Relic

Relic by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child  382 pp.

This is the novel that introduced the world to FBI Agent Aloysius Pendergast, the mysterious southern aristocrat who is a mystery unto himself. In the days before the opening of a grand new exhibit at the New York Museum of Natural History two young boys are found brutally murdered in the museum basement. Soon more victims are discovered and the museum scientists realize that what they are dealing with is neither human nor animal but a combination of the two. Agent Pendergast arrives on the scene from New Orleans to assist in the investigation. The museum killings are strikingly similar to unsolved ones he investigated many years before. In spite of warnings, the museum goes ahead with its lavish exhibit opening...to disastrous results. Preston & Child have taken the character of Pendergast to new levels in subsequent books.