Customer Reviews

Reliquary

5 star:		(61)
4 star:		(34)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The NYPD harbor patrol during a routine dive to recover a cache of heroin dumped into the Harlem River, snag the headless corpses of two individuals. Through extensive analysis it is determined that one of the bodies is that of a young, beautiful and wealthy Manhattan socialite, Pamela Wisher, who has been missing. The other skeletonized remains appear to be hideously deformed, with thickening and twisting of the lower extremities. The medical examiner immediately calls in Dr. Margo Green, a curator of the Museum of Natural History and Lt. D'Agosta of the NYPD to help in the identification. Before long they are joined by NY Post reporter William Smithback and the cerebral and mysterious Special FBI Agent Pendergast. The cast of heroes that solved the case of the Museum Beast in The Relic is now re-assembled.

Analysis of xray and medical records of the distorted and unidentified corpse soon leads to the discovery that they are the remains of Dr. Greg Kawakita, a brilliant research biologist and former colleague of Margo Green. They cannot however decipher the cause of the skeletal deformities. Simultaneously, it is revealed that there has been a rash of murders involving homeless people who have sought refuge in the deep subterranean levels of railroad and service tunnels beneath Manhattan. With the help of Sgt. Hayward, an expert in homeless underground communities and Pendergast, our heroes recruit the help of Mephisto, the leader of a large group of homeless who live beneath Central Park. From him they learn of the "Wrinklers", denizens of the Devil's Attic, the deepest of underground recesses and a group he feels is responsible for the decapitations of the homeless. There seem to be similarities between the Wrinklers and Mbwun, the half man half reptile Museum Beast who is fond of consuming the hypothalamus of the human brain.

Green and D'Agosta track down the previous whereabouts of Kawakita and find his fire ravaged high tech laboratory. He had been genetically synthesizing the Museum Beast lily, the preferred food of Mbwun. Kawakita had been consuming the lily extract and has transformed into a Mbwun, explaining his deformed skeleton. He had been supplying a group of drug consuming homeless with lily extract. Could he have created a tribe of Museum Beasts who were ravaging the city and perpetrating these sickening beheadings?

Preston and Child proceed to tell a white knuckled, suspenseful tale of the mystery of these heinous murders in their usual superb fashion. Reliquary did not create the bewitching spell of The Relic but was an excellent read nonetheless.

A natural sequel to Relic. Again you can picture in your mind, the characters and locations. At times you feel almost as if you are standing there with them. The flow of the book pulls you, wanting you to read more.

I won't give anything away, because it is a damn good read and a worthy sequel. It's just one thing that does it. You'll know it when you get there.

Sorry I can't say more, but... that'd give it away.

I love the books of these 2 authors and I really liked this one, however it was not there best effort. I thought it dragged a bit, and the facing of the monsters wasn't really well played out. I will say I did enjoy them bringing back all the charters from the 1st novel and they had some great dialogue, and also thought the conspiracy plot and the method of release was pretty good too, but it just lacked the fun of the first novel I think.

I became a Preston/Childs fan after reading STILL LIFE WITH CROWS. I'm still impressed with how simpatico these two guys are.
Anyway, I wasn't aware that this was a series and now that I've read another one, working my way backwards, I'm not as impressed.
First off, there are too many featured characters in RELIQUARY. FBI agent Pendergast doesn't even show up until well into the story; yet we have Dr. Margo Green; police lieutenant D'Agosta; Dr. Frock; Smithback, the reporter; Simon Brambell, the medical investigator; Snow, the diver; Hayward, the female police officer; plus a host of minor characters who have their own perspectives just before they're dusted by the wrinklers. It's hard to know for whom to cheer and there's too much distance between each account. It's often necessary to page back to see where they were when last encountered.
Also, maybe I'm too much of a left-brainer but I didn't believe those wrinklers for a second. These two guys seem to be obsessed by monsters and the underworld. In STILL LIFE WITH CROWS it was a cave bigger than the Carlsbad Caverns and a Kong character with the mind of a baby. In this one it's the underworld beneath New York City and a collection of genetic monstrosities.
The most interesting aspect for me was the author's note at the end of the book. I knew there were a lot of uncharted abandoned tunnels beneath NYC but not thirty stories. As many as five thousand "houseless" have lived there; they form their own communities and communicate by tapping on pipes. Even more remarkable is the authors' claim that the Astor Tunnels actually did exist. THE MOLE PEOPLE by Jennifer Toth is a factual account of the homeless beneath the city.

