's smart and well-written, and had a lot of characters, all of them well-drawn and distinct. It feels original, and it's set in a museum! I love novels set in a library, and a museum felt like the next best thing.
Pendergast isn't introduced until the book, and it's mystery, is well underway. He felt a bit out of place for a few chapters. He gives off very Sherlock Holmesy vibes, and they felt a bit affected off the hop, though eventually he clicks into his surroundings and the novel, and the disconnect between his investigation and Margo's come together.
Despite being written by two authors, the chapters come together seamlessly and the writing has a unified voice. There were several moments where I wondered who wrote what, and thought that these two authors must be storytelling soulmates.
Relic is a straightforward mystery that is nonetheless original, grabbing the reader right away, maintaining a perfect pace, and even offering a glimpse into the workings of a museum. Amazon forced me to buy the first two books in one, but that doesn't feel like too bad of a deal now. I'll be happy to read the next installment.
This isn't a cheesy mystery; it's smart and well-written, and had a lot of characters, all of them well-drawn and distinct. It feels original, and it's set in a museum! I love novels set in a library, and a museum felt like the next best thing.
Pendergast isn't introduced until the book, and it's mystery, is well underway. He felt a bit out of place for a few chapters. He gives off very Sherlock Holmesy vibes, and they felt a bit affected off the hop, though eventually he clicks into his surroundings and the novel, and the disconnect between his investigation and Margo's come together.
Despite being written by two authors, the chapters come together seamlessly and the writing has a unified voice. There were several moments where I wondered who wrote what, and thought that these two authors must be storytelling soulmates.
Relic is a straightforward mystery that is nonetheless original, grabbing the reader right away, maintaining a perfect pace, and even offering a glimpse into the workings of a museum. Amazon forced me to buy the first two books in one, but that doesn't feel like too bad of a deal now. I'll be happy to read the next installment.
October 24, 2022
The books in this series are very enjoyable and creative. If you like a little history mixed with science fiction, you'll love this series. The main character, Aloysius Pendergast, is an FBI agent who takes only the most bizarre cases and travels anywhere in the country these cases take him. Pendergast's character is from Louisiana and from 'old money,' so expense is never a problem for him. He is kind of like the Sherlock Holmes character in that he sees clues that others don't and is happy to point them out. He also has his own way of meditating that allows him to view crime scenes in a way no one else might imagine. If you haven't read this series, it's definitely worth looking into.
October 17, 2019
Excellent
The early Pendergast tales are the best. This is the second time of reading them. Highly recommend to anyone who enjoys a great book.
The early Pendergast tales are the best. This is the second time of reading them. Highly recommend to anyone who enjoys a great book.
May 7, 2023
Very twisted & engaging!! Great read.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews