The #1 NYT bestselling authors Preston & Child bring the true story of the ill-fated Donner Party to new life in this thrilling novel of archaeology, history, murder, and suspense. Nora Kelly, a young curator at the Santa Fe Institute of Archaeology, is approached by historian Clive Benton with a once-in-a-lifetime proposal: to lead a team in search of the so-called “Lost Camp” of the tragic … in search of the so-called “Lost Camp” of the tragic Donner Party. This was a group of pioneers who earned a terrible place in American history when they became snow-bound in the California mountains in 1847, their fate unknown until the first skeletonized survivors stumbled out of the wilderness, raving about starvation, murder-and cannibalism.
Benton tells Kelly he has stumbled upon an amazing find: the long-sought diary of one of the victims, which has an enigmatic description of the Lost Camp. Nora agrees to lead an expedition to locate and excavate it-to reveal its long-buried secrets.
Once in the mountains, however, they learn that discovering the camp is only the first step in a mounting journey of fear. For as they uncover old bones, they expose the real truth of what happened, one that is far more shocking and bizarre than mere cannibalism. And when those ancient horrors lead to present-day violence on a grand scale, rookie FBI agent Corrie Swanson is assigned the case…only to find that her first investigation might very well be her last.
however, they learn that discovering the camp is only the first step in a mounting journey of fear. For as they uncover old bones, they expose the real truth of what happened, one that is far more shocking and bizarre than mere cannibalism. And when those ancient horrors lead to present-day violence on a grand scale, rookie FBI agent Corrie Swanson is assigned the case…only to find that her first investigation might very well be her last.
however, they learn that discovering the camp is only the first step in a mounting journey of fear. For as they uncover old bones, they expose the real truth of what happened, one that is far more shocking and bizarre than mere cannibalism. And when those ancient horrors lead to present-day violence on a grand scale, rookie FBI agent Corrie Swanson is assigned the case…only to find that her first investigation might very well be her last.
however, they learn that discovering the camp is only the first step in a mounting journey of fear. For as they uncover old bones, they expose the real truth of what happened, one that is far more shocking and bizarre than mere cannibalism. And when those ancient horrors lead to present-day violence on a grand scale, rookie FBI agent Corrie Swanson is assigned the case…only to find that her first investigation might very well be her last.
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Old Bones
(Nora Kelly #1)
by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
Book one introduces the reader to the archeologist Nora Kelly and to the green FBI agent Corrie Swanson. Nora is on a dig to find historical evidence of the lost camp of the Donner party. Famous for getting lost and snowbound and becoming cannibals to survive. But maybe this wasn’t the whole story. They have a descendent from a Donner party member that thinks there was a lot of gold buried up there.
The book has so many twists , turns, suspense, murder, great characters, wonderful plot and mystery, which made this book hard to but down!
Lots of real history thrown in along with the fictional part made this a terrific book! Really enjoyed it.
Being the rabid Preston and Child fan, I am, I preordered Old Bones, and started reading the day it was released.
This is the first book in a new series which features Nora Kelly, an archeologist who has previously appeared in Preston and Child’s Pendergast novels. Initially, I wondered if she was strong enough to carry a book on her own. Yes, there is room for improvement, but Nora fared fairly well her first time out. P&C gave her a fantastic plot—searching for “the lost camp” of the Donner Party. Yeah, those Donners.
Nora pairs up with a historian who claims to have found a journal belonging to one of the victims of the Donner tragedy. At the same time, rookie FBI agent, Corrie Swanson, is investigating a series of grave robberies and a person who went MIA. There is a connection between all these incidents, but I won’t say more for fear of spoiling the plot.
Highlights for me involved the remote setting, the Donner history, the creepy tale of Samantha Carville, the mounting tension and fear among Nora’s team, and—best of all¬—Corrie Swanson.
I’ve been a fan of Corrie since she first appeared in Pendergast #4, Still Life with Crows. At that time, she was a teenage misfit with dyed purple hair, major attitude, a Goth appearance, and an alcoholic mother. Pendergast hired her to chauffer him around her small midwestern town—after he bailed her out of jail.
In Old Bones, Corrie gets a starring role beside Nora. Her first major investigation with the FBI means she has to navigate the “good old boys” in local law enforcement, prove her theories at the Bureau, bite her tongue when it comes to red tape and orders, plus overcome Nora’s objections when she sticks her nose in (and Nora has plenty of objections).
Most of the novel clips along at a steady pace. It’s an easy read that keeps you turning pages. There is plenty of talk of cannibalism, excavation of bone fragments, and a ghost story or two (told around a campfire) for good measure. Ratchet up the tension as the last few pieces fall into place, and the closing chapters will have you chewing your nails.
