Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced digital copy of this book.

FBI Agent Corrie Swanson and her friend, archeologist Nora Kelley are no strangers to strange cases. And this one is weirder than most. While scouting a movie location, the body of a woman, badly decomposed, is found out in a most desolate part of the New Mexico desert. The body seems to have been there some time, around five years, and animals have scattered the bones, but the woman seems to have walked in a straight line, discarding her clothing as she went, and then just died of heat exhaustion, dehydration and sun exposure. When the woman is finally identified, it turns out she was very familiar with the desert and it is incomprehensible to anyone who knew her why she would have died in such a way. Then another, newer, body, also of a woman, is found in similar circumstances, but this one is newer and easier to identify. Both women were archeology students at New Mexico University, and both were in a study group led by a charismatic professor who disappeared without a trace twelve years ago. While following a hunch, another woman is found, also in the deepest part of the desert. But this one is still alive, although in bad shape. She is in an almost catatonic state, but she was also part of that archeology group.

Finding out what is happening and if it will continue leads Corrie and Nora, and Nora's brother, Skip, to places they never dreamed of. And that they wish they had never seen or experienced.

Another great Preston & Child book, and one you won't want to miss!!

Preston and Child bring back Nora Kelly and Corrie Swanson to unleash an ancient evil and mystery that only they can solve! I thoroughly enjoy and look forward to all of Preston and Child’s books and this one doesn’t disappoint. Thanks for the ARC!

A big thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

I have read all of the Preston and Childs books in the Agent Pendergast series, but have not yet delved into the Nora Kelly series. Fortunately, this current book, while being number 5 in the series, is completely readable as a first dip into the series. When I get a chance I will read the earlier books in this series.

Other reviewers have offered fairly detailed synopses, and I will not try to duplicate their efforts. But nearly anything at all that I could say might constitute spoilers, so I will not go there. I will say that (for once in my reading life) I did guess partly right as to what the reason was for ... well. No spoilers.

I gave the book 4 stars instead of 5 because, like many other books by this writing team, it's just a bit more gruesome than I like. Other than that... a home run. Pendergast fans should enjoy this.

If you’re planning a long drive and need something gripping enough to make nine hours feel like ninety minutes, Badlands delivers. I literally laughed out loud when one of the characters mentioned listening to a Preston & Child audiobook during a long trek. Felt like an odd full circle moment.

Once again, the writing team has pairs archaeologist Nora Kelly and FBI Agent Corrie Swanson, two women with wildly different temperaments and skill sets who somehow make a compelling crime-solving duo using skill, sarcasm, and just the right field gear, as they navigate some seriously harsh terrain, both literal and moral, in their pursuit of the truth.

Yes, Homer Watt took his sweet time entering the scene, but once he arrived, the energy shifted in all the right ways. And Skip… Skip just can’t help himself. He’s the kind of character you root for while shaking your head.

Between cults, sacrificial rites, shadowy professors, priceless artifacts, and a buffet of ethically challenged individuals, this novel serves up plenty of intellectual insight, intrigue, and a splash of horror. One of the twists blindsided me in the best way. I’d given little thought to one particular character, and that was precisely the misstep the authors were counting on. Way to go, Preston & Child.

Their ability to describe grotesque scenes with vivid detail might test your gag reflex, but somehow, not including those moments would feel like cheating the reader out of the raw intensity their work is known for. It’s part of their signature that readers are expecting.

What I love most is how this writing team consistently introduces readers to concepts and histories that feel like secret chapters ripped from dusty archives. I left the book not only entertained but curious, diving into rabbit holes I hadn’t even known existed before page one.

When Nora and Corrie are driving the narrative (with Homer hitching a ride now and then), I’m in. The ending? Intense. It grabs you, shakes you, leaves you breathless, and doesn’t quite let go even after you’ve hit the last page.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars

Archaeologist Nora Kelly and FBI agent Corrie Swanson team up again to solve current murders and old mysteries. I enjoyed the archaeology parts but most of the story didn't grab me.

Another one with Corrie Swanson and Nora Kelly in New Mexico, dealing with strange happenings. Missing women in the desert? Check. A possible cult? Check. A bit of romance for both Nora and Corrie? Check. Potential supernatural happenings? Again, check.

