Frankie Cash, newly promoted to Agent in Charge at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, has just received a whale of a first case. In an isolated park in the Colorado Mountains, where visitors go to see de-extincted species like woolly mammoths and giant ground sloths, two young people on their honeymoon have been kidnapped and brutally murdered. The amount of blood on the scene — deposited in a very short timeframe — hints strongly toward decapitation. The park’s basis — resurrecting species that early Americans drove into extinction — is not without its critics, so the initial theory is that eco-terrorists are to blame. Although Frankie believes strongly the resort needs to be shut down, the owners — an organization named Erebus — push back, and there’s little support from on high at rattling Erebus’ cage. As the investigation wears on, though, more people die — and the perpetrators, who appear to be some kind of mixed-ages cult, threaten even greater violence. Extinction is a fascinating thriller with a SF premise and a provacative twist.

I must say that I wasn’t expecting the resurrection of woolly mammoths and ground sloths to be overshadowed by something else in the plot, but after the initial “Oooh, aaah” , they become more background to the continued attacks on Erebus guests and staff — and Frankie’s growing suspicion that Erebus is more than a visionary biotech company, and has skeletons in its own closet it doesn’t want her unearthing. Unfortunately for them, she knows full well that her life and career are on the line, and she won’t back down even when her boss refuses to call in the big guns. Extinction is all kinds of fun, from the science that peppers it to the truly unsettling group that keeps attacking Erebus and company. Characterization is good: I especially liked Frankie, and not just because she’s a Red Sox fan. One additional wildcard is the presence of a filming crew in the valley, who are using a ghost town as the set for a western which somehow involves wooly mammoths: after their dynamite is stolen by the cult, things get…exciting. And then there’s the twist, which I can’t say anything about, but it’s really good and I’m going to start reading Preston on purpose now, not just when I spy one of his covers with a massive skeleton on it.

Related:
Tyrannosaur Canyon, Douglas Preston
Twilight of the Mammoths, Paul S. Martin
The Ghosts of Evolution, Connie Barlow
Don’t click on this unless you want the twist spoiled a bit