Old bones by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

"Old bones" by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child - Cold, dry, slow!

This book is published by Grand Central Publishing in 2020 and has 400 pages. This is Book 1 of Nora Kelly series. 

Dr. Benton approaches famous field archeologist Dr. Nora Kelly to find and excavate the lost camp of Donner party and find the lost treasure. There is a murder, a theft, multiple grave robberies. Agent Corrie Swanson is assigned her first independent investigation. She establishes the link. The victims are all descendants of one man. A man from Donner party's lost camp. A man who carried the treasure.

The Donner Party was a group of American pioneers who migrated to California in a wagon train from the Midwest. They spent the winter of 1846–1847 in the snowy mountains of Sierra Nevada and had to resort to cannibalism. 

It's a long story. Little excitement. Limited thrill. Slow pace. Handling is not compact. Readers tend to nod off or lose interest occasionally. Like the weather, the story is cold, dry, slow. Authors have blended the Donner party fact with fiction of lost camp and its inhabitants seamlessly. 

Field archeologist Nora Kelly and freshly minted FBI agent Corrie Swanson appeared in Pendergast novels of the authors as characters. Now they get a prominent platform. Two more books in this series are already published. 

Authors probably thought that they couldn't pull off the book with Nora and Corrie, so they decided to bring in Special Agent Pendergast to find the treasure. Crutches of Pendergast weren't really needed. 

Why did I read this book? Authors. 

What did I like? Donner party fact fiction blend. 

What I didn't like? Pace. Lack of excitement. 

Give it a miss.