Tyrannosaur Canyon

I was a bit surprised by how little Wyman was actually in the story considering the series is named after him. But I have a feeling that Tom will be a recurring character in the future book as Wyman's business partner... Another surprise was Rexie's point-of-view! I've read a few monster books where the author gave the "beastie" their own chapters, but I wasn't expecting since it's so uncommon. I really didn't pay attention to when the book was actually written by was a bit annoyed by Melodie's dismissal of Wyman's outlandish theory at the end... Scary enough it's actually a plausible conclusion and not something only a "monk" would come up with.

Excellent writing and story! I really enjoyed it. I am reading all of the Wyman Ford series. Douglas Preston is an excellent writer.

Very interesting premise, layered plot, complex characterization, good vocabulary and structure. Well written. It's a mystery of a different sort.

Tyrannosaur Canyon is another great book by Douglas Preston. The characters are great. There's Tom Broadbent, who we got to know in "The Codex." We now meet Wyamn Ford. I love these two characters. Tom Broadbent's wife plays a big part in the story, too. She's a thorougly modern woman and displays a lot of courage and initiative in the face of danger. I was very interested in reading the fictitious explanation of what happened to the dinosaurs. I'm glad Preston put in the part about the T-Rex remains. I enjoyed reading the italicized part about the events that took the creatures life. This book has suspense and adventure as only Douglas Preston can write it. I definitely recommend it.

I am a big fan of the Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child stories, but have been less impressed by their solo efforts. However, this book changes that. This story is very complex with many interesting characters with diverse backgrounds. There are vivid descriptions of the environment and highly technical jargon for specialized fields such as geology, paleontology, cryptography, etc. There is just the right blend of description, mystery, and action to keep the story rich and interesting. This one is a real page-turner and I highly recommend it.

One gets so used to thinking of Douglas Preston as one half of a team with Lincoln Child, with whom he has written some 10 novels, that the fact that Preston has a flourishing writing life on his own often escapes us. He is the tighter writer of the two, and it shows in the detail and careful plotting of a book like Tyrannosaur Canyon, which manages to combine everything from paleontology to epidemiology into a fascinating suspense story. When a dinosaur hunter is killed in one of the remotest parts of New Mexico, an accident of fate has the local veterinarian - Tom Broadbent come across the scene shortly after the shot is fired. He finds Stem Weathers barely alive, and makes a promise to give Weather's daughter a 'treasure' notebook just before the man dies. Committed, Broadbent begins the search with no idea who the man was, and unaware that his killer will kill as much as needed to get the notebook himself. We get to watch the events unfold from multiple vantage points. Not only is Broadbent's quest presented, we also meet research technician Melodie Crookshank, whose investigations of a specimen of an unknown dinosaur provides whole layers of information. And we watch a murderer unfold his plot to gain possession of the notebook and its astounding contents. The complexity builds, so it should be no surprise when a secret ops team suddenly appears on the scene with their own agenda. Preston does an excellent job of maintaining this rich plot without having it collapse of its own weight. While he is better at story telling than character development, the players are balanced carefully so that the reader feels comfortable with them - no one is one stage for so long that they become overly predictable. I found the both the story and the bits of science that Preston uses to build his suspense story addictive. Not only is the reader entertained, one also gets to learn a bit. The end result is a very satisfactory read.

I'm a big fan of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, I've read all of their combined novels and their most recent solo efforts. To date, this is my favorite of either author's solo novels. It wasn't QUITE what I was expecting and the "Black Detachment" of the military was a little much, but I LOVED this book. After reading it, it goes right to the top of my all-time favorites. The real treat of this book is the "T-Rex documentary", at the beginning of each section there's a bit of history on what the life of a T-Rex was like. Fascinating material. If you like good thrill-a-minute books, then by all means, pick this one up.

In Tyrannosaur Canyon, Douglas Preston takes us into the desert of New Mexico where we begin with a murder and with a discovery that could change the world as we know it. Bringing back Tom Broadbent from The Codex, Preston brings back an exciting character that has courage and morals, something that is missing from a lot of characters in novels these days. The book revolves around a promise made to a dying man to find his daughter and deliver his notebook to her. What Tom doesn't know if that by making this promise, he unleashes a hit man onto his and his wife. Joining forces with a Monk who was an Ex-CIA agent, Broadbent moves into the desert and helps make a discovery that might change the world forever. Preston delivers the goods with Tyrannosaur Canyon that will keep you reading late into the night. A great read and a very interesting story!