Old Bones

A nice little romp (if a tad slow) for a spin-off from the Agent Pendergast series.

Ever since Lincoln and Child introduced Corrie Swanson into the realms of Pendergast, I was waiting for them to expand her role. I figured she would have been great for a YA series with Pendergastian overtones, but now she's an adult, a grown woman who followed in her mentor's footsteps and joined the FBI. At first, I was looking forward to this, but she does not come off too well in the first book. She's a little uptight, a little by-the-book. She's lost some of the goth edge that she possessed when she was first introduced.

Nora Kelly, the widow of the last William Smithback, is an old friend from the Pendergast realms. It's nice to see her getting a larger role in this world. She's intelligent and strong, and a good protagonist.

OLD BONES starts off promising, with a hunt for Donner party campsites, but the book really only simmers and never boils. It does not really live up to the expectations I have for typical Lincoln & Child work, but I'm going to chalk that up to the fact that it's a first book and they're still finding footing for both of the characters. Both women, formerly secondary characters in Pendergast's world, are now front and center and the writers seem to be figuring them out.

The first book in this spin-off series is solid, but doesn't really hum. However, I anticipate a second book will not suffer a sophomore slump.