The authors display deep affection for the pulp they're recycling, talent for exciting set pieces-a hazardous ascent along a ridge toward Quivira and the flash-flooding of the canyon harboring the city are showcases of action writing-and, always their ace, the ability to infuse every aspect of their story with authentic techno-scientific lore. Playing it safe, Preston and Child take no missteps as Nora finds an old letter from her long-missing father with clues to Quivira's location leads an expedition of central-casting types (a leathery old cowboy, a beautiful female photographer, the jokey journalist who figured in Relic and Reliquary, etc.) after much difficulty, discovers Quivira, which is revealed as a repository of ancient evil and encounters death by way of the Native American witches who threatened her at the novel's start. The novel has a clockwork feel, from its first tick-the spooky stalking of archeologist Nora Kelly on an isolated New Mexican ranch-to its last tock. With four high-concept thrillers behind them, from 1995's Relic to last year's Riptide, the authors know what buttons to push and levers to yank-perhaps too well. The adventure is marginally higher than the suspense in Preston and Child's sturdy new tale of scientific derring-do, concerning a search for Quivira, the legendary Anasazi Indian City of Gold.
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