Relic

By Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

The New York Museum of Natural History is built over a subterranean labyrinth of neglected specimen vaults, unmapped drainage tunnels and long-forgotten catacombs.

And there's something down there.

When the mutilated bodies of two young boys are discovered deep within the museum's bowels, Lieutenant Vincent D'Agosta of the NYPD fears a homicidal maniac may be at large. FBI agent Aloysius X.L. Pendergast believes they may be facing something much worse.

As the death toll mounts, and with the opening of the museum's new 'Superstition' exhibition just days away, the two men must work together to prevent a massacre.

'Sit back, crack open the book and get ready for the ride of your life' DAVID BALDACCI.

'White-hot bestselling suspense. Simply brilliant!' LISA GARDNER.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Head of Zeus
• Release date: Dec 18, 2014
• ISBN: 9781784970482

Douglas Preston

Douglas Preston writes about archaeology for the New Yorker and National Geographic magazines, as well as novels and nonfiction works (such as The Lost City of the Monkey God). With Lincoln Child, he writes international #1 bestselling thrillers, including the Agent Pendergast adventures.

Reviews for Relic

[bettesbooks · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Nothing is better than a scary, suspenseful novel by great storytellers. Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child ratchet up the scare factor with gory descriptions, unbelievable scenarios where the hero(s) are needed to step up and assist, and a fantastical storyline. The pages just kept flipping until the very end.

[justagirlwithabook · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved this book. I got hooked right away! It follows a young woman who works at a museum and is working to put together a collection for an upcoming exhibit. Strange things start happening - people disappear, people are found brutally killed, there are strange movements and sounds in the dark - and our female protagonist decides to investigate. I was hooked so quickly and wanted to know what was actually happening. The reveal towards the end is definitely quite unrealistic (though it's explained away in a fairly scientific manner that makes it sort of work - similar to a Jurassic Park sort of scenario). I've been hooked on the series ever since (and absolutely love Agent Pendergast)!

[caanderson-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Creepy and scary. Love when creatures go bad type stories.

[glitterina · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Genuinely frightening.

[birdo82 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

There's a lot to love about this even blend of techno-thriller and sci-fi horror, including an exhilarating final act and the introduction of a certain, magnetic, Southern FBI agent.

[tysonadams · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Preston and Child would have to rank as two of my favourite authors. How can you go past characters like Pendergast and D'Agosta?

I'm going to gradually make my way through the Pendergast series over the coming months, having bought most of them. The only uncertainty is whether or not I'll re-read Cemetery Dance and Still Life With Crows.

[carol420 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The story takes place in the New York Museum of Natural History. The Museum has seen declining numbers in recent years and is in need of new funds. The people in charge decide to open a major exhibit entitled "Superstition" to build public interest and support. Days before the exhibit opens a brutal murder is committed. The body has been mutilated in a very peculiar way that suggests the killer isn't human. Leading the police investigation is Lt. Vincent D'Agosta. D'Agosta wants to shut the museum down, but his superiors and museum officials oppose the idea. Instead things proceed as though nothing is wrong until another murder occurs. Some wish the exhibit to be closed until the killer is captured, but museum officials continue to push to allow the exhibit to open as planned. A special FBI agent from out of state, Pendergast, arrives on the scene and begins working with museum researcher Margo Green and Lt. D'Agosta in an attempt to uncover the real killer and decipher what their motive is.

"The Relic" was the first novel by Preston and Child and they use it to introduce one of the more fascinating characters I have ever encountered,, Aloysius X. L. Pendergast, a modern-day American version of Sherlock Holmes. I found the character of Pendergast to be fascinating. And the monster? Well you only need one good monster to sell a story and this book has a great one.

[she_climber · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A great audio book and story. The narration, sound effects, made this chilling action-packed tale a truly entertaining listen. I want to be set free to explore the sub-basement of the New York Natural History Museum. (Now that the creature is gone, of course). Looking forward to continuing this series (as soon as Audible comes back with it, not sure where it went since I purchased the first one from there). Pendergast was quite an interesting character. And with the ending left as it was, I can't just leave it there.