The epilogue¬—during which Special Agent Pendergast makes a cameo appearance—is a nice wrap, setting the stage for the series. It looks like P&C have plans for Nora and Corrie to work together in the books ahead, and a I couldn’t be happier. Corrie is well developed, but Nora could use a bit more growth. I look forward to reading along as that happens.
Old Bones by Preston & Child is a new thriller series featuring Nora Kelly. WOW, one of the best books of the summer! Old Bones grabbed my attention and I was so engrossed with the subject matter of the book! Nora is a top field archaeologist with the Santa Fe Archaeological Institute. She is asked to lead an expedition to try and find the last lost settlement of the ill-fated Donner Party from 1846-47. Nora will be accompanied by Clive Benton, a historian with ties to the Breen’s, of one of the perished families. Dr. Benton stole a journal written by Tamzene Donner which gives additional information about the area and logistics of the travel. What they must keep secret is the possibility of finding a cache of one thousand Liberty Head gold eagle coins, uncirculated and minted in 1846 with a market value of approximately twenty million dollars!
As I read the book and thought of the true despair, distress, and horrid conditions and deaths of these families in 1846, it made the present-day mysteries and search for the Lost Camp very intriguing!
There is also another new character which I hope will continue to appear in this series. Agent Corinne Swanson with the FBI, based in Albuquerque, NM. She is a new agent and is given her first real case which leads her to believe a there is a connection to grave robbing and deaths related to a family with the surname Parkin. How could this case possibly be connected to the Donner party? The interweaving of the stories with historical events makes Old Bones a wonderful page-turning book you just can’t stop reading until the end.
.I am so happy we will have a series which seems to feature archeology and the investigations of mysteries regarding historical events!
Publication Date: August 20, 2019
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.
Having read all 19 of their Pendergast Novels, decided to take a chance with this new spinoff series involving archaeologist Nora Kelley and FBI agent Corrie Swanson. Glad I did. Fun story. Same great writing. Characters not as compelling as their other books, but not half bad. Had all the components I like in a suspense novel. Plan to read Book 2.
What Do Grave-Robbing and Murder Have in Common?
Grave-robbing and murder. Those two crimes are perhaps not the most common of bedfellows, but they make for some fascinating reading in Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child’s new series, Old Bones. The hero of this new set of tales is familiar—at least for readers of the Pendergast series by the same authors—Nora Kelly, archaeologist. When she is approached by Clive Benton, Stanford-educated historian, to lead an archaeological expedition in search for the “Lost Camp” of the ill-fated Donner Party, a compelling historical setting is added to the story (the Donner Party was believed to have resorted to cannibalism to survive when they became snow-bound in the California mountains in 1847). But to sell the expensive archaeological expedition to Nora’s boss, Benton adds evidence that one of the party was carrying gold, now worth 20 million dollars. That, of course, is sufficient motive for murder, but wait. Two murders occurred before the expedition even started. And both happened in the context of grave-robbing where all that was apparently taken was part of a skeleton. Since when is a skull worth killing for? That question remains until the final pages of the novel.
It is via one of these murders at a grave site that a second, familiar name is added to the tale. Corrie Swanson, an angry, bullied teenager when first introduced in the Pendergast series is now a freshly minted FBI agent. And when one of the grave-robbers is executed on federal land, she is given the case—her first. She finds another similar murder and a disappearance, all connected because they were the descendants of a Donner Party member, Albert Parkin. Convinced that Nora Kelly’s expedition is just a cover for robbing Parkin’s grave, Agent Swanson joins the archaeological team on site. Sparks fly between the women, Swanson believing she is on the trail of a crime, it’s exact nature unknown, while Kelly sees the agent as nothing but a waste of time and money. But then, things start getting deadlier.
Preston and Child are exceptional story-tellers and this novel is no exception. The pace is good, the mystery compelling, the characters developed. There were a few places when relatively minor events were dealt with in greater detail than necessary to advance the plot, but these were rare. About my only concern of any significance is the way the authors linked the quite disparate crimes of stealing a skeleton and killing. To do so required two, quite dissimilar approaches to a single objective. In other words, the twist felt a bit strained.
Overall, Old Bones is a solid start to a new series and I look forward to the next installment. Let’s see what Nora gets herself into next time.
There are people who will take shortcuts, and if you decide to take a shortcut, it usually backfires… – Kenny Smith
This is the first book in a new series about archaeologist Nora Kelly. I have enjoyed almost all of the books written by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, both as a writing team and their solo works. I especlially like the Pendergast long-lived series.
