The new thriller by the New York Times bestselling authors of The Relic (basis of the Paramount movie) and Reliquary. Movie rights to RIPTIDE have been optioned by Arnold Kopelson (producer of such hits as The Fugitive and Outbreak) and Twentieth Century Fox.
Douglas Preston worked for the American Museum of Natural History in New York as managing editor of Curator magazine. In 1989, he undertook a thousand-mile horseback journey with a photographer, retracing the Spanish explorer Coronado's search for the legendary Seven Cities of Gold-and nearly perishing in the harsh deserts of southern Arizona and New Mexico. He has written a number of nonfiction books as well as several novels.Lincoln Child was an editor at St. Martin's Press when he met Douglas Preston and invited him to write a book about the American Museum of Natural History (Dinosaurs in the Attic). The two first collaborated on The Relic; their other titles include Mount Dragon and Reliquary.
Preston and Child have crafted a high-pitched, fast-paced plot with
vivid description, intriguing characters and vibrant scenes....The
suspense never lets up.
*Bangor DAILY News*
Their most exciting thriller yet...plot twists and likable
characters drive this story to its stunning conclusion.
*on The Scene, Albuquerque NM*
Machine-gun pacing, startling plot twists and smart use of legend,
scientific lore (including cryptanalysis) and the evocative setting
carry the day...bound to be one of the most popular of the summer
reads.
*PUBLISHERS WEEKLY*
Unstoppable suspense and mystery.'-Kirkus Reviews
*'Yo ho ho-get ready for a ripping good yarn!… This nonstop action
adventure has all the elements of a perfect summertime
thriller….The red-hot authors of Reliquary score another big
winner.’*
The authors, who hit the big time with The Relic (remember the Paramount movie?), return with a tale of buried treasure. The $2 billion cache, at the bottom of a water pit on Ragged Island, ME, was evidently cursed by the English pirate to whom it belonged‘which may be why treasure hunters keep dying in the attempt to recover it. Movie rights have already been optioned by Twentieth Century Fox, and foreign rights have been sold to eight countries.
The authors' first and bestselling thriller, The Relic, hit the lists in part for its clever exploitation of an extraordinary settingÄthe American Museum of Natural History. Just so, their fourth novel (after Reliquary) makes sprightly use of Nova Scotia's Oak Island and its notorious Money PitÄhere transplanted to offshore Maine as the Water Pit on Ragged Island. The novel opens with a brisk recap of often fatal efforts over the past 200 years to recover a fabled treasureÄnow worth $2 billion and including a mysterious relic, St. Michael's SwordÄhidden by English pirate Edward Ockham in the Water Pit. The difficulty is that the Pit, nearly 200 feet deep, was designed to flood and to kill through booby traps anyone trying to broach the treasure. Into this nifty setup steps Martin Hatch, returning to Ragged Island 25 years after his brother and father died in the Pit. Hatch is back as part of a massive expedition attempting a high-tech assault on the Pit. Brash melodrama ensues as expedition members suffer various gory accidents and as Hatch realizes that the Sword possesses a quality that may kill the entire expedition. The novel suffers from a diffusion of villainsÄthe authors variously demonize the Pit, the Pit's designer, the crazed expedition leader and the SwordÄand from workaday prose and assembly-line characters (a computer nerd, a sexy French archeologist, a righteous minister). Machine-gun pacing, startling plot twists and smart use of legend, scientific lore (including cyptanalysis) and the evocative setting carry the day, however, resulting in an exciting boys' adventure tale for adults that's bound to be one of most popular of the summer reads. Film rights optioned by Arnold Kopelson; foreign rights sold in eight countries; simultaneous Time Warner audio. (July) FYI: The mystery of Oak Island and its Money Pit has been detailed in several books (e.g., D'arcy O'Conner's The Money Pit, 1978). The Pit, target over the past two centuries of numerous failed expeditions costing millions of dollars and six lives, is variously rumored to contain Captain Kidd's treasure, Incan gold and even the Holy Grail.
Preston and Child have crafted a high-pitched, fast-paced plot with
vivid description, intriguing characters and vibrant scenes....The
suspense never lets up. * Bangor DAILY News *
Their most exciting thriller yet...plot twists and likable
characters drive this story to its stunning conclusion. * on The
Scene, Albuquerque NM *
Machine-gun pacing, startling plot twists and smart use of legend,
scientific lore (including cryptanalysis) and the evocative setting
carry the day...bound to be one of the most popular of the summer
reads. * PUBLISHERS WEEKLY *
Unstoppable suspense and mystery.'-Kirkus Reviews * 'Yo ho ho-get
ready for a ripping good yarn!... This nonstop action adventure has
all the elements of a perfect summertime thriller....The red-hot
authors of Reliquary score another big winner.' *
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