Captain John Paley Dawkins, an English amateur palaeontologist, has staked his meagre inheritance upon an expedition set up by the enigmatic geologist Sheldon Prescott. He is at first wary of Prescott's intelligent, wilful and spoiled daughter Lilian, but they are soon forced together in a life-threatening quest for a pterodactyl; a creature whose existence is an old frontier superstition, fuelled by Indian legends of so-called Thunderbeasts. As scientific endeavour turns into a Darwinian struggle for survival, it is the bone hunters themselves who are being hunted... Set in 1878, THE BONE HUNTER takes us to New York, a city of corrupt cops, squabbling academicians and dazzlingly wealthy nouveaux riches. And in the bone fields of the West we pass from Como Bluff, scene of the most famous dinosaur finds of all time, through the badlands of Wyoming into the Big Horn Mountains and a magnificent, thrilling ending. Meticulously researched and vividly imagined, THE BONE HUNTER is a palaeontological treasure-hunt, bringing one of the most extraordinary episodes in Western history to life. It is also a tale of unexpected love and reconciliation.
FICTION_GENERAL
RELEASED2001
PUBLISHERLittle, Brown
LENGTH370
LANGUAGEEN
The Bonehunter
by Tom Holland
Captain John Paley Dawkins, an English amateur palaeontologist, has staked his meagre inheritance upon an expedition set up by the enigmatic geologist Sheldon Prescott. He is at first wary of Prescott's intelligent, wilful and spoiled daughter Lilian, but they are soon forced together in a life-threatening quest for a pterodactyl; a creature whose existence is an old frontier superstition, fuelled by Indian legends of so-called Thunderbeasts. As scientific endeavour turns into a Darwinian struggle for survival, it is the bone hunters themselves who are being hunted... Set in 1878, THE BONE HUNTER takes us to New York, a city of corrupt cops, squabbling academicians and dazzlingly wealthy nouveaux riches. And in the bone fields of the West we pass from Como Bluff, scene of the most famous dinosaur finds of all time, through the badlands of Wyoming into the Big Horn Mountains and a magnificent, thrilling ending. Meticulously researched and vividly imagined, THE BONE HUNTER is a palaeontological treasure-hunt, bringing one of the most extraordinary episodes in Western history to life. It is also a tale of unexpected love and reconciliation.