Thunderhead Mass Market Paperback – June 1, 2000

I really enjoyed being taken on this journey to areas that I dearly love to visit. Child and Preston have vividly portrayed the landscape and feel of this area as they take us on a wild expedition through it with a panoply of interesting characters. The mysteries surrounding this journey gradually unfold in a very intriguing and suspenseful way.

This book is excellent on many levels. The premise is an archaeologist, Nora Kelly, mounting then managing an expedition to find a mythical lost city in the South Western United States. Her primary motivation isn’t professional accomplishment and acclaim but to find out what happened to her father 16 years earlier. Nora’s initial challenges of finding the city, funding, and staffing an expedition are resolved in a nearly Faustian deal with the Institute that employs her president. In return for funding the expedition Nora must accept the president’s staffing choices all very senior scholars and his daughter Sloan a Princeton Professor. This sets up a series of leadership challenges that Nora, an untenured professor, must continually resolve from a senior scholar’s challenges to the teenage like rebellion of Sloan. Add to this the rigors of backcountry travel through the canyons of Utah and continued conflict is inevitable.Thunderhead also showcases what Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child do so well combine technology, scientific debate, the unexplained and human psychology into Conrad like adventures. For example, Nora finds the city by enlisting the help of a remote sensing scientist who explains the science and art of the discipline in searching for subsurface features. Likewise, Nora’s professional struggles at the institute illustrate divergent views in archaeology stylistic analysis, cataloguing and classifying individual artifacts versus cultural interpretation. The discussions amongst the team members on the expedition, further, explore the nature of archaeology as a destructive endeavor.Against this scientific background, personal conflicts and the inability of one of the archaeologist to work in a remote wilderness, shattering Indiana Jones stereotypes creates both a realistic scenario and increasing tension in the narrative. This tension is heighted by mysterious figures that have been trailing Nora and seem determined to stop the expedition. Combine realistic dialogue, a genuine feel for the south-west, and search for a lost city and this one epic page turner

I'm a longtime fan of these authors, having read all of the Pendergast novels, all of the Nora Kelly/Corrie Swanson spin off series, and several of their stand alones, but this one flew under my radar for a long time. I finally got around to reading it and I wasn't disappointed.The plot features archeologist Nora Kelly leading an expedition searching for the ancient city of Quivira in Utah. It's both professional and personal for Nora as her father disappeared while searching for the same city sixteen years earlier. Along for the ride are several prominent archeologists, along with journalist Bill Smithback to document the discovery.Thunderhead's a lot of fun. Its got the usual technical expertise I expect from these authors and Nora Kelly has always been a character I can cheer for to succeed. Smithback brings the comic relief with his usual quips and complaining. The combination of the isolated location, sinister villains, and impending flash flooding makes this a tense read.You can certainly read this as a stand alone, but in the Pendergast universe it takes place after books 1 and 2 but before 3. I would recommend reading Relic and Reliquary first before tackling this, as Bill Smithback featured heavily in those books and it gives another dimension to his character here. If you've gone further in the Pendergast series, this was a fun look back at how Bill and Nora met. If you haven't, they become central characters for several books to come. Its also great to see some background info on Nora's brother Skip who also pops up frequently in the Nora/Corrie seriesFor me this is the authors at their best. A realistic archeological story with a hint of supernatural, and its miles better then the latest Pendergast book Bloodless where things have gone right into wacky science fiction territory. Well worth your time.

I like the author's books but especially the books with Nora Kelly. And I like learning about various true mysteries in history. This one involves the lost city of Quivera. Archaeology is very interesting as well. I hope that the authors will continue writing books with Nora Kelly as the focal character, exploring mysteries that involve her archeologist skills. The book is a little wild as most Preston &Child books are --- but quite entertaining. Some sadness involving the deaths of animals.....could have done without that. It was a hurdle to overcome to continue reading. But the book was a satisfying read and as usual, educational with descriptive explanation regarding the Quivera lost city.

This is one of my favorite Preston and Child books! A fabulous thriller and super vision of the Southwest and its mysteries.

Have read 5 in this series and missed this one. A very entertaining novel, good story line that kept it interesting until the end. Very mystical.

Written well, fast moving with lots of details

This is an excellent book, an original story, wonderful believable characters. The reason for the evil and deadliness of the city is just so realistic and believable. Highly recommended.

Le livre a été envoyé assez rapidement alors qu'il vient des usa, l'état était bon pour de l'occasion. Très bon livre pour les fans de preston and child

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