Works by
Lincoln Child
(Writer)

Writing Alone

• Utopia
  Rising out of the stony canyons of Nevada, Utopia is a world on the cutting edge of technology. A theme park attracting 65,000 visitors each day, its dazzling array of robots and futuristic holograms make it a worldwide sensation.

  But ominous mishaps are beginning to disrupt the once flawless technology. A friendly robot goes haywire, causing panic, and a popular roller coaster malfunctions, nearly killing a teenaged rider. Dr. Andrew Warne, the brilliant computer engineer who designed much of the park’s robotics, is summoned from the East Coast to get things back on track.

  On the day Warne arrives, however, Utopia is caught in the grip of something far more sinister. A group of ruthless criminals has infiltrated the park’s computerized infrastructure, giving them complete access to all of Utopia’s attractions and systems. Their communication begins with a simple and dire warning: If their demands are met, none of the 65,000 people in the park that day will ever know they were there; if not, chaos will descend, and every man, woman, and child will become a target. As one of the brains behind Utopia, Warne finds himself thrust into a role he never imagined–trying to save the lives of thousands of innocent people. And as the minutes tick away, Warne’s struggle to outsmart his opponents grows ever more urgent, for his only daughter is among the unsuspecting crowds in the park.

• Death Match
  Lewis and Lindsay Thorpe were the perfect couple: young, attractive, and ideally matched. But the veil of perfection can mask many blemishes. When the Thorpes are found dead in their tasteful Flagstaff living room (having committed double suicide), alarms go off in the towering Manhattan offices of Eden Incorporated, the high-tech matchmaking company whose spectacular success, and legendary secrecy, has inspired awe around the world. The Thorpes, few people knew, were more than the quintessential happy couple – they were Eden’s first perfect match.

  A short time later, Christopher Lash, a gifted former FBI forensic psychologist, receives an urgent plea from Eden to perform a quick – and quiet – investigation into the deaths.

  Lash’s psychological autopsy reveals nothing suspicious, but inadvertently dredges up the memories of a searing personal tragedy he has kept at bay for years.

  The situation changes suddenly when a second Eden couple is found dead -- by all appearances, another double suicide. Now Eden – particularly Richard Silver, the company’s brilliant and reclusive founder – has no choice but to grant Lash unprecedented access to its most guarded secrets if he is to have any chance of determining what is going wrong. The hidden world he discovers is a stunning labyrinth of artificial intelligence, creative genius, and a melding of technology that does indeed, to Lash’s surprise, deliver on Eden’s promise to its clients: the guarantee of a perfect, lifelong mate. But Lash’s involvement in the investigation becomes more personal and dangerous than he could have imagined, nearly as soon as it begins.

• Deep Storm (2007)
  In a knock-out novel that combines the scientific intrigue of Crichton and the underwater thrills of Cussler, bestselling novelist Lincoln Child takes readers to a top-secret laboratory 12,000 feet beneath the icy Atlantic and into the search for the greatest - and most deadly - archaeological find in history.

  'Deep Storm' is the most spectacular science research facility ever constructed. Lying deep beneath the Atlantic on the ocean floor, the heavily guarded structure has been designed for one purpose: to excavate a recently-discovered undersea site that may hold the answers to a mystery steeped in centuries of myth and speculation.

  Peter Crane, a former naval doctor, is summoned to a remote oil platform on the Atlantic to help diagnose a medical condition spreading through the rig workers. When he arrives, however, Crane learns that the real trouble lies far below the rig.

  Sworn to secrecy, he descends to the ocean floor and the science station Deep Storm, where a top-secret team is investigating a remarkable discovery. A year earlier, he is told, routine drilling uncovered the remains of mankind's most sophisticated ancient civilization: the legendary Atlantis.

  But now that the site is being excavated, a series of bizarre illnesses has erupted among the workers. As he tries to discover the cause, Crane realizes that the covert operation conceals something far more complicated than a medical mystery-and that 'Atlantis' might, in fact, be something far more sinister and deadly.

  Like Child's spectacular bestsellers co-authored with Douglas Preston (Dance of Death, Relic), DEEP STORM melds scientific detail and gripping adventure in stunningly imagined, chillingly real journey into unknown territory.

Writing with Douglas Preston

Pendergast Novels

• Relic (1994) with Douglas Preston
  Just days before a massive exhibition opens at the popular New York Museum of Natural History, visitors are being savagely murdered in the museum's dark hallways and secret rooms. Autopsies indicate that the killer cannot be human...
  
  But the museum's directors plan to go ahead with a big bash to celebrate the new exhibition, in spite of the murders.
  
  Museum researcher Margo Green must find out who--or what--is doing the killing. But can she do it in time to stop the massacre?
  Movie

• Reliquary (1997) with Douglas Preston
  Sequel to Relic
  Hidden beneath Manhattan is a warren of tunnels, sewers, and galleries, mostly forgotten by those who walk the streets above. There lies the ultimate secret of the Museum Beast...
  
