Review: Thunderhead

4 stars. Jump scare! Turns out my spooky season is literally every season except actual spooky season, which is when I pivot for a second and read a fucking archeological thriller by the popular duo Preston & Child!? Trust me, no one is more surprised than I. I have no idea what compelled me to check this out from the library (I'm pretty sure it was Reddit) but it really is so out of character... in a good way. It's a good lesson: I need to stop discriminating against books like this. It was pretty great. I actually kind of loved it.

Thunderhead follows archeologist Nora Kelly, who, after a terrifying encounter with mysterious, violent, animal-like figures in her childhood home, discovers a letter sent by her father, who went missing years ago on an expedition to find a sort of lost city of gold situation in the American southwest. This letter contains enough information about a possible location that she's able to assemble a team and explore the area, hoping to find answers about her father, knowledge about the Anasazi, the location of the mysterious city, and gold. Not necessarily in that order.

But it's never that easy!! A straightforward archeological treasure hunt filled with damaged, emotionally invested personalities with conflicting agendas? In an isolated, rural, uninhabited area of the country with no service and flash floods? For gold?! NEVER! Nora and her team really go through it in this book (speaking of which, TW re: the horses - I knew to skip ahead, I suggest you do as well), almost to the point of obstacle fatigue, but everyone describes this as a page turner for a reason.

Okay, a couple of things around why I docked a star: one) I had trouble keeping the team members straight. It was like one person too many or something... the authors did a delightful job making them each distinct from each other, but I couldn't bring myself to care about any of them because, sort of like a slasher, there were simply too many for the group to survive. Two) an unbelievable romance. Sexual tension is hard to write, man. Believe me, that's why when you find a well-written example you tend to return to it again and again because it's magical. This was not a well-written example. Three) which brings me to my third point: the way the women are described. Sure, this book was written in 1999. But let me just tell you that the phrase "shapely rear" is now a joke in my house and not likely to be forgotten any time soon. Four) the aforementioned horses. 

Things to commend: one) the authors did their research. It's so fun!! My favorite movie is National Treasure and this gave me all of those vibes. Two) while certain elements are obviously foreshadowed, for the most part the story - with all its twists and turns - is ultimately fairly unpredictable! Three) excellent villains. I loved that it had both monsters as well as the conflict/interpersonal drama within the group. Four) so much great, nerdy, yummy, archeological... stuff. Glyphs. Ruins. Pottery. Bones. Ancient boobytraps. Treasure.

Anyway, did this pack the biggest emotional wallop ever? Not for me - and I do think the authors sort of meant it to. But that's okay! I really enjoyed myself. I actually want to read some more books by them, maybe more in this series? I'm new to armchair archeology but I'm really into it. So... yeah. Cheers to taking unexpected turns and making discoveries.

Thunderhead on: Amazon | Bookshop.org | Goodreads