About the Author

DOUGLAS PRESTON has worked for the American Museum of Natural History as well as being a contributor to "The New Yorker." He is the "New York Times" bestselling author of "The Codex" and "Tyrannosaur Canyon.""Relic" is the first book in his many "New York Times" bestselling collaborations with Lincoln Child, including "Dance of Death, ""Brimstone, The Cabinet of Curiosities, " and "Still Life with Crows." He lives with his family in Maine.
LINCOLN CHILD is the author of "Utopia" and "Death Match, " as well as a number of "New York Times" bestselling thrillers with Douglas Preston. He lives with his wife and daughter in Morristown, New Jersey.

Reviews

"Far above Crichton's "Jurassic Park.""--"Booklist "on" Relic" "What might happen if a creature from "Jurassic Park" came to New York City." -"The Chicago Tribune" on" Relic
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"Wildly cool...Thrill hounds couldn't ask for a creepier environment...a thriller staged in the world's scariest building, with no room for the squeamish." -"Kirkus Reviews "on" Relic" ""Jaws" takes Manhattan."--"San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle "on" Relic
" "A thriller that arrives with the kinetic energy of a meteor smacking the earth. "--"Tampa Tribune and Times "on" Relic""" """A high-concept, high-energy thriller . . . Builds to a superbly exciting climax, and then offers a final twist to boot."--"Publishers Weekly "on "Relic
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"Far above Crichton's "Jurassic Park"."--"Booklist "on" Relic" "What might happen if a creature from "Jurassic Park" came to New York City." -"The Chicago Tribune" on" Relic
"
"Wildly cool...Thrill hounds couldn't ask for a creepier environment...a thriller staged in the world's scariest building, with no room for the squeamish." -"Kirkus Reviews "on" Relic" ""Jaws" takes Manhattan."--"San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle "on" Relic
" "A thriller that arrives with the kinetic energy of a meteor smacking the earth. "--"Tampa Tribune and Times "on" Relic""" """A high-concept, high-energy thriller . . . Builds to a superbly exciting climax, and then offers a final twist to boot."--"Publishers Weekly "on "Relic
"

"Far above Crichton's "Jurassic Park,""--"Booklist "on" Relic" "What might happen if a creature from "Jurassic Park" came to New York City." -"The Chicago Tribune" on" Relic
"
"Wildly cool...Thrill hounds couldn't ask for a creepier environment...a thriller staged in the world's scariest building, with no room for the squeamish." -"Kirkus Reviews "on" Relic" ""Jaws" takes Manhattan."--"San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle "on" Relic
" "A thriller that arrives with the kinetic energy of a meteor smacking the earth. "--"Tampa Tribune and Times "on" Relic""" """A high-concept, high-energy thriller . . . Builds to a superbly exciting climax, and then offers a final twist to boot."--"Publishers Weekly "on "Relic
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One suspects that Child, who has edited numerous ghost and horror anthologies (e.g., Dark Company, St. Martin's, 1984), read Dinosaurs in the Attic (LJ 10/15/86), Preston's wonderful history of the American Museum of Natural History, and decided the pair should collaborate on a horror novel in this wonderfully spooky setting. The heroes (an FBI agent and a journalist) and heroine (a spunky graduate student) wander through basements, sub-basements, and tunnels, searching for the savagely murderous predator inadvertently sent to the museum from the Amazon. Despite the headless bodies turning up all over, the museum director is determined to proceed with the lucrative opening ceremony for the new "Superstition" exhibit. Then the monster gets loose among New York's rich and powerful. This is a real page-turner, part Jaws, part Poseidon Adventure. Essential for horror collections.-Marylaine Block, St. Ambrose Univ. Lib., Davenport, Ia.

A monster on the loose in New York City's American Museum of Natural History provides the hook for this high-concept, high-energy thriller. A statue of the mad god Mbwun, a monstrous mix of man and reptile, was discovered by a Museum expedition to South America in 1987. Now, it is about to become part of the new Superstition Exhibition at the museum (here renamed the ``New York Museum of Natural History''). But as the exhibition's opening night approaches, the museum may have to be shut down due to a series of savage murders that seem to be the work of a maniac-or a living version of Mbwun. When the museum's director pulls strings to ensure that the gala affair takes place, it's up to a small band of believers, led by graduate student Margo Green, her controversial adviser and an FBI agent who investigated similar killings in New Orleans, to stop the monster-if the culprit is indeed a monster-from going on a rampage. Less horror then action-adventure, the narrative builds to a superbly exciting climax, and then offers a final twist to boot. With its close-up view of museum life and politics, plausible scientific background, sharply drawn characters and a plot line that's blissfully free of gratuitous romance, this well-crafted novel offers first-rate thrills and chills. Film rights optioned by Kennedy-Marshall Productions; audio rights to Brilliance Corp. (Jan.)