  When two grotesquely deformed skeletons are found deep in the mud off the Manhattan shoreline, museum curator Margo Green is called in to aid the investigation. Margo must once again team up with police lieutenant D'Agosta and FBI agent Pendergast, as well as the brilliant Dr. Frock, to try and solve the puzzle. The trail soon leads deep underground, where they will face the awakening of a slumbering nightmare.

• The Cabinet of Curiosities (2002) with Douglas Preston
  In the 19th century, New Yorkers flocked to collections of strange and grotesque oddities called "cabinets of curiosities." Now, in lower Manhattan, a modern apartment tower is slated to rise on the site of one of the old cabinets. Yet when the excavators break into a basement, they uncover a charnel pit of horror: the remains of thirty-six people murdered and gruesomely dismembered over 130 years ago by an unknown serial killer.
  
  In the aftermath, FBI Special Agent Pendergast and museum archaeologist Nora Kelly embark on an investigation that unearths the faint whisper of a mysterious doctor who once roamed the city, carrying out medical experiments on living human beings. But just as Nora and Pendergast begin to unravel the clues to the century-old killings, a fresh spree of murder and surgical mutilation erupts around them. . . and New York City is awash in terror.

• Still Life with Crows (2003) with Douglas Preston
  From the New York Times bestselling duo Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child comes their latest--and spookiest--yet: a small town in Kansas, a series of grisly murders, and the depraved and hidden evil within. Enter the new American Gothic...
  
  Medicine Creek, Kansas. In a town where nothing changes, where Main Street is a two-block stretch of old and dusty businesses, a peculiar and ghastly murder has taken place, the body mutilated and placed carefully in an elaborate tableau in the middle of the endless cornfields. Now cool-eyed and smooth FBI Agent Pendergast arrives to discover a community he must turn inside out to find the killer who can only be one of them...

• The Wheel of Darkness (2007) with Douglas Preston
  FBI Special Agent Pendergast is taking a break from work to take Constance on a whirlwind Grand Tour, hoping to give her closure and a sense of the world that she's missed. They head to Tibet, where Pendergast intensively trained in martial arts and spiritual studies. At a remote monastery, they learn that a rare and dangerous artifact the monks have been guarding for generations has been mysteriously stolen. As a favor, Pendergast agrees to track and recover the relic. A twisting trail of bloodshed leads Pendergast and Constance to the maiden voyage of the Britannia, the world's largest and most luxurious ocean liner---and to an Atlantic crossing fraught with terror.

Diogenes Trilogy

1. Brimstone (2004) with Douglas Preston
   Behind the gates of a fabulous Hamptons estate, FBI Special Agent Pendergast comes upon the carnage of a gruesome crime: one that recalls the legendary horrors that befall those who make a Faustian pact with the devil. Surrounded by the choking stench of brimstone, the smoldering remains of art critic Jeremy Grove are found in a locked, barricaded attic next to a hoofprint singed into the floorboards.
   
   Unable to resist a case that defies all but supernatural logic, Pendergast reunites with police officers Vincent D'Agosta (Relic) and Laura Hayward (Reliquary) to search for a more earthly explanation. But their investigation soon takes them from the luxury estates of Long Island and penthouses of New York City to the crumbling, legend-shrouded castles of the Italian countryside, where thirty years ago four men conjured up something unspeakable. . .

2. Dance of Death (2005) with Douglas Preston
   Praised as a “ruthless descendant of Holmes” (Publishers Weekly), Agent Pendergast has become one of crime fiction’s most endearing characters. His greatest enemy is one who has stalked him all of his life, his cunning and diabolical brother Diogenes. And Diogenes has thrown down the gauntlet.
   
   Now, several of the people closest to Pendergast are viciously murdered, and Pendergast is framed for the deeds. On the run from federal authorities, with only the help of his old friend NYPD Lieutenant Vincent D’Agosta, Pendergast must stop his brother. But how can he stop a man that is his intellectual equal--one 9who has had 20 years to plan the world’s most horrendous crime?

3. The Book of the Dead (2006) with Douglas Preston
   The New York Museum of Natural History receives their pilfered gem collection back...ground down to dust. Diogenes, the psychotic killer who stole them in Dance of Death, is throwing down the gauntlet to both the city and to his brother, FBI Agent Pendergast, who is currently incarcerated in a maximum security prison.
   
   To quell the PR nightmare of the gem fiasco, the museum decides to reopen the Tomb of Senef. An astounding Egyptian temple, it was a popular museum exhibit until the 1930s, when it was quietly closed. But when the tomb is unsealed in preparation for its gala reopening, the killings--and whispers of an ancient curse--begin again. And the catastrophic opening itself sets the stage for the final battle between the two brothers: an epic clash from which only one will emerge alive.

Other Novels

• Mount Dragon (1996) with Douglas Preston
  Before there was the Ebola scare, before there was the recent hand-wringing over the vast stockpiles of biological weapons, Mount Dragon posed the question: what about genetic engineering gone wrong?
  