[tmusso-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of the few thrillers I have enjoyed both on the page and on the screen.

[bookymouse · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed the story. It was very suspenseful and atmospheric. I guess I should have just read this one though, instead of listening to the audio. It lost some points for the echo chambers and voice effects. They are very annoying.

[jadorelecafe · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved this book to death. The characters, the story line, the twists and turns. I loved it. I have continued to read further into this series and they have become my guilty little pleasure books, they end up being fun and quick reads for me and they never fail to disappoint me with some new twist or turn. This series is full of surprises.

[ggmasheila · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was my introduction to Agent Pendergast and I haven't stopped reading about him yet. With a unique storyline, authors Preston & Child created a character who just keeps growing with each book. Very enjoyable.Note: This review is done many years after my reading the book so have only a remembrance of some book details...and the knowledge that I liked it enough to continue with the series.

[bensdad00 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

First by the pair and one of the best

[jadedog13 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"My dear girl, there are more things in heaven and earth, as Hamlet pointed out. It isn't always for us to speculate. Sometimes we must simply observe."
-Dr. Frock
This is one scary, creepy monster story. The New York Museum of Natural History is getting ready to unveil the Superstition exhibition and with the recent killings, the staff are all on edge. The police & FBI are looking for a serial killer, but Margo (a graduate student) and Dr. Frock (her adviser) have found signs that the killer may not actually be human.

So, I have been trying to catch up on reading the ebooks that have been sitting on my kindle for months. This was one of them. I originally bought it because I read other books by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child that I really enjoyed. But I was so caught up in the world of Young Adult series that I forgot about some of the adult books I had.

This book had me up several nights until the wee hours of the morning. I was very anxious to see what would happen; who would live and who would die. What would D'Agosta (the hard boiled NYPD officer) and Pendergast (the composed FBI agent) do when they finally realized what was actually behind all the killings? And how were the administrators of the museum involved in this whole mess?

I was a bit disappointed by the ending. It ended too fast for me. I'm not sure how it could be done better. Maybe it couldn't. But I guess after all the suspense and build up, I was looking for a more satisfying ending. Overall, I found this book thrilling and scary and creepy. It was great.

Recommended to:
Anyone who enjoys creepy horror thrillers with monsters.

[zmagic69 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

First book in the series.
Great writing, a little to detailed about things that didn’t really add to the story. Very likable main character, and interesting story.

[christilee394 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was an exciting one to fall into. Proper fright, with many twists I didn't see coming. The suspense throughout the whole book had my heart pumping. The ending has me hooked and wanting to continue on with the series.

[vesper1931 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

New York Museum of Natural History has become home to a killer. FBI agent Pendergast has been sent to investigate, with the help of several museum staff and police.
An enjoyable monster book, not my usual read but having seen the film I have got round to reading the book.

[reading_fox · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Fun. I'm not sure I'm entirely a fan of the supernatural predator sub-genre of crime, but it mostly worked quite well. It's a quite choppy jumping between a few characters with (my least favourite writing style) a few random short cut-aways to other peopleTBC

[dgrachel · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Good suspense/thriller with a solution that I did not expect. The cover blurb mentions Jurassic Park and I think Crichton is a good comparison. Well written, strong characters-looking forward to the next in the series.