Lots going on here as expected from Preston and Child, but a quick and effortless read that kept me turning the pages - finished it in one day!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a digital ARC of this title!

The latest Nora Kelly saga set again in New Mexico adding FBI agent Corrie Swanson to the mix. An entertaining story about the ancient Chaco people, mysterious lightning stones, a group of archeologists who are dying under unusual circumstances, and a dark power who has been disturbed. Another mixture of truth, actual incidents,and an evil presence/monster/ spirit which is the hallmark of Preston and Child's books. Being familiar with New Mexico culture, I especially enjoyed the book and its mixture of truth and supernatural.

I would like to thank Grand Central Publishing for the ARC copy of, Badlands, by Preston and Childs. All opinions are my own.

Although it was a well written novel and somewhat suspenseful, I did not feel the storyline was as exciting and edge of your seat, as the Agent Pendergast novels by the same authors. There were many terms used regarding Southwest native peoples that were unfamiliar to me and required research to understand how they related to the storyline. I found the sequence of events too convenient, and the helicopter crisis not really an influence on the story. The some characters were introduced late in the story, yet had a major role. This novel was just an O.K. read for me. For some readers, with a better knowledge of southwestern history, this would be a good read. I must confess that this is my first book reading about Agent Corrie Swanson, so perhaps, prior knowledge from previous books would have improved my read. 3 stars on GoodReads

After reading Badlands as my first Nora Kelly book and loving it, I realized, to my surprise, that I’ve been collecting Nora Kelly books since 2001 without getting around to reading them. It seems other books, especially those I was obligated to review, always took priority, and these just kept getting pushed aside. Not anymore. I’m now committed to going back and catching up on the series, hoping the books I’ve missed will be just as fantastic as Badlands. If you enjoy the Nina Wilde & Eddie Chase series, you might like the Nora Kelly series too. In Badlands, intrepid archaeologist Nora Kelly teams up with FBI Agent Corrie Swanson to unravel a string of bizarre deaths in New Mexico’s badlands, tied to the 725-year-old disappearance of the Anasazi people. The story is full of twists and turns, with a fast-paced plot and characters you’ll love or love to hate along the way.

Still under probation, Agent Corrie Swanson is handed a chilling case: a woman’s skeleton discovered deep in the New Mexico desert, stripped bare and surrounded by unsettling clues. As the mystery unfolds, Corrie turns to archaeologist Nora Kelly, her trusted colleague, to help untangle the eerie circumstances. What begins as a baffling puzzle quickly spirals into a multi-layered thriller—rich with suspense, buried secrets, and revelations that refuse to stay hidden.
Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Preston and Child never fail to disappoint. This is the 5th in the Nora Kelly series, which highlights strong female protagonists who confront the usual male dominated crap with grace and a little bit of badass. In this novel, which takes place in the New Mexico badlands, the skeleton of a woman is found, who walked into the desert, shedding her clothes as she progressed, and died due to heat exposure and dehydration. But there is more to the story - two rare artifacts were found clutched in her hands.
Travel with Agent Carrie Swanson and Ms. Kelly as they work to uncover the facts and science behind the lightning stones and the rituals of the ancient Chaco people, who used them to summon the gods.
I was delighted that his book was more in line with Preson and Child's usual interplay of archeology, anthropology, and intrigue. I look forward to their next book, which I hope will be released soon!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for my advance egalley!

3.5 stars

In the authors' notes at the end of the book, Preston and Child note that the Gallina people mentioned in this novel are real. They were a mysterious culture who lived in northern New Mexico from around 1100 to 1275 CE, when they suddenly vanished, apparently the victims of genocide.

*****

Corrie Swanson was a troubled teen when she was taken under the wing of FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast. Corrie is now an FBI agent herself, being mentored by Supervisory Special Agent Clay Sharp. When the skeletal remains of a female are found in the New Mexico desert, Agent Sharp makes Corrie - who's proven herself to be a capable agent - the lead investigator.

