Relic - Preston & Child

When I was in college I went with my wife to see The Relic.  We'd seen previews for it and it looked like a great monster movie.  We both loved it.  Not because it was a great movie, but it did have an interesting monster some funny scenes, and some pseudo-science to try to explain everything.  (my wife majored in biology)  It was great fun and we actually caught it at the discount theatre a few more times before it faded away.

So when I saw Relic on our reading list, I was completely stoked.  I've seen Preston and Child's books at work, knew they were best sellers, but never really put the two together until I went to buy Relic.  That of course made me even more excited.

I was not disappointed.

Relic spins a tale about a series of murders at the New York Museum of Natural History that the reader knows are somehow linked to some strange goings on in the jungles of the Amazon.  Some horrific creature is loose, tearing off people's heads and eating parts of their brains.  And of course the police are completely flummoxed.

There were a few things about this that I really liked and helped draw me in.  First, the police are not painted as complete idiots.  D'Agosta is smarter than he looks and competent, he's just in a bit over his head.  Even the arrival of Pendergast isn't so much to compensate for his failures as it is to give him more resources and an ability to cut through some museum red tape.  Second, the science is relatively believable.  Not that surrounding the creation of the beast necessarily, but the equipment and methods they use to perform their experiments are fairly realistic.  Third, the setting is spectacular.  Museums are creepy, and ones as large as this one with so much stuff, are even creepier.

I was particularly fond of Margo.  She is smart, without being a genius, confident, without being foolhardy, and competent, without being a know-it-all.  She cares about her co-workers but also struggles with wanting to further her own career.  She is genuinely someone I could get behind.  Pendergast, while hilarious, was a bit too magically awesome for me.  He instantly notices things no one else does, his wit was a bit too sharp, and of course his aim a bit too good.  But even with those flaws.  I still enjoyed reading him.  But not as much as D'Agosta or Margo.

And of course there's the creature itself.  With just the right amount of 'page time', the creature fills its role perfectly.  Putting aside the dubious way it was created, it makes a great villain.  Combined with the setting, you never know where it's going to strike.  And then it just fades back away.  Once again there is little motivation for the killing, but there IS a thread of one, and it is this thread that makes him more interesting.  Why would a beast eat people's brains?  It gives and clue and a trail for the heroes to follow without making the beast too easy to identify with.

Which of course brings me to its death.  The beast is so cool, so powerful, and then so dead in so few words.  And off screen!  And by Pendergast shooting it in the eye while its bounding at him in a full charge!  From mere feet away?  Did it really take Margo suggesting it for him to think about shooting it in the eye?  And after all his talk about how hard it would be to shoot it in the knee or leg?  And then he just casually pops it in the eye?  This really irked me, and the fact that it happened off screen irked me even more.  It just seemed like a huge cop out after all that build up.

Still, overall, I really enjoyed this book, and will likely try to grab some others by these authors.  I just hope they come up with better endings in other books.