Most Popular Books by Lincoln Child

#1 New York Times–bestselling authors: Get to know the ruthless, mysterious FBI agent, “one of thrillerdom’s most exciting and intriguing series leads” (Booklist). Acclaimed as “a modern-day Sherlock Holmes” (Associated Press) with a brilliant mind, a cultured manner, and a dark edge, Special Agent Aloysius X. L. Pendergast has calmly looked evil in the face throughout the long-running series that includes such novels as The Cabinet of Curiosities—named one of NPR’s 100 Best Thrillers Ever—and Crooked River. In this essay, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child discuss how the character came to be created, his enigmatic backstory, and the history of their own wildly successful writing partnership. “The most charming, intelligent, cool, and creepy agent ever written.” —Suspense Magazine “Every bit the modern equivalent of Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot.”―Providence Journal

A top nuclear scientist goes mad and takes an innocent family hostage at gunpoint, killing one and causing a massive standoff. A plume of radiation above New York City leads to a warehouse where, it seems, a powerful nuclear bomb was assembled just hours before. Sifting through the evidence, authorities determine that the unthinkable is about to happen: in ten days, a major American city will be vaporized by a terrorist attack. Ten days. And Gideon Crew, tracking the mysterious terrorist cell from the suburbs of New York to the mountains of New Mexico, learns the end may be something worse--far worse--than mere Armageddon.

INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER: Agent Pendergast faces his most unexpected challenge yet when bloodless bodies begin to appear in Savannah, GA. A fabulous heist: On the evening of November 24, 1971, D. B. Cooper hijacked Flight 305—Portland to Seattle—with a fake bomb, collected a ransom of $200,000, and then parachuted from the rear of the plane, disappearing into the night…and into history. A brutal crime steeped in legend and malevolence: Fifty years later, Agent Pendergast takes on a bizarre and gruesome case: in the ghost-haunted city of Savannah, Georgia, bodies are found with no blood left in their veins—sowing panic and reviving whispered tales of the infamous Savannah Vampire. A case like no other: As the mystery rises along with the body count, Pendergast and his partner, Agent Coldmoon, race to understand how—or if—these murders are connected to the only unsolved skyjacking in American history. Together, they uncover not just the answer…but an unearthly evil beyond all imagining.

At a remote Tibetan monastery, FBI Special Agent Pendergast must find a powerful and ancient artifact before it falls into the wrong hands. A luxury ocean liner on its maiden voyage across the North Atlantic, awash in wealth and decadence... An ancient Tibetan box, its contents unknown, sealed with a terrifying warning... An FBI agent destined to confront what he fears most--himself...

Pendergast, the world''s most mysterious FBI Special Agent, investigates a murderous cult in New York City that no one has ever survived. William Smithback, a New York Times reporter, and his wife Nora Kelly, a Museum of Natural History archaeologist, are brutally attacked in their apartment on Manhattan''s Upper West Side. Eyewitnesses claim, and the security camera confirms, that the assailant was their strange, sinister neighbor--a man who, by all reports, was already dead and buried weeks earlier. While Captain Laura Hayward leads the official investigation, Pendergast and Lieutenant Vincent D''Agosta undertake their own private--and decidedly unorthodox--quest for the truth. Their serpentine journey takes them to an enclave of Manhattan they never imagined could exist: a secretive, reclusive cult of Obeah and vodou which no outsiders have ever survived.

In the wake of a series of bizarre murders in which claw prints are found near each of the victims, agent Pendergast teams up with officer Vincent d''Agosta in an investigation with apparent ties to the supernatural.

When a longtime enemy shows up dead on Pendergast''s doorstep, the murder investigation leads him into his own dark past as a vengeful killer waits in the shadows. It begins with murder. One of Pendergast''s most implacable, most feared enemies is found on his doorstep, dead. Pendergast has no idea who is responsible for the killing, or why the body was brought to his home. The mystery has all the hallmarks of the perfect crime, save for an enigmatic clue: a piece of turquoise lodged in the stomach of the deceased. The gem leads Pendergast to an abandoned mine on the shore of California''s Salton Sea, which in turn propels him on a journey of discovery deep into his own family''s sinister past. But Pendergast learns there is more at work than a ghastly episode of family history: he is being stalked by a subtle killer bent on vengeance over an ancient transgression. And he soon becomes caught in a wickedly clever plot, which leaves him stricken in mind and body, and propels him toward a reckoning beyond anything he could ever have imagined . . .

