Enigmatic Read

The third installment in the Nora Kelly series is an entertaining and enigmatic thriller centered around an archeological site believed to be a crash location of a UFO in the late 40s. Teaming with an astute FBI agent, Corrie Swanson, the author has created a must-read series, as their animosity turns into a helping hand. The protagonist, Nora Kelly a top archeologist at Santa Fe Institute reluctantly accepts an assignment to dig up an old "Rosewell" locale near Los Alamos after much persuasion by an eccentric billionaire Lucas Tappan and owner of Icarus space systems, who has promised a hefty donation to the Institute in return.

Nora is a competent scientist who believes in logic and cannot comprehend the possibility of alien invasion and extraterrestrial activity. She leads a team of world-class scientists and her brother Skip at the dig site and as they begin their excavation, they find the remains of two bodies, whose faces and hands are charred beyond recognition. Enter Nora's friend FBI agent Corrie Swanson, who takes over the crime scene and begins their investigation as the bodies have been recovered on federal lands. Meanwhile, one of the leading scientists goes missing from the camp, and during their search campaign, Lucas and Nora have an inkling that they have been misled to dig at an incorrect site.

Although Lucas has secured all government approvals to conduct the dig, they are being watched. But by whom and why? Just then, the dig team recovers something unbelievable buried in the ground that seemed to be a technology far more than known during the 40s. The team is elated as they begin to believe in the invasion of some ET. Soon, military helicopters swarm the site armed with guns and take over the site and the team as hostages including Nora and Lucas. They are baffled by this sudden gate crash only to slowly discover that whoever these powerful people are, whether from the government or not, they are hell-bent on protecting the secret of the Rosewell site and the events that transpired seventy years ago.

Nora and Corrie have to team up to unfold the impenetrable secret encapsulating the Rosewell site as people begin to disappear and die. They soon realize that they are facing a bigger problem from humans than the aliens and have the daunting task to save their own lives. The last one-third of the book progresses at a breakneck speed as the mystery begins to unravel with Nora's excavation findings and Corrie's homicide investigation. Although both operations are partly insulated from each other, it dovetails into a nefarious saga as the climax closes in.

The main characters in the book are well evolved from the previous ones in the series and therefore, it is advisable to read books 1 and 2 in the Nora Kelly series, although it could be read as a stand-alone. Nora herself has been introduced in the Pendergast series by the same author as his protege. While I must admit that the previous books in the series - Old Bones and The Scorpion Tail had a great depth of archeological investigations as the core of the plot, this one had a UFO angle. Highly recommended read for fast-paced thriller fans from Preston and Child and hope we don't have to wait too long for the next edition in the series.

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