Review of "Badlands: A Nora Reilly Thriller" by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

 

In the authors' notes at the end of the book, Preston and Child note that the Gallina people mentioned in this novel are real. They were a mysterious culture who lived in northern New Mexico from around 1100 to 1275 CE, when they suddenly vanished, apparently the victims of genocide.

*****

Corrie Swanson was a troubled teen when she was taken under the wing of FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast. Corrie is now an FBI agent herself.....



.....being mentored by Supervisory Special Agent Clay Sharp.



When the skeletal remains of a female are found in the New Mexico desert, Agent Sharp makes Corrie - who's proven herself to be a capable agent - the lead investigator.



In the badlands near the Navajo Nation, Corrie observes the scattered bones of a woman who's been dead for years. Random items near the body include spearpoints, pop-top tabs, flint chips, cobbles, and two green stones.



Corrie asks her friend Nora Kelly - an intrepid archaeologist who runs the Santa Fe Archaeological Institute - to look at the artifacts found near the remains.



Nora identifies the two green stones as 'lightning stones' that give off flashes of green light when rubbed together. Nora says the lightning stones, which are made of Prasiolite (green quartz), are VERY RARE, and they're ceremonial objects sacred to the Pueblo Indians. The Indians used the stones in religious ceremonies and never allowed them to be removed from their kivas (ceremonial chambers).



The female skeleton found in the desert is identified as Molly Vine, a 40-year-old high school science teacher who disappeared five years ago....and it appears Molly committed suicide.



A few days later the body of another female is found in the desert, once again with two Prasiolite stones. This woman is identified as Mandy Driver, a 38-year-old geological consultant for an energy company. Once again, it seems Mandy committed suicide.



As Corrie continues to make inquiries, she learns that both women - Molly and Mandy - were Ph.D. students in anthropology at the University of New Mexico over a decade ago. The women were mentored by Professor Carlos Oskarbi, who had a particular interest in the Gallina people of the southwest. The entire Gallina nation vanished hundreds of years ago, and archaeologists speculate the Gallina were vicious killers who were murdered by other Indians for self-protection and revenge.



To study the Gallina, Oskarbi would take a group of graduate students on a dig every summer, where the team would camp out and study the Gallina ruins.



Corrie can't interview Professor Oskarbi because he moved to Mexico twelve years ago, to reunite with his spiritual teacher Don Benicio. However, when Corrie asks around about Oskarbi, she learns he had the reputation of being a mesmerizing leader who slept with his female students, some of whom were bereft after his departure.

As Corrie continues to investigate the deaths of Molly and Mandy locally, archaeologist Nora travels to Mexico, to find and interview Professor Oskarbi.



In the meantime, Nora's brother Skip, who's the collections manager for the Santa Fe Archaeological Institute.....



......is befriended by billionaire Edison Nash, who has a mansion in New Mexico..



Nash has a HUGE collection of Indian artifacts, and he's always looking for more.



So Nash plies Skip with expensive tequila and convinces the collections manager (who's something of a dunderhead) to explore the vast Gallina ruins with him. The adventurers make their way to Gallina territory, where they venture into caves, and observe artifacts like clay pots, potsherds, carbonized, obsidian axes, stone animal fetishes, etc. Skip points out that it's STRICTLY ILLEGAL to take these things, but you can guess what happens.



Soon enough, Corrie and Nora also find themselves in Gallina territory, and things take a dangerous turn for Nash, Skip, Corrie, Nora and others.

The story is bold and exciting, and the denouement is believable enough if you shut one eye. 😊 My major critique is that the deaths of Molly and Mandy are not satisfactorily explained. We know how the women died, but the reason for their demise remains obscure (to me). Nevertheless this is a good adventure story and it's interesting to learn a little about the ancient Pueblo Indians.



Thanks to Netgalley, Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child, and Grand Central Publishing for a copy of the book.

Rating: 3.5 stars