[philantrop-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

“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.” “Relic” was a fast and easy read: New York City’s Natural History Museum has already had its share of dark rumours about a “Museum Beast” when two kids are found brutally murdered in the basement of the museum. And further deaths follow... Thus, Lieutenant D’Agosta from the local Police department takes the lead in the investigation, closely followed by FBI agent Pendergast from New Orleans who knows the killer’s modus operandi from a previous case. Furthermore, there are Margo Green, a graduate student, preparing her dissertation, supported in both that and her independent investigation by Professor Frock, her wheelchair-bound mentor who is part of the higher echelon of the museum. Soon, all of them will find out that sometimes the hunters turn into the hunted quickly... So, why read this? Simple: After a long streak of taxing reads, I wanted something simple, something easy and satisfying and, depending on the kind of “easy” I want, this could be a murder mystery who-dun-it or, as I this instance, a fast-paced thriller. In a thriller I'm looking for... - Thrills (obviously!) – check! - Suspense – check! - Surprise (as I knew the 1997 film, there was less of it than I would have liked but:) – check! - Excitement – check! - Anticipation – check! - Anxiety – check! … and I got it all. Especially the flight through the basement and subbasement of the museum was farily great and I certainly didn’t expect the ending which differs somewhat from the film. Thus, if you’re looking for an easy read with a lot of thrills, just grab a copy of “Relic”, turn the lights low and get reading!

[tvnerd95 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this book and was surprised by how good the book really is. I loved how detailed the authors are with some of the science but they keep it easy to understand. Even though some of the technical information sounds quite dated it helps give a true sense of how dependent on technology we can be. The books also does a good job of rounding out all the side clues and stories and bringing them all together for the conclusion.

The authors also did an excellent job of giving you a sense of being isolated in the museum. A character could be in one of the busiest museums in the world but still find themselves lost in its cavernous size and the authors really put this to go use in the book. There are plenty of creepy segments and the tension is built up very well and there are plenty of times in the story where the anticipation of what is about to happen is almost as nerve-racking as the actual event.

This book is so full of characters it was hard to keep some of them separate and to remember which timeframe they were involved in. The narrator was a huge help with his vocal abilities. There is a lot of time spent on several characters that I didn’t feel was needed and it made some parts of the story drag a little.

The narrator David Colacci did an excellent job with having to develop so many characters. I was never confused about who was speaking and he gave the main characters’ voices that truly fit their described personalities. Not an issue with the narrator but I did not enjoy how the book handled the sounds of characters in tunnels, on the radio or phone – the echo sound effect was quite annoying and unneeded.

[williemeikle-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I was in the mood for some monster mayhem, and THE RELIC has long been a favorite movie, so I finally got round to the original book, and I'm glad I did.

It's a fine example of the genre and reads a bit like an extended monster-of-the-week episode of the X-Files, with some added gore and thrills. The claustrophobic nature of the museum at night is a great venue for the jump scares and the monster itself is well realized, and suitably nasty in its habits.

There's an unfortunate sag in the middle 'what are we dealing with here' section, with too many talking heads and point of view characters - the movie did away with that by dropping some characters all together and merging others into each other. But it's a minor quibble in what is a great creature feature that rattles along nicely apart from that.

The prose is direct and straightforward, there's little character development, but really, that's not the point of a tale such as this. You're in a museum, at night, locked in with a ravenous beast that will eat your brain. At such times, it's not literary quality that you're thinking about.

[aneris-3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

3.5

This book is a very fast and entertaining read. Apart for occasionally too detailed depictions of characters' actions, it is more than a good way to have fun.

The whole series is named after a character who doesn't have a leading role in this story. Pendergast is neither a central nor minor character here. There isn't a character you could say he or she is a major character in the novel. Aloysius Pendergast and Margo Green and to a lesser degree NYPD Lieutenant Vincent D'Agosta, Dr. Frock and a journalist William Smithback are the ones who each in their own way help to find the truth behind the present killings and museum's past. Still, even though Pendergast isn't as prominent here as I would like, I am glad it's his series. I want to read more about him since you get only crumbs and teasers here (his past, his wife and so on).

The lack of romance worked so well here. I like that Margo Green is written as a ordinary woman, someone who is neither weak nor some kick-ass heroine. Margo could be anyone. She is completely normal, she can't really keep a secret, she gets scared. Pendergast and Margo do end up together fighting for their lives, but that's it. If anything romantic happens in later books, it doesn't matter.

I like that Smithback is a real character, not some caricature of a journalist only after a story. He does want it, but not at any cost. The Mayor is another character who is not presented as your usual politician.
The red tape, bureaucrats and too ambitious agents form a antagonistic knot the main characters have to entangle to get to the truth. They are a bit one-dimensional, but since the story itself is really good, it doesn't ruin it.