In the badlands near the Navajo Nation, Corrie observes the scattered bones of a woman who's been dead for years. Random items near the body include spearpoints, pop-top tabs, flint chips, cobbles, and two green stones. Corrie asks her friend Nora Kelly - an intrepid archaeologist who runs the Santa Fe Archaeological Institute - to look at the artifacts found near the remains.

Nora identifies the two green stones as 'lightning stones' that give off flashes of green light when rubbed together. Nora says the lightning stones, which are made of Prasiolite (green quartz), are VERY RARE, and they're ceremonial objects sacred to the Pueblo Indians. The Indians used the stones in religious ceremonies and never allowed them to be removed from their kivas (ceremonial chambers).

The female skeleton found in the desert is identified as Molly Vine, a 40-year-old high school science teacher who disappeared five years ago....and it appears Molly committed suicide. A few days later the body of another female is found in the desert, once again with two Prasiolite stones. This woman is identified as Mandy Driver, a 38-year-old geological consultant for an energy company. Once again, it seems Mandy committed suicide.

As Corrie continues to make inquiries, she learns that both women - Molly and Mandy - were Ph.D. students in anthropology at the University of New Mexico over a decade ago. The women were mentored by Professor Carlos Oskarbi, who had a particular interest in the Gallina people of the southwest. The entire Gallina nation vanished hundreds of years ago, and archaeologists speculate the Gallina were vicious killers who were murdered by other Indians for self-protection and revenge. To study the Gallina, Oskarbi would take a group of graduate students on a dig every summer, where the team would camp out and study the Gallina ruins.

Corrie can't interview Professor Oskarbi because he moved to Mexico twelve years ago, to reunite with his spiritual teacher Don Benicio. However, when Corrie asks around about Oskarbi, she learns he had the reputation of being a mesmerizing leader who slept with his female students, some of whom were bereft after his departure.

As Corrie continues to investigate the deaths of Molly and Mandy locally, archaeologist Nora travels to Mexico, to find and interview Professor Oskarbi. In the meantime, Nora's brother Skip, who's the collections manager for the Santa Fe Archaeological Institute,.is befriended by billionaire Edison Nash, who has a mansion in New Mexico..

Nash has a HUGE collection of Indian artifacts, and he's always looking for more. So Nash plies Skip with expensive tequila and convinces the collections manager (who's something of a dunderhead) to explore the vast Gallina ruins with him. The adventurers make their way to Gallina territory, where they venture into caves, and observe artifacts like clay pots, potsherds, carbonized, obsidian axes, stone animal fetishes, etc. Skip points out that it's STRICTLY ILLEGAL to take these things, but you can guess what happens.

Soon enough, Corrie and Nora also find themselves in Gallina territory, and things take a dangerous turn for Nash, Skip, Corrie, Nora and others.

The story is bold and exciting, and the denouement is believable enough if you shut one eye. 😊 My major critique is that the deaths of Molly and Mandy are not satisfactorily explained. We know how the women died, but the reason for their demise remains obscure (to me). Nevertheless this is a good adventure story and it's interesting to learn a little about the ancient Pueblo Indians.

Thanks to Netgalley, Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child, and Grand Central Publishing for a copy of the book.

What I love about this series is how descriptive it is with the surroundings as well as the historical mentions in the book. I found myself researching more about the Southwest, the Ancestral Puebloan culture and about Skinwalkers in general (yesss they were mentioned!).
Nora, Corrie and Nora’s brother Skip find themselves among a string of dead bodies that seem to have been either suicide or was a sacrifice. They also seem to have a focal point, only trouble is that the focal point has not been seen in years!
Badlands centered around murders, archology, suspense, brainwashing, greed and cults. It was really such a captivating read!

I can't believe I was just reading Thunderhead (Nora Kelly 0A) where they were talking about the Ancestral Puebloan culture and a lot of the culture was brought up again. I really want to go down south and visit some of these places!