This book starts out as historian Clive Benton approaches Nora Kelly with an unusual proposition. He is a descendant of one of the members of the infamous Donner party and he has recently found documentation outlining the location of a Lost Camp in the High Sierras where supposedly some of the Donner party ended up.
Nora is interested enough to take Clive to meet the director of the Santa Fe Archaeological Institute, who she works for. Clive throws another surprise on the table – there might be fortune at this camp.
This was a fun, exciting adventure story. It moved quickly and definitely had some twists I wasn’t expecting.
If you’ve liked other books by these authors, I highly recommend this one.
I received this book from Grand Central Publishing through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.
“Fortune makes promises to many, keeps them to none. Live for each day, live for the hours, since nothing is forever yours.”
The infamous tragedy of the ill-fated Donner Party is most widely remembered for the families resorting to cannibalism when faced with starvation during a snow storm in the Sierra Nevada mountains during the 1800’s. So when archaeologist Nora Kelly is offered an opportunity to delve deeper into the mystery surrounding the Lost Camp of the Donner Party and the rumors of buried treasure, she forms a crew and heads out. But what Nora doesn’t know is that there is a deadly secret buried among the bones…
Rookie FBI Agent Corrie Swanson has been given her first chance to prove her worth. Provided with limited resources and time, Agent Swanson is determined to piece together clues leading to the Lost Camp dig site, and a secret that someone is willing to kill to keep…
Let me start by saying that Preston & Child’s Pendergast series is one of my all-time favs! Old Bones is the promise of a new series starring characters Nora Kelly and Corrie Swanson from the Pendergast books. While Old Bones is a stand-alone story, I’d highly recommend at least reading Nora’s introduction in Thunderhead as well as Corrie’s in Still Life With Crows. Looking forward to future installments and would recommend!
Now if you are like me, you are probably wondering if our beloved Special Agent Pendergast makes an appearance…well dear reader, you will just have to find out for yourself and read the book…
5 stars
When Santa Fe archeologist Dr. Nora Kelly is approached by historian Dr. Clive Benton to look for the Lost Camp of the ill-fated Donner Party, she is intrigued and goes with him to see her boss Dr. Jill Fugit. Clive is a direct descendant of the Breens who were also members of the party.
Reluctant at first, Clive tells the women that there is supposed to be a cache of 1,000 1846 uncirculated gold pieces in the camp somewhere that a member of the party had taken out of his bank. Clive tells Dr. Fugit that this could pay for the expedition. She gives her assent.
It has been seven years since Nora’s husband Bill Smithfield died, but she is still suffering. She does, however, take a bit of an interest in Clive.
All kitted up with an archeological party of four and Clive and the roughnecks hired to be the guide, wranglers and cook, they head off into the sites where Clive’s first-hand maps show that the camp might be.
All goes well for a bit and then things go badly wrong.
When newly-minted FBI Agent Corrie Swanson ( a protege of Agent Pendergast’s as we learned in an earlier novel), learns that a member of the Lost Camp was named Parkin, she goes to the camp. She has been investigating a case in which the Parkin family – both alive and dead – have recently been decimated by killers and grave robbers.
Almost immediately Nora and Corrie – two strong-willed women – don’t get along.
This is a great book. I’ve read quite a bit about the Donner party and this book fits nicely into the reality and near-mythology of the tragedy. As is the case with Lincoln and Child’s novels, it is well written, plotted and researched. I did not see any typos or grammatical errors. Nora’s character is great, while Corrie can be a little quick to anger at times. I liked the other people in the book, too – unfortunate in some ways for I even liked the killers. I really liked the archeological descriptions in the book. (I have a minor degree in archeology, so…) I was pleasantly surprised and delighted that Agent Pendergast had a cameo in the novel. This book has action, science, intrigue, deception and a big surprise near the end. All in all I am delighted to see Nora get her own series. (I hope.)
I want to thank NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for forwarding to me a copy of this absolutely wonderful book for me to read, enjoy and review.
This was a very good read with a combination of history and suspense.
Old Bones catches your interest from the beginning and doesn’t let go. Cynthia Farrell does an excellent job narrating. The characters, settings, and history make this book one to move to the top of your to be read list.
This book was interesting enough for me to listen all the way to the end, but will I continue with the series? Probably not.
The story combines an FBI agent’s investigation into a murder (which turns out to be more complex than it appears), and an archaeologist’s opportunity to excavate the last camp of the Donner Party in search for gold.
