Tyrannosaur Canyon Douglas Preston
Book Review of Tyrannosaur Canyon by Douglas Preston
Dec 18, 2006
Pros
The main premise of the book, hidden dinosaurs in the desert, is good
Cons
No follow through. Much of what could have been a great mystery story falls flat.
The Bottom Line
This book is almost worth a read, but wait for it to come to your local library or used book store.
Full Review
Douglas Preston can usually be relied upon to deliver solid, interesting mystery stories. I was surprised when this one fell short of the mark. The idea behind the story, that there is a full, intact, well-preserved Tyrannosaurus Rex buried in the desert that holds a secret people would kill for is a good one. Good science and archeology based mysteries are few and far between, so I was quite excited to pick this book up.
The story begins with a moon landing, and is followed by the death of what we think is a prospector. In rapid succession we are introduced to two main characters through a solid action scene. So far so good. Then the story seems to meander off a bit, losing the momentum it had started with. Don’t get me wrong - the story is never “bad”, it just has trouble keeping the mystery tight occasionally.
I think that the story was considerably marred and thrown off track repeatedly by the introduction of one trite character, Detective Willer. How many times must writers abuse the stock “inept rural detective” character before they find a new plot device? It felt as if we were being beaten about the head and neck with Willer’s ineptitude throughout the novel, only to have him suddenly “smarten up” in the last few pages. That messed up the flow of the whole book for me, and it’s a shame that it kept derailing such a good plot.
Another twist was the introduction of Robbie without ever really bringing her in as a character beyond a few set pieces at the end. I kept expecting her to appear and be integral to the plot because of the way her name was dropped, but she never really materializes. Even in the final scenes when she does suddenly appear, she seems to be the “stock artist” character without the depth I’d been expecting to round out the story.
Overall the book was acceptable but not outstanding for me. I enjoyed the characters Broadbent and Ford quite a bit, though they seemed to be working from two seperate scripts at times. The fact that the entire plot was masterminded by a scientist on the bottom tier of a museum food chain, including a mysterious parole arrangement, seemed far fetched to me but was easier to swallow than the stock characters and dropped story lines.
All in all I’ve enjoyed other books by this author more. Two that come to mind as recommended reading instead of this one would be Relic and The Book of the Dead.
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