4.5 rounded up

I’ve written about my longtime reading relationship with the books of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child before for Kaiju & Gnome. I’ve written about a prior book in the Nora Kelly series (the series that Bad Lands is the most recent installment of) and how I think it bit off far more than it could chew here. I also wrote a far more positive review of Douglas Preston’s solo work, Extinction, which you can read here. As I mentioned in those reviews, I have a long relationship with the works of Preston and Child and their solo works that has ebbed and flowed with the quality of those books. Some have been fantastic and some have been far less so. Some are incredibly ambitious and others seem more ‘paint-by-numbers.’ I think Bad Lands falls into the latter group of both those descriptions but my frustration with this installment is less about the book itself and more about the series in general. While I tried writing a review about just this book, I realized that it was quickly becoming a review of the Pendergastverse in general (but don’t worry; this review is only going to focus on Nora Kelly’s realm in that larger shared continuity). Unfortunately, we probably should do some housework to make sure we are all on a level playing field.

Leveling the Playing Field

As you might have gleaned from my past reviews of Preston/Child books or from the previous paragraph, Preston/Child’s books take place in a massive shared universe centered around the very special FBI Agent Pendergast. The Pendergast books (and all of Preston/Child’s books for the most part) are part of a larger subgenre called technothrillers or thrillers that largely incorporate science fiction and horror elements but tend to not be too scary or dependent on scientific accuracy. If you need examples of what that looks like the Pendergast series is a pretty good sampling of that subgenre. In that series, Special Agent Pendergast has battled immortal mad scientists, clones, his evil brother, sorta-zombies, sorta-demons, and an evil version of himself over the course of the series. However, his life isn’t just filled with monsters and weird science. He’s also made friends with a startling robust cast of supporting characters; two of whom are Nora Kelly and Corrie Swanson, the main characters of this series.

Nora Kelly, however, has long predated this series. She was first introduced in a book called Thunderhead way back in 1999 which tied into the Pendergast series through adventure writer/journalist, Bill Smithback, who had appeared in the first Pendergast books, Relic and Reliquary. In that book, Nora ran afoul of a cult of killers who were given enhanced reflexes and strength due to ritual hallucinogen use and barely escaped with her and Bill’s lives. They also fell in love and Nora became a recurring character in the larger Pendergast series until Cemetery Dance.

Her present co-star, Corrie Swanson, also predates the Nora Kelly series. She was first introduced in Still Life with Crows when Pendergast takes a vacation to Pendergast and has to solve a bizarre set of ritual murders. She was a troubled teen who Pendergast took under his wing. Over the years, Pendergast supported her going to college and eventually becoming an FBI agent herself. She has been a recurring part of his series until she co-starred with him in White Fire and was made a main character in this series.

The Nora Kelly Series

The Nora Kelly series is composed of five books currently; Old Bones, The Scorpion’s Tail, Diablo Mesa, Dead Mountain, and Bad Lands. All-in-all, they are separately pretty okay books. Old Bones is by far the best of them and is ultimately a brilliant thriller surrounding weird murders taking place at the site of the Donner Party’s tragedy. If I was going to pick a favorite Pendergastverse book, Old Bones would probably be in my top three. Nora and Corrie are an immediately believable pair and they play off each other very well. Nora is the professional archaeologist with experience who plays good cop to Corrie’s young, brash demeanor. The mystery was also genuinely interesting and was a mystery that utilized both of their skills well.

The rest of the series has been more of a mixed bag. I’ll be honest, I’ve read The Scorpion’s Tail three times and if pressed on it still wouldn’t be able to tell you much about it. I know it involves treasure hunting, cold cases and nuclear bomb testing but beyond that there’s not a lot that I recall about it. Unfortunately, I recall much more about Dead Mountain which has a very similar premise involving treasure hunting, cold cases and nuclear bomb testing and somehow they waited a whole single book before retrying that premise. I disliked Dead Mountain in a way that is rare to me. I read a lot of books that aren’t great and they don’t bug me. Dead Mountain almost made me want to swear off Preston/Child’s books forever.

Yet, for some reason, I still came back for this one.

Bad Lands feels more like Thunderhead, the book that started it all for Nora Kelly. It involves weird religious cults, archaeology, and mysterious science. It used Nora and Corrie well and continued to highlight their differences and similarities nicely. There was weird archaeology for Nora to deal with and weird cold cases for Corrie to deal with. The villains were probably the most memorable of the Nora Kelly series so far and made for a fun antagonist for our heroes. The climax was a little wonky but compared to other books in the series, I’m not going to hold a grudge against it.

