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Book Review of Diablo Mesa (Nora Kelly, Bk 3)

Diablo Mesa (Nora Kelly, Bk 3)
perryfran avatar reviewed on + 1185 more book reviews


I'm really enjoying Preston & Child's Nora Kelly/Corrie Swanson series. One of my favorite novels from Preston/Childs was THUNDERHEAD which featured Nora on a search for the lost city of gold, Quivara, that Coronado had searched for in the 16th century. Then a few years ago, they started writing the series featuring Nora beginning with OLD BONES and following it up with THE SCORPION'S TAIL. I really thought both of these novels were great.

DIABLO MESA is another very compelling page-turner that I had a hard time putting down. I read the novel of close to 400 pages in two days and when it ended I wanted more! In this one, Nora is fired from her job at the Santa Fe Archaeological Institute after she refuses to work with billionaire, Lucas Tappan, to do a scientific excavation of the purported UFO crash site in Roswell, New Mexico. However, Tappan persuades Nora to work with him and his team on the dig and as soon as they start excavating, they uncover two murder victims buried at the site. Since this is Federal land, FBI agent Corrie Swanson is assigned to investigate the deaths. So who were the murder victims? Corrie's investigation leads her to Los Alamos where the atomic bomb was developed and her mentor working with her is put in harm's way. Then there are some bizarre findings at the UFO crash site that may actually prove that it did originate from outer space. All of this leads to the ire of a secret government organization who have been guarding the secrets of the Roswell incident since 1947. So what really happened and can Nora and her team get to the bottom of the mystery?

This was another Preston/Child novel that I enjoyed a lot. However, it was a little different from some of their other novels in that it really was placed in the realm of science fiction. I have read quite a few of their novels and I feel that the Nora Kelly series are some of their best yet and I'm looking forward to read what will happen to her next. I do also enjoy the Pendergast novels and I still need to finish that series, hopefully sometime in the near future but I do have lots of other books to read!