If Crichton whets your appetite for science-based speculative fiction steeped in history, you can always turn to James Rollins. For readers who have worked through Rollins, Steve Berry, Preston Child and other established heirs to Crichton, you might want to try this new series from writing partners Schutt and Finch. This is their second book and both have been praised for offering the perfect blend of science, history and suspense rolled out at a page-turning pace.
Kirkus gave their first book, Hell’s Gate, a starred review saying, “[T]hink Indiana Jones. For that matter, this yarn evokes more than a few reminders of Stephen King, Joseph Conrad, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Fast-moving fun for thriller readers who enjoy a bit of horror and seeing bad guys get what’s coming to them.”
PW also gave the first book a starred review, highlighting the balance of science and suspense noting that “Michael Crichton fans will be pleased.”
“[in The Himalayan Codex] Schutt and Finch provide a textbook example of how to make the fantastic easy to buy into with their superior second Crichton-esque thriller…. In 1946, Maj. Pat Hendry visits [zoologist R.J. MacCready] at his offices in New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Natural History and shows him jawbones from a dwarf mammoth that suggest the creature had two trunks. Hendry reveals that the bones came from a remote part of Tibet known as the Labyrinth, which may also be the site of an even more amazing discovery—an incomplete codex believed to have been written by Pliny the Elder…that could be ‘the key to shaping life itself.’ … An extended author’s note at the end explains that such speculation is grounded in science.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)
The Himalayan Codex (9780062412553) by Bill Schutt and J.R. Finch. $26.99 hardcover. 6/6/17 on sale.
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