You’ll notice I skipped a book; Diablo Mesa. It’s not because I already wrote a review about it. Instead, I think Diablo Mesa fundamentally broke the series open in the same way that Bloodless, The Cabinet of Doctor Leng, and Angel of Vengeance did for the main Pendergast series. However, those books dealt with the implications of those world-shattering events and there hasn’t been a Pendergast book in over a year and as far as I know there isn’t another coming out in the near future due to those events.

What is this world shattering event you might ask?

There’s an alien invasion coming for Earth and our heroes learned about it at the end of the book.

And then never mentioned it again.

The Problem of Diablo Mesa (and all Subsequent Books)

What happens in the highest echelons of publishing has always mystified me, especially when it comes to big tentpole series like those written by Clive Cussler, Tom Clancy, Lee Child, and others. Preston/Child, as a pair, are near to the same level of those other writers even if their books have been given big screen adaptations yet or at least not since the very weird The Relic adaptation back in the 90s. I imagine that there comes a certain point where you are so successful that it’s less about quality and more about just getting another book out each year and honestly, that’s fair. What I wonder most about, though, is what sort of continuity guidelines are in place for these books. My theory is that the goal is less about continuity and more about each book being a good entry point into the series for a new reader thus hopefully ensuring that all the past volumes of the series will sell whenever someone finds the newest one on a bookshelf. Thus continuity ceases to matter and the books become just literary equivalents of superhero comics.

And that’s fine. I love Clive Cussler and Lee Child’s books. They let me turn off my brain and just enjoy some great popcorn thrillers. The difference between those books and Preston/Child’s books is that Dirk Pitt and Jack Reacher never discovered that an alien invasion was coming at the end of one book and then never mentioned it again. If I was to make a hypothesis, I would guess that there reason is that maybe that would be a hard thing to just create an unconnected book after that didn’t spoil at least that prior installment. And on a financial level, I get it. However, on a creative level, it annoys me so much. Preston/Child are great at writing cliffhangers. They’ve teased killing off Pendergast four or five times at the end of books and they somehow stuck the landing of whatever the heck happened in the Leng focused books that ended with Angel of Vengeance. They had all the tools in the world to be able to do the same with Diablo Mesa’s denouement and instead have never brought it back up.

There’s an alien invasion coming and Nora is dating the tech billionaire who also knows this is coming and they still have time to take a couple weeks off for a romantic rendezvous. Maybe an archaelogist and an FBI agent may feel out of their depths battling an alien invasion and that’s fine. I would gesticulate wildly towards the X-Files and say “Mulder and Scully at least tried” but maybe an FBI agent and a forensically trained archaeologist don’t see much that they have in common with those two. Or maybe I’d gesticulate wildly to the other series by the same authors where the main FBI agent just time traveled alongside his evil brother, a police detective, a butler, and immortal street urchin to try and alter the historical timeline. Alien invasion, honestly, isn’t QUITE as outlandish as that in my opinion but what do I know?

In all seriousness, I don’t really know what to do with this series at this point. For some reason, I keep coming back to Preston/Child’s books and enjoying most of them just as much as I did when I first picked up Relic in my high school library. In television, there’s a concept called ‘Jumping the Shark’ and it is the moment in a series where the writers resort to something that might be considered gimmicky or completely out of character to either raise stakes or maintain interest in a show. The Fonz literally jumped over a shark while on water skis. The X-Files killed off some of their most beloved side characters in an episode titled “Jump the Shark.” Over the years, lots of people have claimed that the Pendergast books have jumped the shark and while I can see their point, it never really bugged me. Even with weird mosquito monsters and time travel, I at least thought there was something interesting going on in those books. Honestly, the books that bugged me more were when the stakes dropped so low as to be pointless. I feel the converse with the Nora Kelly series. I definitely think Diablo Mesa was a shark jump and then instead of at least leaning into that, either the authors, editors or the publishers decided to never reference it again. I’d be lying if I said that I hadn’t even considered that maybe the Nora Kelly series is being ghost-written while the Preston/Child are still working on the Pendergast books.