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Gideon Crew--brilliant scientist, master thief--is living on borrowed time. When his mysterious employer, Eli Glinn, gives him an eyebrow-raising mission, he has no reason to refuse. Gideon''s task: steal a page from the priceless Book of Kells, now on display in New York City and protected by unbreakable security. Accomplishing the impossible, Gideon steals the parchment--only to learn that hidden beneath the gorgeously illuminated image is a treasure map dating back to the time of the ancient Greeks. As they ponder the strange map, they realize that the treasure it leads to is no ordinary fortune. It is something far more precious: an amazing discovery that could perhaps even save Gideon''s life. Together with his new partner, Amy, Gideon follows a trail of cryptic clues to an unknown island in a remote corner of the Caribbean Sea. There, off the hostile and desolate Mosquito Coast, the pair realize the extraordinary treasure they are hunting conceals an even greater shock-a revelation so profound that it may benefit the entire human race . . . if Gideon and Amy can survive.

When a straightforward murder case spirals out of control, Pendergast and his ward investigate an ancient witches'' colony in a sleepy New England town where a terrible evil awaits . . . A secret chamber. A mysterious shipwreck. A murder in the desolate salt marshes. A seemingly straightforward private case turns out to be much more complicated-and sinister-than Special Agent A.X.L. Pendergast ever could have anticipated. Pendergast, together with his ward Constance Greene, travels to the quaint seaside village of Exmouth, Massachusetts, to investigate the theft of a priceless wine collection. But inside the wine cellar, they find something considerably more disturbing: a bricked-up niche that once held a crumbling skeleton. Pendergast and Constance soon learn that Exmouth is a town with a very dark and troubled history, and this skeleton may be only the first hint of an ancient transgression, kept secret all these years. But they will discover that the sins of the past are still very much alive. Local legend holds that during the 1692 witch trials in Salem, the real witches escaped, fleeing north to Exmouth and settling deep in the surrounding salt marshes, where they continued to practice their wicked arts. Then, a murdered corpse turns up in the marshes. The only clue is a series of mysterious carvings. Could these demonic symbols bear some relation to the ancient witches'' colony, long believed to be abandoned? A terrible evil lurks beneath the surface of this sleepy seaside town-one with deep roots in Exmouth''s grim history. And it may be that Constance, with her own troubled past, is the only one who truly comprehends the awful danger that she, Pendergast, and the residents of Exmouth must face . . .

In this #1 New York Times bestseller, Special Agent Pendergast must stop a serial killer who is terrorizing New York City with a trail of headless victims. When Grace Ozmian, the beautiful and reckless daughter of a wealthy tech billionaire, first goes missing, the NYPD assumes she has simply sped off on another wild adventure. Until the young woman''s body is discovered in an abandoned warehouse in Queens, the head nowhere to be found. Lieutenant CDS Vincent D''Agosta quickly takes the lead. He knows his investigation will attract fierce scrutiny, so D''Agosta is delighted when FBI Special Agent A.X.L. Pendergast shows up at the crime scene assigned to the case. "I feel rather like Brer Rabbit being thrown into the briar patch," Pendergast tells D''Agosta, "because I have found you here, in charge. Just like when we first met, back at the Museum of Natural History." But neither Pendergast nor D''Agosta are prepared for what lies ahead. A diabolical presence is haunting the greater metropolitan area, and Grace Ozmian was only the first of many victims to be murdered . . . and decapitated. Worse still, there''s something unique to the city itself that has attracted the evil eye of the killer. As mass hysteria sets in, Pendergast and D''Agosta find themselves in the crosshairs of an opponent who has threatened the very lifeblood of the city. It''ll take all of Pendergast''s skill to unmask this most dangerous foe-let alone survive to tell the tale.

The NEW YORK TIMES bestselling authors return with a stunning new adventure featuring the FBI''s most inscrutable agent, Aloysius Pendergast. FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast is visiting the old family home in Louisiana. Surrounded by ghosts of the past, he can''t help but think of Helen - his wife who tragically died twelve years ago. But whilst examining her possessions, he makes a startling discovery - one that leads him to believe Helen''s death was not accidental... With the help of his trusted friend Lieutenant Vincent D''Agosta, Pendergast embarks on a quest to uncover the mystery of his wife''s final days. It''s a journey that takes him deep into the dark heart of her past, to a hidden obsession and secrets that some people would do anything to protect. But as the hunt for Helen''s murderer ventures into the Bayou, Pendergast find himself faced with a killer question: just who was the woman he married?

