Book Review: Relic by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

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...

But the museum's directors plan to go ahead with a big bash to celebrate the new exhibition, in spite of the murders. Museum researcher Margo Green must find out who-or what-is doing the killing. But can she do it in time to stop the massacre?

My Review: 
The Whittlesey expedition to the Amazon in 1987 turned into a disaster, with several going missing in the jungle, a plane crash killing the rest of the people and a trail of death following the contents of the crates headed back to the Natural History Museum in New York. Those in charge ignore the signs that something arrived with the crates and now that the items are being displayed in a soon to be opened exhibit, death is stalking the corridors of the museum again, killing stray visitors and security guards. With the Museum managers refusing to postpone opening night, a team of scientists, police and FBI are trying to locate this killer before it can feast on the special guests.

Firstly, I feel the need to warn other readers NOT to expect an all out horror from this book as I did. I bought it because of my enjoyment of the film which was certainly a horror film so I jumped to the conclusion that this was horror, which is why I was disappointed. Actually this is a well written science mystery/thriller but the main focus is on finding out what happened to the expedition, what is stalking the dark halls at night and why it is going after humans. Yes it does have some tense scenes where the monster is prowling but until the opening night, there are only a few deaths. The rest of the book focuses on solving the mystery. I actually thought that it was a decent read, just a little slow for my personal tastes. If the reader goes into this book knowing what to expect, they might enjoy the book.

The main focus of the book is on Margo, research assistant to the brilliant but contraversial wheelchair bound Chairman of Evolutionary Biology Dr Frock. I liked both characters because their whole plot was about solving the mystery so that people stop dying. Dr Frock is also excited that he might be able to prove his theory that every so often when a particular animal is dominant on earth, a super predator comes along to wipe them out. Now that super predator is lurking in the dark museum, Dr Frock and Margo have to use every resource they have to try and work out what is happening and why, while the Museum managers do everything they can to cover up what has been going on and stop the media getting hold of the real story.

I liked that we also go back into the details of the ill fated expedition. Whittlesey is supposed to be looking for evidence of the existance of a secret tribe called the Kothoga who were said to have control of a legendary monster called Mbwun who murdered all of their enemies. It is rumoured that the tribe lost control of the entity and that the expedition relics being taken to New York have lured the beast to follow. I liked the gradual reveal of what really happened when Whittlesey goes rogue and starts to search out the actual tribe itself. The scientists come to the conclusion that some kind of creatue is doing the killing but can't seem to convince anyone of their theory so it is a race against time for them to find proof before the opening night offers up a buffet to the monster. The scientists are aided by a journalist who has been hired to write an official fluffy book and he is more than happy to delve into what could really be happening with the hushed up murders.

The other main players in the book are the law enforcement team, led by cop D'Agosta. He soon has to share the investigation with eccentric southern FBI agent Pendergast who has been investigating similar murders in New Orleans. I liked that Pendergast was unconventional and that he developed a good working relationship with the police instead of just the steriotype idiot FBI upsetting the cops. We do get another agent briefly filling that role but he was only in near the end and didn't change my enjoyment of the characters. Both men are working on the assumption that the killer is human and has constructed a weapon to resemble the image on the Mbwun idol on display and it is not until the grand finale that they realise they have an actual monster roaming around. 

It is certainly a slow burn book so don't expect a huge amount of action. It does focus on the scientific mystery though only a couple of paragraphs made my eyes glaze over! Mostly I could follow the science stuff and I can't say it was dull, just slow. However from opening night, things do liven up, the tension goes through the roof and we follow quite a few people locked in the building with the monster. There are the Museum managers hiding in a room waiting for rescue, the computer and security team trying to find a way to get the malfunctioning system running again, Frock and Margo working on their evidence, D'Agosta trying to get a group of guests to safety, and Pendergast trying to hunt the beast in the tunnels. The last segment is actually quite enjoyable and much more what I was looking for. 

My original scoring when I read this book was 2.5 which is a bit mean perhaps as I did finish the book and I liked some aspe cts of it. The characters were well written and I did care about them, the expedition sub plot was very interesting, I liked the Mbwun mythology and the details on the exhibit, and the finale was satisfying. I've decided it is only fair to raise my rating to 3 stars as it is a decent enough science thriller with the odd bits of action. The death scenes have a graphic description of the state of the bodies which some readers may not like but you can easily skip those parts as they are short. If you like a bit of science and mythology and a light touch of horror tension, then this could be the book for you.

Read October 2019
3 stars.