Old Bones (Nora Kelly & Corrie Swanson Series #1)

by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child, Cynthia Farrell (Read by)

Overview

The first in the groundbreaking Nora Kelly series from #1 bestselling authors Preston & Child blends the legend of the Donner party with a riveting suspense tale, taking the dynamic duo's work to new heights.

Nora Kelly, a young but successful curator with a series of important excavations already under her belt, is approached by the handsome Historian, Guy Porter, to lead an expedition unlike any other. Guy tells his story—one involving the ill-fated Donner Party, who became permanently lodged in the American consciousness in the winter of 1847, when the first skeletonized survivors of the party stumbled out of the California mountains, replete with tales of courage, resourcefulness, bad luck, murder, barbarism—and, finally, starvation and cannibalism.

Captivated by the Donner Party, Nora agrees and they venture into the Sierra Nevada in search of the camp. Quickly, they learn that the discovery of the missing starvation camp is just the tip of the iceberg—and that the real truth behind those long-dead pioneers is not only far more complex and surprising than they could have imagined...but it is one that puts them both in mortal danger from a very real, present-day threat in which the search for the lost party, and its fabled fortune in gold, are merely means to a horrifying end.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781549142246
Publisher:	Hachette Audio
Publication date:	08/20/2019
Series:	Nora Kelly & Corrie Swanson Series , #1
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	674,020
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 5.85(h) x 1.55(d)

About the Author

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 Fever Dream, Cold Vengeance, Two Graves, and Gideon's Corpse. In addition to his novels, Preston writes about archaeology for the New Yorker and Smithsonian magazines. Lincoln Child is a former book editor who has published five novels of his own, including the huge bestseller Deep Storm.
Readers can sign up for The Pendergast File, a monthly "strangely entertaining note" from the authors, at their website, www.PrestonChild.com. The authors welcome visitors to their alarmingly active Facebook page, where they post regularly.

Place of Birth:

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Education:

B.A., Pomona College, 1978

Website:

http://www.prestonchild.com

Editorial Reviews

EXTRAORDINARY ACCLAIM FOR PRESTON & CHILD:

"There's nothing else like them."—Washington Post

"Mystery thriller writing of the highest order."—Washington Post

"Consistently exciting and never predictable."—Associated Press

From the Publisher

This audiobook launches a new series from the Preston-Child writing team but is a challenging listen. The opening chapters are disjointed, and the narration often lacks variation. Narrator Cynthia Farrell paces the story well but struggles with voicing the characters and injecting enough distinction in conversations. The premise is promising. Archaeologist Nora Kelly is approached with the opportunity of a lifetime: a chance to lead the search for the lost camp of the Donner Party. When Nora teams up with historian Clive Benton, the unearthing of the sad history leads to present-day violence and the arrival of young FBI agent Corrie Swanson. The story itself is compelling, but the narration doesn't do it justice. K.S.M. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2019 - AudioFile

06/10/2019

Archeologist Nora Kelly takes center stage in this intriguing series launch from bestsellers Preston and Child (the Aloysius Pendergast series, in which Kelly’s been a supporting character). She is contacted by historian Clive Benton, who claims to have located a diary written by the wife of George Donner, who led the doomed Donner Party in 1847. Benton believes that entries in the diary could identify the location of a lost third camp set up by some of the Donner Party, and hopes that Kelly will lead a search for it. As Kelly and her team begin their work in the California mountains, fledgling FBI agent Corrie Swanson, another member of the Pendergast-verse, looks into the murder of a man found in the exposed grave of Florence Regis, who also has a link to the Donner Party. Swanson’s inquiries lead her to Kelly, and the suspense rises as they get closer to the truth. The two strong female protagonists share a dynamic reminiscent of that between Pendergast and his friend on the NYPD, Vincent D’Agosta. Preston and Child have recaptured some of their old magic. Agent: Eric Simonoff, WME. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

2019-06-17
Young archaeologist Nora Kelly joins a perilous search for the Lost Camp of the Donner Party in this latest collaboration by Preston and Child (Verses for the Dead, 2018, etc.).

In 1846, westbound travelers became snowbound in the Sierra Nevada, and in "one of the greatest calamities of the westward migration," some resorted to cannibalism in a desperate attempt to survive. Now, historian Clive Benton has the original journal of Tamzene Donner, whose body was eaten. Benton asks Kelly for her expertise in finding and studying the camp. The old bones they expect to find will have important historical significance, but Benton also confides that there may be gold coins worth $20 million hidden near the camp. Meanwhile, newly minted FBI Special Agent Corinne Swanson is assigned the case of "a dead body in a vandalized grave." Turns out there are four grave robberies, all of descendants of the Donner disaster. Kelly and Swanson work together in a mildly testy relationship, but they're really both pros. Other members of the team hear rumors of the gold, and tragedy strikes. As they get closer to where the Lost Camp might be, members of their expedition begin to die, and a serious storm approaches that threatens to cause a deadly avalanche. Of course, villainy is afoot that may snuff out Kelly's and Swanson's young lives. Neither has a personal interest in gold they can't legally possess, but others may. Yet the clever plot suggests a dark secret that lies within the bones they find. The two women are smart, likable characters, but readers ought not to take their survival for granted. Special Agent Pendergast takes a break from his own series to make a brief, consequential appearance.

Like other Preston and Child adventures, this is a smart, satisfying read.

Kirkus Reviews