The reason this book is labelled horror among other things is well written and the explanation for the killings and the origin of a strange figurine are not unbelievable. It touches the ordinary things and science just close enough to make a great story.

While the book doesn't end in cliffhanger, its epilogue leaves an opening of bad things to come.

[stewartry · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I feel like I've heard amazing things about this series (though I couldn't tell you where)… But I can't say I'm impressed. Relic is a thriller, a sort-of mystery in which the murderer isn't going to be the butler or anyone else remotely as ordinary but something entirely Other. It's not a genre I ordinarily go in for, but since I've picked up an installment of the series here and there in various formats I thought I'd start at the beginning. It didn't begin well. It opened with the sort of prologue that usually makes me sigh, this one in a South American jungle with an expedition going sideways and pear-shaped all at once. And then it picked up and dropped down in Manhattan, as bodies began to drop. One question: How can you get ballistics on blood spatter? Because Preston & Child seemed to think that's a thing. Some of the science and technology in the book seemed … kind of adorable. Originally published in 1995, you wouldn't think it would be quite as outdated as it was – but it really was. The information gained from the DNA analysis seemed pretty far-fetched. Can you really tell from reading the DNA how long a gestation period is, or whether a species' estrous cycle is suppressed? Or even the average weight of a given creature?The storytelling was at times very nice. I made a note at one point: "What the hell happened to that guard?" He was placed in apparently imminent danger, and then … not mentioned again for long enough that I honestly started wondering if he'd been forgotten by the authors. And then, "Oh. There he is. Nicely done." But I have to say I was pretty surprised when what I assumed was the climax of the book came eight hours into a twelve-hour book. I don't think it's a spoiler to mention that in the midst of all the action there is substantial damage done to the museum and, of course, to a number of exhibits – and that hurt. Artifacts thousands of years old, smashed to bits for no good reason. That always hurts – more, in some cases, than character deaths do. There's a fair amount of repetition in the style of writing. There were at least a couple of mentions of how the creature looked just like the little figurine from South America – and then someone who should know better asks "what does it look like?" And if the New York FBI agent had given the same directions to the SWAT team one more time I would have started swearing. The whole plot was a little predictable – although there was at least one death I didn't expect. At one point Pendergast murmured "not yet" to himself over and over as he waited for his shot … which was absolutely moronic given how often everyone stressed the creature's enhanced senses. He might as well have been yelling "Hey! Come kill me over here!"It was such a shame that the old botanist told our heroes about the Mbwun legend, and then a few minutes later (audiobook time) the long-lost journal told almost the exact same story. There was no new revelation, no surprise, despite the fact that it was a first-hand account from someone who seemed to actually have experience of the terrible bargain the Kathoga tribe made. Nothing. The story of a bargain with the devil in which people have to eat their own children should not be boring, but, told for the second time in the space of a handful of chapters, it was. I wasn't overwhelmed with excitement about the characters; they skirted the borders of cliché at times, with the irascible cop, the high-handed Fed who swanned through doing what he needed to, the scientists so focused on their jobs that they've forgotten about life, the journalist who … well, ditto, in his way. Margot not quite but almost escaped being a token Girl. I will say I grew to enjoy FBI agent Smithback, with his Southern gentility and complete disregard for anything trying to get in his way. I wish the journalist in the group hadn't chosen to act like an idiot journalist at a really stupid time. It would have made so much more sense for him to be helpful and useful, and then capitalize on that later for a story. And were the mayor's fine words real, or because he just heard the reporter called out as such? I don't believe that was ever clarified – in this book, at least. There was a sort of anti-sexism that surprised me, and kept surprising me – both in its usage and in how it affected how I absorbed the book: the redoubtable Miss Rickman is consistently referred to as just "Rickman". And almost every time, right up to the end, I kept thinking they were talking about a male character. Women just aren't often referred to by their last name alone (I think it happens to my brother all the time, but to me only once at one job, because there were two of us with my first name and the other one came first). What particularly made it odd was that Margot Green is consistently referred to as Margot, but Rickman is Rickman. I know there are plenty of real examples of Evil Bureaucracy putting profit, pride, and publicity before public safety, and so on – but it gets old. They're never my favorite stories. They're not unrealistic – and maybe that's why they're not my favorites. I don't understand why, say, the directors of a museum would insist on proceeding with an exhibition opening when doing so might put thousands at grave risk. Or why an FBI agent in uncharted waters would fail to take heed of every concern, no matter who it came from, when thousands of lives were about to be at grave risk.I think it would have been a lot of fun to have everything going on below the surface – the beast or whatever cornered and captured in the basements, everything fixed and solved by the heroes of the piece while the nasties celebrate uninterrupted above, and then the good guys showing up disheveled and blood-spattered and exhausted, maybe damaged – and triumphant. The sound effects in the audiobook were incredibly obnoxious: echoes in the basement, a muffled overlay for someone on the phone or walkie, etc. Please. Don't. It was especially annoying because it was obviously meant to add a touch of realism – but something that could more naturally have added realism and urgency, a simple amping up of intensity in the narrator's voice in speed and timbre, didn't happen. Part of the climax was read as calmly and sedately as the places in which emails and computer readouts are read. The delivery of Smithbeck and his accent was enjoyable, though. After a while, that extended climax began to feel like The Towering Inferno or The Poseidon Adventure or something, with several discrete groups struggling to survive against a force greater than they are, amounting to a disaster. It just kept going, and going, a difficult situation becoming almost impossible, becoming almost unsurvivable. On the whole, it wasn't entirely my cuppa. I think I will keep going with the series, though; there was enough there that gave me hope for later stories that no longer involve the plot points of this one and its immediate sequel. Anyhow, I own 'em – I'll probably get around to 'em.