This is the second book my these authors I have read. Interesting plotline, and characters. Moves fast and keeps you interested. Along the same lines as Jurassic Park, except you don't have to think as hard. The ending to this one was a bit of a stretch. But when you just need a thrill, it hits the spot. Looking forward to Ice Limit, Thunderhead, and Cabinet of Curiosities.

One imagines there are inherent difficulties in collaborative work, but Preston and Child are so successful that one hopes they've found some mutually satisfying solution, so that they never stop! RELIC was a fine thriller, set in the NY Museum of Natural History, a dark labyrinth of curious objects. This time the pivotal scenes take place below New York City, in the dark labyrinths of subway tunnels, sewer drains and abandoned egresses, while the characters are the same. This is a true sequel, so do yourself a big favor and read RELIC first. You'll find the same main characters: anthropologist Margo Green, FBI Special Agent Pendergast, police lieutenant D'Agosta and reporter Bill Smithback, and it's nice to see them because they're all interesting and intelligent characters. A new character is introduced, Sargeant Hayward, who is also intelligent and cynical about her idiotic and sexist superiors. She gravitates toward our group, in a sort of Ayn Rand meets Stephen King way.

This time out someone or something has been killing homeless people, and our protagonists must learn about and enter the frightening depths below The City. The plot intensifies as they realize that one of the victims is someone they knew during the events of the first book.

My only complaint is that the book took a while to get going, for me at least, and really only took off after page 100, when Pendergast showed up. From there it is a superb thriller, and I stayed up to finish it until 4 am, turning pages quickly, interested in all the story threads as they played out and converged.

Masterful, intelligent and thrilling, this is a great read -- but read RELIC first!!

Wonderful novel! Just a little short of Relic. The whole mystery unwound a little too early. And something at the ceremony beneath the crystal chandelier gave away the otherwise shocking ending. A good editor should have caught that.
Otherwise wonderful, engaging, page-turning fun! Loved it.

I have read several works of Preston and Child in the following order: THE CABINET OF CURIOSITIES, MOUNT DRAGON, RELIC and RELIQUARY. All of these are wonderfully written stories, but I think it is critically important that one reads RELIC first, followed by RELIQUARY and then THE CABINET OF CURIOSITIES. I read THE CABINET OF CURIOSITIES first and regretted it. Perhaps we need a federal law requiring warning labels on such novels?

In RELIQUARY, all the main characters who survived in RELIC converge to uncover the hidden causal factors that explain their encounter in the museum. As I stated in my review of RELIC, it ends with "a knock on the door." RELIQUARY does not begin by identifying who knocked on the door, but only toward the end of this second novel does it become clear who (or perhaps more accurately "what") knocked on the door. For those of you who read this review, I hope I am able to convince you to read RELIC first.

Each time I read a novel by Preston and Child, I become more amazed that two authors are able to coordinate their efforts to write with such a penetrating style. The integration of science and technology provide a great backdrop. In all of their books, I become so engaged in the storyline, I forget where I am. I have gotten lost in all of their novels and am looking forward to finding another to read!

In the heart of men, as this book shows. Less a monster novel than a straight forward beat-the-clock suspense thriller with some rousing action scenes, readers expecting a return of the hypothalawhatchamacallit eating mutant will be sorely disappointed.