Badlands: A Nora Kelly Novel

Why would two women, years apart, disrobe and burn themselves to death in the same New Mexican desert? That’s the question Preston and Child pose for forensic anthropologist Nora Kelly in the crackling sequel to Dead Mountain. After the skeletal remains of high school science teacher Molly Vine are spotted by a drone, FBI agent Corrie Swanson is assigned to investigate. He finds that Vine apparently died five years earlier, after venturing into an area that the Navajo believed to be the home of skinwalkers. A spearpoint found under Vine’s bones leads him to consult Kelly. The FBI canvasses the area and discovers the corpse of geological consultant Mandy Driver, leading Swanson and Kelly to theorize that the deaths might be connected to the Gallinas, an Indigenous tribe who were wiped out in the 13th century. Preston and Child once again use real history as the starting point for their hair-raising plot, which makes a series of tantalizing turns before culminating in an encounter with the supernatural. This is on a par with the best of the authors’ Pendergast series. Agent: Eric Simonoff, WME. (June)