Past and present collide as Special Agent Pendergast uncovers a mysterious connection between a string of 19th century bear attacks in a Colorado mining town, a long-lost Sherlock Holmes story, and a deadly arsonist. In 1876, in a mining camp called Roaring Fork in the Colorado Rockies, eleven miners were killed by a rogue grizzly bear. Corrie Swanson has arranged to examine the miners'' remains. When she makes a shocking discovery, town leaders try to stop her from exposing their community''s dark and bloody past. Just as Special Agent Pendergast of the FBI arrives to rescue his protege, the town comes under siege by a murderous arsonist who-with brutal precision-begins burning down multimillion-dollar mansions with the families locked inside. Drawn deeper into the investigation, Pendergast discovers a long-lost Sherlock Holmes story that may be the key to solving both the mystery of the long-dead miners and the modern-day killings as well. Now, with the ski resort snowed in and under savage attack-and Corrie''s life suddenly in grave danger-Pendergast must solve the enigma of the past before the town of the present goes up in flames.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling duo, renowned archaeologist Nora Kelly and FBI Agent Corrie Swanson investigate a mystery so enigmatic it may have no solution. In 2008, nine mountaineers failed to return from a winter backpacking trip in the New Mexico mountains. At their final campsite, searchers found a bizarre scene: something had appeared at the door of their tent so terrifying that it impelled them to slash their way out and flee barefoot to certain death in a blizzard. Despite a diligent search, only six bodies were found, two violently crushed and inexplicably missing their eyes. The case, given the code name “Dead Mountain” by the FBI, was never solved. Now, two more bodies from the lost expedition are unexpectedly discovered in a cave, one a grisly suicide. Young FBI Agent Corrie Swanson teams up with archaeologist Nora Kelly to investigate what really happened on that fateful trip fifteen years ago—and to find the ninth victim. But their search awakens a long-slumbering evil, which pursues Corrie and Nora with a vengeance, determined to prevent the final missing corpse from ever coming to light.

And the one man who can explain it all. . .

NEW YORK TIMES bestselling authors return with another page-turning adventure thriller. ''Before you embark on a journey of revenge, first dig two graves'' Confucius In the 91 hours following the brutal kidnapping of his wife, FBI agent Pendergast does everything in his power to find her. But it''s too late. And a shattered Pendergast retreats to his New York home where he shuts the world out. Then a string of bizarre murders erupt in Manhattan''s hotels, and Pendergast realises they''re a deadly message from the kidnappers. Filled anew with vengeful fury, he tracks them to the dark forests of South America, where he is faced with an old evil that threatens the world as we know it...

Two brothers bound by blood, divided by hate . . . FBI agent Aloysius Pendergast''s greatest enemy is one who has stalked him all of his life - his cunning and diabolical brother Diogenes. And Diogenes has thrown down the gauntlet. Now, several of the people closest to Pendergast are viciously murdered, and Pendergast is framed for the deeds. On the run from federal authorities, with only the help of his old friend NYPD Lieutenant Vincent D''Agosta, Pendergast must stop his brother. But how can he stop a man that is his intellectual equal - one who has had twenty years to plan the world''s most horrendous crime?

"Preston and Child return with the next book in their #1 New York Times bestselling series featuring Special Agent Pendergast"--

It’s like nothing anyone has ever seen before. Utopia is the brand-new frontier of theme parks, a fantastic collection of Worlds each so authentic it takes the average visitor’s breath away. Teeming with cutting-edge holographic and robotic technology, it has captured the nation’s imagination. But it has also attracted a group of ruthless criminals. After infiltrating the park and its computer systems, their leader—calling himself John Doe—sets the parameters: If their shocking demands are met, none of the visitors to the park that day will be harmed; if not, then all hell will rain down. Dr. Andrew Warne, the brilliant engineer who designed much of the park’s robotics, suddenly finds himself in a role he never imagined—trying to save the lives of thousands of innocent people . . . one of whom just happens to be his daughter. Praise for Lethal Velocity “A beautifully crafted scare-fest . . . heaven for techno-thriller fans.”—People (Page-turner of the Week) “Terrific . . . a sensational piece of popular entertainment . . . [Lincoln] Child has created a fictional wonderland that is both high-tech and nostalgic. . . . If you are looking for intelligent fun, it doesn’t get much better than this.”—The Washington Post Book World “[A] whiz-bang plot . . . springs to life from the opening pages . . . Child does an outstanding job of depicting the workings of this fantastic playground.”—San Francisco Chronicle “A riveting read . . . part mystery, part science-fiction, and all page-turner.”—Roanoke Times Previously published as Utopia

