Old Bones

By: Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child

Narrated by: Cynthia Farrell

Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

Number one best-selling authors Preston & Child bring the true story of the ill-fated Donner Party to new life in a thrilling blend of archaeology, history, murder, and suspense. 

Nora Kelly, a young curator at the Santa Fe Institute of Archaeology, is approached by historian Clive Benton with a once-in-a-lifetime proposal: to lead a team in search of the so-called "Lost Camp" of the tragic Donner Party. This was a group of pioneers who earned a terrible place in American history when they became snow-bound in the California mountains in 1847, their fate unknown until the first skeletonized survivors stumbled out of the wilderness, raving about starvation, murder - and cannibalism. 

Benton tells Kelly he has stumbled upon an amazing find: the long-sought diary of one of the victims, which has an enigmatic description of the Lost Camp. Nora agrees to lead an expedition to locate and excavate it-to reveal its long-buried secrets. 

Once in the mountains, however, they learn that discovering the camp is only the first step in a mounting journey of fear. For as they uncover old bones, they expose the real truth of what happened, one that is far more shocking and bizarre than mere cannibalism. And when those ancient horrors lead to present-day violence on a grand scale, rookie FBI agent Corrie Swanson is assigned the case...only to find that her first investigation might very well be her last.

EXTRAORDINARY ACCLAIM FOR PRESTON & CHILD:

"There's nothing else like them." (Washington Post)

©2019 Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (P)2019 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"Preston & Child is one of those "names" on a book that make you want to set everything else aside in order to read what amazing words they've written [...] From the best writing team out there, you do not want to miss this book." (Suspense Magazine)

"A smart, satisfying read." (Kirkus)

"This outing belongs to two dedicated women, whose future adventures will be happily anticipated." (Booklist)

If you want Pendergast don’t buy this book!!

The book is excellent. The story is well told, however this is a very different Corrie Swanson and Nora Kelly that readers of the Pendergast series know.
This is not a fast paced book but more methodical in it’s telling.
Corrie is a new FBI agent. She’s been investigating bizarre grave robberies and a missing woman, possible murder. Only she seems to see a connection and can’t convince her superior of a crime. At last he indulges her and gives her a minimal amount of time to look into the matter and see if there is truly something going on. He’s covering himself just in case.
Meanwhile, Nora Kelly has been invited to participate in an archaeological dig in the area of the Donner party who cannibalized their dead for survival. To entice the institute she works for the historian making the offer informs Nora’s boss that there could be millions of $ in gold coins that has never been found.
When there is an accidental death and then a murder it starts looking like Corrie might have been on to something. But still her supervisor looks in the wrong direction.
Nora and Corrie finally team up. Neither knows that the other is associated with Pendergast who does make an appearance finally at the end. And who do you think finds the missing gold?
I hope I haven’t given away too much.
I thought the narrator (Cynthia Farrell) did a good job. I think many were looking for the sound of Rene Auberjonois.
This book has my HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION.
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Thank You.

Unpleasant disappointment!

The narrator seemed to be a poor fit and this alone made it a challenge for me to go on listening to the end. I acknowledge that I was expecting the same high quality of narration and story development of the Pendergast books which, this book did not demonstrate. It was as if a different author wrote this book and used the Preston/Childs names. Both Nora and Corrie were such strong female characters in the previous books and the authors’ portrayal of them shows little resemblance to these characters in the Pendergast series. I encourage the interested reader to read or listen to “Thunderhead” to get a sense of the character Nora Kelly. And listen to “ Still Life with Crows” to get a sense of Corrie.

Needs a different narrator

I have had this book on my wish list for quite some time because it had Nora Kelly and Corrie Swanson in it. When I read and listened to Still Life With Crows and Corrie came on the scene as Pendergast's driver I became a fan of Corrie and became an even bigger fan with White Fire. I was also hoping that they would do a story with Nora Kelly and how she had progressed in her career and life after the loss of Bill Smithback.

I am almost two hours in to this book and I am going to return it because the narrator is not the one needed for this book. No disrespect to Cynthia Farrell as I am sure she has narrated other books with different results.

Nora Kelly has been approached by a man who has discovered where he thinks the third "missing" camp of the Donner Party is. However, he doesn't tell her (at first) that there just might be a treasure with this dig/excavation which is kind of sketchy to me. I have just finished the lead in to Corrie Swanson and that's as far as I am going. I will be getting a copy of this book to read because I think I will enjoy that experience better.

horrible narrator

horrible narrator. Monotone, emotionless, nag, nag, nag. completely zoned out could listen for an hour before you realized you didn't understand any of it. no difference between the characters, just Bland reading. Preston and Child could do better than this.

Excellent story ruined by wrong accent at the end

I enjoyed this book until the end. The guest appearance at the end was a great idea. Then he spoke. Who decided that our favorite special agent should suddenly have a British accent instead of that honeyed southern drawl? Please redo the ending!

So disappointed

When I first started the book, I had to look back at the Audible site. I thought maybe it was a book for youth.
To be short: I seriously disliked the reader.
It was an ok book for a different reader level of Preston and Child.
Last, and worst,...don’t have a different reader for Pendergast!!! He must be Renea (so).
I love your previous books.
Susan Walter

Old Bones.

An excellent start to a new series. I have loved Corrie and Nora for years. I did not sleep a wink listening to this last night. 10/10. Preston and Child have done it again.

Not Pendergast Quality

if you’re looking for a fix in between Pendergast novels this catches up with Corrie and Nora. The writing style from the beginning was not the voice I’m familiar with. The audiobook’s narrator sounds like a computer generated voice with no acting. It’s definitely no Scott Brick or Rene auberjonois.

Narration is HORRIBLE

Just an hour into the story and I don't know if I can go on. The narrator's voice sounds exactly like a computer to speech application. So irritating. Sadly what might have been the beginning go a good series is being spoiled

Older Novels were better novels

If the story had pages it would not be page turned. The earlier novels had more depth and complexity