The premise is great but the overall story was too much of a mishmash. It starts out seeming almost paranormal, and I would have enjoyed seeing how that might have played out. Then we completely lose that thread to jump into the investigation and excavations that have numerous parts that could have been cut or shortened to make both parts more gripping.
Also, with the two protagonists, I simply couldn’t get around to caring for either one. Nora came across at times as overly abrasive and at other times as submissive. Cori seems to have an interesting backstory and it was great to see a new agent learning the ropes, but she ends up feeling too stereotypical to come to life.
As I said, an interesting story and if you’re a Preston & Child fan, you’ll enjoy it, but as this was my first book by them, I can’t say it was the best introduction to their writing.
A New Series! Nora Kelly, Archaeologist & FBI Agant Corrie Swenson A great partnership! I look for ward to Mr. Pendergast putting them together on the case in the future…
I have read a lot of Preston and Child books over the years and this is one of their best. It’s two intriguing mysteries in one. The first one centers on the infamous Donner Party and a splinter group that went mad in the mysterious Lost Camp—not to mention twenty-million-dollars-worth of gold coins. The second and seemingly unconnected mystery revolves around some very creepy grave robbers. Both storylines come together in the archaeological dig exploring the Lost Camp.
The story is absolutely gripping. On the one hand, we have an archaeological exploration of the most infamous group of cannibals in U.S. history—and the horror of that nineteenth century event is definitely having an impact on the archaeologists. On the other hand, we have some very twisted criminals with a creepy interest in robbing graves for no conceivable purpose. I don’t want to give too much away, but their interest seems sick from the very beginning and it only gets worse. Uncovering how these two plots come together is the point of the whole story. I’m happy to say that I figured out who was doing all the bad things, even though I had to wait for the authors to explain why they were doing it. Frankly, I found it completely fascinating and look forward to reading any sequels.
Nora Kelly, a well respected archaeologist is approached by Historian, Clive Benton to help uncover the mystery surrounding the rumored third camp of the Donner Party. Historians know the tragic story from 1847 but Clive believes there is a third camp that is yet to be discovered.
Newly appointed FBI agent Corrine Swanson is eager to have her first case, unfortunately she has to work her way up the ladder by doing research. When Corrine is finally given her first case but it involves tombs raided and men ending up dead. Corrine uncover a trend with the corpses that are being stolen which leads her to Nora Kelly’s excavation. Is there something more going on with group searching for clues on the Donner Party or is Corrine’s eagerness to solve her first case have her on a trail that leads nowhere?
This was a riveting story that pulled me in right away. I thought the way the story unfolded was fantastic, I couldn’t guess what was going to happen and was captivated. Liked Nora, she is an interesting character and really enjoyed the insight into a excavation and the history surrounding the Donner Party. Corrine reminded me a lot of Clarice in Silence of the Lambs, I appreciated the fact she was not perfect and in some ways still learning how to hone in the skills she has. Excellent.
Finally a book that focuses on Nora Kelly, one of the best characters in the series. Looking for ward to the next one.
Good transition from the Pendergast series.
I read all their books..as soon as they come out, I’m on it ..read the 1st book then in order, you not be disappointed
I had given up on these author’s stories some time ago because of both the decline in the author’s writing style and the choices they made for their characters.
I heard this story was coming out and debated for quite a while. I ended up deciding to read it, thinking maybe it was just the author’s were tired of their other series. But I’ve come to the conclusion that there is no saving their stories. Harsh, maybe, but as a 20+ year reader, to be continuously disappointed… yeah, major bummer.
This story has great bones (no pun intended). It has to strong female leads, science and smarts behind them with a historical event to pull from, that’s dramatic enough on it’s own.
The problem is, nothing happened in this story. It’s beyond predictable (I guessed the bad guy at 30%), the ending motive was forced an made very little local sense and it’s beyond repetitive. If I had to hear the same Donner party retellings one more time. Most of the story revolved around the camp eating their meals or digging in holes. Swanson was suppose to be on her very first assignment as FBI, but we barely got any police work from her. There was just too much left out, too many lost opportunities. I just for the life of me can’t find anything redeeming in this story. The main characters, Sawnson and Kelly didn’t even seem the same characters from past stories.
Don’t get me started at the intrusive and completely unnecessary (and condescending) appearance of Pendergast. What is the point if having two strong female leads if at the end the man has to come in (and in quite a brash manner), solve half the story???? In one small chapter no less.
Done, I’m officially done with these two authors. I got a good 15 years of good stories from them, but it’s time for me to move on.
A page-turning take on the tragic Donner party. Full of suspense and larger-than-life characters. If you like archeology, don’t miss it!
Enjoyed it! Preston/Child never disappoint