National Book Award finalist Julie Anne Peters delivers a moving, classic love story with a coming out theme and a modern twist. The largest known meteorite has been discovered, entombed in the earth for millions of years on a frigid, desolate island off the southern tip of Chile. At four thousand tons, this treasure seems impossible to move. New York billionaire Palmer Lloyd is determined to have this incredible find for his new museum. Stocking a cargo ship with the finest scientists and engineers, he builds a flawless expedition. But from the first approach to the meteorite, people begin to die. A frightening truth is about to unfold: The men and women of the Rolvaag are not taking this ancient, enigmatic object anywhere. It is taking them.

From #1 bestselling authors Preston & Child comes a thrilling novel following archaeologist Nora Kelly and FBI Agent Corrie Swanson as they work together to solve a twisted crime that reaches far beyond any of their worst fears. Following the acclaimed debut of Old Bones, this second "happily anticipated" new thriller in Preston & Child''s series features Nora Kelly, archaeologist at the Santa Fe Archeological Institute, and rookie FBI Agent Corrie Swanson, as they team up to solve a mystery that quickly escalates into nightmare (Booklist). A mummified corpse, over half a century old, is found in the cellar of an abandoned building in a remote New Mexico ghost town. Corrie is assigned what seems to her a throwaway case: to ID the body and determine cause of death. She brings archaeologist Nora Kelly to excavate the body and lend her expertise to the investigation, and together they uncover something unexpected and shocking: the deceased apparently died in agony, in a fetal position, skin coming off in sheets, with a rictus of horror frozen on his face. Hidden on the corpse lies a 16th century Spanish gold cross of immense value. When they at last identify the body -- and the bizarre cause of death -- Corrie and Nora open a door into a terrifying, secret world of ancient treasure and modern obsession: a world centered on arguably the most defining, frightening, and transformative moment in American history.

Gideon Crew - brilliant scientist, master thief - has just lost his job. It is the least of his worries: he has only months to live. Effective Engineering Solutions has shut up shop; its enigmatic boss has disappeared without a trace. While clearing their desks, Gideon and his colleague Manuel Garza discover a computer programme that, left running for five years, has finally cracked the code it was attacking. It has deciphered the infamously enigmatic hieroglyphs of the Phaistos Disk. For a century, the ancient stone tablet defied interpretation, but now Gideon and Manuel have a lead on an undiscovered civilization, long-lost beneath the sands of the Egyptian Sahara. As a man doomed by an inevitably fatal brain syndrome, Crew needs little persuasion to embark on one final adventure. As Manuel and Gideon travel across the world and deep into the desert, the odds are against them - but as Crew will prove, there is no such thing as too great a risk for a man living on borrowed time.

Now, available for the first time together in a single volume: a digital-only, value-priced omnibus edition of the "Diogenes Trilogy": Brimstone, Dance of Death, and The Book of the Dead--featuring Pendergast''s mysterious brother--by #1 New York Times bestselling authors Preston & Child. BRIMSTONE: A body is found in the attic of a fabulous Long Island estate. There is a hoofprint scorched into the floor, and the stench of sulfur chokes the air. When FBI Special Agent Pendergast investigates the gruesome crime, he discovers that thirty years ago four men conjured something unspeakable. Has the devil come to claim his due? DANCE OF DEATH: Two brothers. One, top FBI Agent, Aloysius Pendergast. The other, Diogenes, a brilliant and twisted criminal. An undying hatred between them. Now, a perfect crime. And the ultimate challenge: Stop me if you can. BOOK OF THE DEAD: A talented FBI agent, rotting away in a high security prison for a murder he did not commit. His psychotic brother, about to perpetrate a horrific crime. A young woman with an extraordinary past, on the edge of a violent breakdown. An ancient Egyptian tomb about to be unveiled at a celebrity-studded New York gala, an enigmatic curse released. Memento Mori.