It bugs me endlessly and yet for some reason, I probably will still come back and read the next Nora Kelly book because there are moments where the comradery of Nora and Corrie is sooo good or the villain does something memorable and I feel like I did reading Relic back when I was fourteen and writing a letter to Preston/Child and telling them how much I loved that book. In all the years I’ve been an avid reader, the only other authors I’ve ever loved enough to do that was John Connolly, Chuck Wendig and Gareth Hanrahan via Bluesky.

In conclusion, I guess since this needs one, Bad Lands bugged me. Not because it was horrifyingly bad or anything but because for some reason a pair of authors who leaned into things like time travel and giant alien seeds submerged in the ocean decided to not lean into a future alien invasion two books earlier. Is it petty that that’s what bugs me most about this book? Maybe, I honestly don’t know. Ultimately, this series is just increasingly a “I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed” moment for me and yet I can’t find the motivation to set this series aside and, to use another cliche, say “it’s not you - it’s me.”

Why would a beautiful woman, a former PhD candidate, walk into the New Mexico desert, take off her clothes and die a horrific death? This is FBI agent Corrie Swanson’s case and she painstakingly gathers all she can from the scene. An arrowhead and two odd round rocks don’t seem to belong in this barren wasteland. She turns to archeologist Nora Kelly who identifies the rocks as rare, ancient lightning stones, now only the second pair in existence. This discovery leads Corrie and Nora into the world of esoteric university studies, dubious collectors of rare antiquities and ancient legends. When another woman is found dead, Corrie and Nora look for a killer but find their own lives in danger from the supernatural.

Preston & Child are the masters of subtle horror that may or not be true. Badlands is no exception. Two strong female characters, a complex plot and a haunting location make this a 5 star read.

Thank you to NetGalley, Grand Central Publishing and Preston & Child for this ARC.

I highly enjoyed the adventure and mystery in the telling of this story but didn’t love the ending. I am enthralled with the characters of Corrie, Nora, and Skip as they build relationships with each other and look forward to more time on Watts in future books. The setting and historical information was really interesting and kept me reading. I look forward to more stories set in New Mexico and learning more about the tribes there. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Off into the Badlands of New Mexico

I enjoyed this fifth romp with archaeologist Nora Kelly of the Santa Fe Archaeological Institute as she gets called in on a case by FBI Special Agent in training Corrie Swanson involving a dessicated body and extremely rare lightning stones found by a film crew out in the hoodoos of New Mexico.

I tend to like the Agent Pendergast series by these same authors more. Nora Kelly is okay, and I've read the whole series, but the character just isn't as three dimensional as Pendergast.

Good story, though, worth reading.

I received this Digital Review Copy from Grand Central Publishing through Net Galley and Edelweiss in exchange for an impartial review.

I have had the privilege of reading previous titles authored by Preston and Child and feel that they have reached a new level of writing with Badlands. The plot is tightly woven and keeps the reader engaged until the very end. I love all of the Pendergast series and have enjoyed the Nora Kelly series as well. The main characters, Nora Kelly (an archaeologist),and Corrie Swanson (a new FBI agent), are strong, intelligent women who work extremely well together. While I like how fabulous Nora and Corrie are, I'm perplexed as to why Nora's brother is portrayed as a naive, almost childlike male who seems to cause problems for Nora.

Preston and Child have brought Southwest history, culture, and landscape to life with the Nora. Kelly series. With every one of the books, I learn much about the Native American Culture and feel I am right there with Nora and Corrie in the New Mexico desert. I am always disappointed when Preston and Child bring the story to a close. The great thing is they keep me looking forward to their next one (and perhaps it will contain a visit from Pendergast)!

I highly recommend this book! I just recently discovered Preston & Child’s bibliography, and have greatly enjoyed their work. This is my second book of theirs that I have finished, and it hooked me early on. Quite an interesting blend of history, archeology, biology and thriller. This is also the first Nora Kelly book that I have; I will go back and read the other Nora Kelly books eventually! I enjoy the character development and dynamics as the book takes over and ultimately concludes. I highly recommend to all looking for a techno-thriller, biological thriller, and/or thriller mixing archaeology and history. Well done!

Badlands by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child is a fascinating thriller. The book takes place in an unusual place and continues to surprise readers with the story line.