The Third Gate by Lincoln Child

Since Michael Crichton died, I’ve been looking for an author that would give me a thriller with some science thrown in. I tried Lincoln Child, starting with his brand new book, The Third Gate, and I was not disappointed. The Third Gateonly has a hint of a science background. The protagonist in this story is Jeremy Logan. Logan investigates the paranormal or unusual claim. Logan has been to Loch Ness, and he’s investigated haunted houses. In this case, Porter Stone, a famous explorer and archaeologist, gets Logan to investigate abnormal happenings on one of his digs. Stone has gone to the swamps of the Sudd to search for Narmer’s tomb. Narmer is the pharaoh who united North and South Egypt into one. Stone believes that Flinders Petrie had discovered the location of Narmer’s tomb and the royal white and red unification crown, but that Petrie wasn’t able to get the funds to start the search before Petrie died. Weird sightings have been seen in the state of the art facility, and the people are starting to get jumpy. Logan travels to the area with Ethan Rush, a former ER doctor, who investigates NDE (near death events) since his wife, Jennifer, experienced her own NDE. Well, things get really crazy when Rush starts having Jennifer try to channel Narmer so the team can locate the tomb AND bypass the warnings and threats if someone tries to cross the three gates to Narmer’s tomb. They do locate the tomb, and they also locate evil that can sabotage the whole mission.

The Third Gate was a great thriller. I found myself engrossed in the story, and read it quickly over the past weekend. Child gave just the right blend of information with thrills. Of course, you do have to suspend some sense of reality with the possession aspect with NDE, but the story moved quickly. Yes, there was a woman archaeologist who at first was an antagonist, and later an aide in solving the mystery. All around, I was satisfied with the thriller aspect of the book, and I look forward to reading other of Lincoln Child stand-alone books. Child also writes with Douglas Preston, and Preston & Child have a whole slew of books with FBI Special Agent Pendergast. I haven’t read any of those books, so I have a lot of books to add to my to-be-read piles.