About the Book
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 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.
My Review
Ooh. Interesting. I wasn’t sure I would totally get on with this book, because it’s a far cry from chick lit and my usual women’s fiction choices, but I also appreciate a good mystery and suspense novel and the Donner Party plotline seemed intriguing, so I decided to go for it. And I’m really glad I did. I could tell from the first couple chapters that the writing was strong, the storylines were going to keep drawing me, and the mystery already had me trying to piece the puzzle together. This was one of those novels that had me talking to books lovers and beyond about what I was reading. And while I had an inkling of who the killer was, the plot twist near the end did quite surprise me. I appreciated the two strong female leads in Nora and Corrie, and overall had a really hard time putting my Kindle down while reading this.
5 stars