After an overhaul of leadership at the FBI''s New York field office, Special Agent A.X.L. Pendergast is forced to accept an unthinkable condition of continued employment: the unorthodox lone wolf must now work with a partner. Pendergast and his new cohort, Special Agent Coldmoon, are dispatched to Florida to investigate a rash of ritualistic murders. A killer is carving out the hearts of his victims, and depositing the stolen organs alongside the headstones of existing graves. Accompanying each heart is a cryptic letter, signed by a ''Mr Brokenhearts''. There is one more intriguing aspect to Mr Brokenhearts'' macabre modus operandi: the chosen graves all belong to women who have committed suicide. As he searches for the connection between the old suicides and the new murders, Pendergast realizes the brutal new crimes may be just the tip of the iceberg: that he faces a conspiracy of death reaching back decades. ''Fast-moving, sophisticated and bursting with surprises... There''s nothing else like them'' WASHINGTON POST. ''One of thrillerdom''s most exciting and intriguing series leads, and it remains among the most reliable in the genre'' BOOKLIST.

BEYOND THE ICE LIMIT That thing is growing again. We must destroy it. The time to act is now... With these words begins Gideon Crew''s latest, most dangerous, most high-stakes assignment yet. Failure will mean nothing short of the end of humankind on earth. Five years ago, the mysterious and inscrutable head of Effective Engineering Solutions, Eli Glinn, led a mission to recover a gigantic meteorite--the largest ever discovered--from a remote island off the coast of South America. The mission ended in disaster when their ship, the Rolvaag, foundered in a vicious storm in the Antarctic waters and broke apart, sinking-along with its unique cargo-to the ocean floor. One hundred and eight crew members perished, and Eli Glinn was left paralyzed. But this was not all. The tragedy revealed something truly terrifying: the meteorite they tried to retrieve was not, in fact, simply a rock. Instead, it was a complex organism from the deep reaches of space. Now, that organism has implanted itself in the sea bed two miles below the surface-and it is growing. If it is not destroyed, the planet will be doomed. There is only one hope: for Glinn and his team to annihilate it, a task which requires Gideon''s expertise with nuclear weapons. But as Gideon and his colleagues soon discover, the "meteorite" has a mind of its own-and it has no intention of going quietly...

William Smithback, reporter au New York Times, et sa femme Nora Kelly, archéologue au Muséum d''Histoire naturelle, sont sauvagement agressés dans leur appartement de l''Upper West Side de Manhattan. Si Nora en réchappe, Smithback, lui, est tué... Le meurtrier est rapidement identifié par des témoins et des caméras de vidéosurveillance. Il s''agit de leur étrange et sinistre voisin, Fearing... pourtant mort et enterré depuis plusieurs jours déjà ! Un tel mystère ne peut laisser insensible le célèbre inspecteur Pendergast, du FBI. Épaulé par son acolyte, l''inspecteur Vincent d''Acosta, il fera tout pour retrouver le meurtrier de son ami. Leur enquête va les mener à une secte secrète, La Ville, cachée depuis deux siècles dans la partie boisée de Manhattan. Y a-t-il un rapport entre cette secte, qui se livre entre autres à des sacrifices d''animaux, et la résurrection en zombies tueurs de Fearing puis de... Smithback ? L''énigme va donner du fil à retordre à nos deux enquêteurs, d''autant qu''Alexander Esteban, ancien réalisateur spécialiste de films gore de série Z, entre dans la valse. Forcément macabre... Quelle est la vraie raison de sa haine farouche à l''égard de La Ville ?

When two skeletons are found off the Manhattan shoreline, museum curator and anthropological expert Margo Green is called in by the police because of her earlier experiences in battling a horrific beast in the museum.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Relic comes a spellbinding new novel blending adventure, science and nail-biting suspense.In downtown Manhattan, a gruesome discovery has just been made - an underground charnel house containing the bones of dozens of murder victims.Research reveals that a serial killer was at work in New York''s notorious Five Points neighbourhood in the 1880s, bent on prolonging his lifespan by any means. When a newspaper story on the old murders appears to ignite a new series of horrifyingly similar killings, panic overtakes the city.On the case are FBI Special Agent Pendergast - Southern, pale, refined, unorthodox, possessed of a Holmes-like brain and possibly the most engaging investigator in modern popular fiction; dogged NYT reporter William Smithback Jnr; and his erstwhile girlfriend Dr Nora Kelly, an archaeologist at the New York Museum of Natural History. Using every resource available they join forces to track down the killer䡥fore they become the next victims.

"New York Times" bestselling authors Preston and Child return with a suspenseful midwest Gothic thriller. In a town where nothing changes, the community is terrified after a series of grisly murders takes place. Even more alarming, the bodies are displayed in bizarre tableaus.