[altheaann · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Not nearly as funny as their later Cabinet of Curiosities.
Also set in the Natural History Museum. An evil idol brought back by anthropologists from the Brazilian rainforest seems to have spawned a dinosaur-man serial killer who's loose in the unmapped subbasements...
A pretty standard, entertaining horror/thriller.

[infjsarah · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Just OK. It was very slow to start but I enjoyed the end. Not sure I'll rush to try more though.

[scolgo · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Highly entertaining pseudo-scientific thriller featuring a very interesting monster concept. I loved the epilogue where the true nature/origin of Mbwun was revealed, and how it set things up for a sequel - which I will be reading soon.

[bsiemens_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Relic has an eminently creative plot, while still maintaining easy-to-follow excerpts. I enjoyed the interplay of attraction and offense between the dynamic, interesting characters that filled in the story. Sometimes I like to be a distracted audio book listener rather than a voracious reader; in those cases, any book like this one would fit the bill perfectly.

[mlake_22 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a great read! Creepy, suspenseful, scientific and fast paced. I gobbled this up and can't wait to sink my teeth into the next one.

[kvrfan9 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A brutal creature from the jungles of the South America has come to inhabit the deep recesses under the American Museum of Natural History, and mayhem abounds.

I can appreciate a thriller about marauding monsters, but why do the human characters in such books often turn out to be such cartoons? The human villains are greedy one-notes, and the good guys are unappreciated for their heroism until all see the world finally hinges on them. Hey, here's an idea: instead of having cookie-cutter cops inhabit a monster-book, bring on a ghostwriter like Richard Price or George Pelicans to write the police characters. Wouldn't it be interesting to witness the cops from The Wire confront a situation of a monstrous beast in the city's sewers?

I also rolled my eyes at the "science" portrayed in the book, which seemed quite absurd, until . . .

This is a book you have to read to the very end. I was ready to put it down once everything had seemed to resolve itself, but an Epilogue is tacked on at the end. And the Epilogue did a good job of redeeming much of the text for me.

And while the Epilogue's "science" certainly is also greatly implausible, it added a new twist to everything that had gone before. The Epilogue gained the book a star in my review.