Reliquary (novel)

Infobox Book |
name = Reliquary
title_orig =
translator =


author = Douglas Preston,
Lincoln Child
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Thriller
publisher = Tor Books
release_date = 1997
media_type = Paperback
pages = 480
isbn = ISBN 0-812-54283-5
preceded_by = Relic
followed_by = The Cabinet of Curiosities

"Reliquary" is the 1997 New York Times Best Selling sequel to "Relic", by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. The legacy of the blood-maddened Mbwun lives on in "Reliquary", but the focus is shifted from the original museum setting to the tunnels beneath the streets of New York City.

Plot summary

The story picks up where the epilogue of "Relic" left off. Two skeletons are found in the Harlem River. They are headless and when more headless murders followed, there is suspicion of a second Mbwun monster. Everyone in the original books plus more team up to solve the puzzle. The mystery soon leads underground to the Mole People and even deeper towards mysterious beings, called the Wrinklers. Soon, they realize that the wrinklers are led by Frock, who has taken a modified version of the mbwun plant to regain the use of his legs. He also gave the drug to the people who were to become the wrinklers. After going underground, the group kills them with an explosion and a flood.

Characters

Many major characters from "Relic" return:
* Captain Vincent D'Agosta - New York Police Department, initially in charge of the investigation.
* Dr. Margo Green - now assistant curator of the New York Museum of Natural History
* Aloysius Pendergast - Special Agent for the FBI
* Bill Smithback - journalist, now crime reporter working for the "New York Post"
* Dr. Whitney C. Frock - Margo Green's former PhD mentor, evolutionary biologist, retired from the museum.
* Dr. Ian Dunbar- D'Agosta's FBI protector

New Characters:
* Sergeant Laura Hayward - New York police officer who worked on a unit to roust the homeless; a published author working on her Masters Degree in Sociology at New York University and an expert on the underground societies of New York. The second and third sections of the novel are preceded by excerpts from a paper she wrote that is awaiting publication.
* Captain Jack Waxie - D'Agosta's superior; takes over the investigation
* Anette Wisher - mother of murdered socialite Pamela Wisher, who then leads a crusade to save the city from crime.
* Redmond Horlocker - Chief of the New York Police Department
* Mephisto - the leader of an underground community beneath Central Park
* Dr. Simon Brambell - Chief Medical Examiner (his brother appears in other novels by Preston & Child)
* Bryce Harriman - crime reporter for the "New York Times"; Smithback's rival

External links

* [http://www.prestonchild.com/reliquary/reliquary.htm Official Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child website]