My strategy of explaining this book to people by asking if they remember the 1997 movie "Relic" was perhaps doomed to failure. Especially since Old Bones is actually the beginning of a spin-off series featuring a couple of side characters from Preston & Child's main series, Dr Nora Kelly and Special Agent Corrie Swanson (who apparently didn't know they were both spun off of the same series until Pendergast made a cameo appearance at the end to solve a bonus mystery for them). Maybe someday I will go back and read his books too.

Anyway, Old Bones. I was looking for a fast-reading thriller that wasn't afraid to go high stakes and maybe include a touch of the supernatural or the monstrous. On that I was mostly satisfied, albeit the resolution seemed a little abrupt. Which is a complaint I've had a lot about mysteries, so I wonder if there is something specific I am looking for and not getting. Hopefully not a villain running a deathtrap or an extended climactic battle scene; I'd like to think that isn't my scene. Shall have to think on that more.

One disappointment (I think? still evaluating that as a stylistic choice) is that heroes and villains can largely be identified through their likeability. Am reading the subsequent volumes with this in mind to see how well that holds up as a trend.

But overall, exactly what I wanted from this novel. So, I'm satisfied.