Relic [Kindle Edition]

Now, imagine being there at night.

No more crowds of screaming, laughing schoolchildren playing tag beneath the blue whale model. No more groups on tour, listening to headsets as they shuffle from one glass case to the next. No more smiling museum employees wearing their vests and nametags. The bright lights are out, the halls are dark, and it seems to you as though you're the only living thing left in the building.

But you're not.

Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child start off with a whiz-bang of a premise and weave a rollercoaster ride of a thriller from it. Thanks in part to Preston's intimate familiarity with the American Museum of Natural History in NYC, "Relic" is imbued with an authenticity, a very genuine feel that enables you to visit that museum through the pages of the book. At times, it brings back that musty, dusty museum smell as acutely as though you've stepped through the front doors of the Smithsonian. Add to this startling realism the presence of a creature easily as horrifying as "Jurassic Park"'s raptors, and you have in your hands the very definition of "page-turner."

Just don't see the movie.

The book begins as it means to go on, dark and sinister, with guards and children butchered early on in particularly nightmarish scenes. The build up towards the gala opening of the museum's new, eerily consistent Superstition Exhibition and the attempt by the museum officials to let nothing get in the way of its fund raising is both gripping and intriguing. As Margo Green's investigations into a previous exploratory expedition unfolds, and she briefly encounters a terrifying creature in the dark, cynical cop Lieutenant D'Agosta makes headway in his investigation of the killings. The level-headed Agent Pendergast, reminiscent of the unshakeable Agent Cooper from 'Twin Peaks', is a welcome addition to the cast, sparking up various witty repartees with the aforementioned police officer. The climax erupts on the gala night more than one hundred pages from the end, exploding into a gruesome and fast-paced pressure-cooker scenario in which a monster hunts down a group of the gala-night revellers through the crypt-like interior of the museum. What separates 'The Relic' from a million other such novels is that, rather than building to a ten-page climax, the nerve-racking, climactic atmosphere is phenomenally maintained for almost a quarter of the book. While D'Agosta and the irascible reporter Smithback lead the survivors deeper and deeper underground through creepy, water-filled tunnels, Green and Pendergast rush to discover the true nature of the creature in what is certainly the most terrifying and gripping dénouement I have ever read.

The one criticism I would have is that the epilogue is of a completely different tone to the rest of the story and seems tagged on merely to provide food for a sequel, which it indeed did in 'Reliquary'. That aside, it is one of the most atmospheric and well-thought-out novels ever written, at once exciting, terrifying and intelligent, combining the mainstream writing techniques of high-concept thrillers and combining them with the scientific captivation of author Richard Preston, brother of the co-author here. If only Lincoln Preston's other books were as good, Michael Crichton would have a run for his money.