  If rogue viruses can cause devastation and widespread panic, what about viruses engineered--deliberately or accidentally--to be much worse than anything in nature? Imagine: something as deadly as cancer, but as contagious as the flu. Mount Dragon imagines this--and more.
  
  Mount Dragon: an enigmatic research complex hidden in the vast desert of New Mexico. Guy Carson and Susana Cabeza de Vaca have come to Mount Dragon to work shoulder to shoulder with some of the greatest scientific minds on the planet. Led by visionary genius Brent Scopes, their secret goal is a medical breakthrough that promises to bring incalculable benefits to the human race. But while Scopes believes he is leading the way to a new world order, he may in fact be opening the door to mass human extinction. And when Guy and Susana attempt to stop him they find themselves locked in a frightening battle with Scopes, his henchmen, and the apocalyptic nightmare that science has unleashed...

• Riptide (1998) with Douglas Preston
  For generations, treasure hunters have tried to unlock the deadly puzzle known as the Water Pit: a labyrinth of shafts and tunnels that honeycomb the heart of a small island off the coast of Maine. Reputed to be the hiding place of pirate treasure, the Water Pit possesses an inexplicable ability to kill those who venture into it, from professionals to innocent explorers.
  
  But now one man has made a startling discovery: the Water Pit is actually a carefully designed fortress, conceived for pirates by a renowned seventeenth-century architect who hid his plans in code. Unlocking the code will break the curse of the Water Pit. Or will it?
  
  The most comprehensive, high-tech expedition ever assembled has come to Maine and to Dr. Malin Hatch, owner of the island. While the treasure hunters have their reasons for mounting this assault--$2 billion in gold--Hatch has his own motives to join them. For Hatch, whose brother died on Ragged Island thirty years before, the only escape from the curse is through the black swirling waters and bloodstained chambers of the Pit.
  
  With more computing power than a small university, the recovery team slowly chips away at the mystery. But as the seekers try to conquer the Pit, men begin to die. And all the while, the last, secret chamber of the Pit waits to unleash the most lethal mystery of all...

• Thunderhead (1999) with Douglas Preston
  Archaeologist Nora Kelly is adrift in her career and her personal life when a violent, inexplicable incident leaves her in possession of a mysterious letter.
  
  Written sixteen years before by her father, who vanished without a trace in the remote desert, the letter points to a mythical place hidden in the redrock canyon country of southwestern Utah: Quivira, a city of gold and wonder, the lost city of the Anasazi Indians.
  
  Convinced that her father found Quivira before he disappeared, Nora puts together an expedition. Supported by the head of a well-funded archaeological institute, Nora will take a team up Lake Powell to the mouth of Serpentine Canyon.
  
  What lies ahead in the harsh labyrinth of canyons and slickrock desert is more than she could ever have expected. It is the answer to both her greatest hopes and her deepest nightmares. For hidden in the shadows of the sunbaked cliffs are untold treasures; the answer to the greatest riddle of American archaeology--and implacable, suffocating death.
  
  From the colossal fury of a savage desert storm to the sunlight penetrating a mass grave for the first time in a thousand years, THUNDERHEAD is a tale for anyone who has ever searched for clues to the past. In the masterful hands of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, THUNDERHEAD becomes an epic tale of discovery, human deceit, and a desperate struggle for survival in a place that has guarded its extraordinary secret for centuries--and will not let go without a devastating fight.

• The Ice Limit (2000) with Douglas Preston
  On a desolate island off the southern coast of Chile, an incredible discovery is made: a gigantic meteorite, the largest ever found, entombed in the earth for millions of years.
  
  Half a world away, billionaire entrepreneur Palmer Lloyd decides he must have it as the centerpiece of his grandiose new museum. He is willing to pay any price--in dollars and in lives. Getting it back to New York poses a particular challenge: It will be the heaviest object ever moved by humankind.
  
  Fueled by Lloyd’s money, an audacious expedition takes shape. Disguising a state-of-the-art ship as a rusted freighter, the expedition secretly heads southward with a fail-safe plan to steal the meteorite from Chile. Leading the group is an inscrutable engineer hired by Lloyd, and a world-famous meteorite hunter whose career was shattered by a controversial theory.
  
  Soon, along the icy rim of Antarctica, in the grip of a frozen hell, the adventurers are confronted with a terrifying enigma about the origin--and nature--of the meteorite. It is a mystery they must solve--if they are to escape with their lives.

• Ice Ship (2002) with Douglas Preston

• The Wheel of Darkness (2007 Release) with Douglas Preston

See also:

• Dark Company: The Ten Greatest Ghost Stories (1983), Lincoln Child, ed.

• Dark Banquet: A Feast of Twelve Great Ghost Stories (1985), Lincoln Child, ed.

• Tales of the Dark (1987), Lincoln Child, ed.

• Tales of the Dark 2 (1987), Lincoln Child, ed.

• Tales of the Dark 3 (1988), Lincoln Child, ed.