Dragon Teeth
Michael Crichton
2017, 295 pages
Fiction
This is not a tale of dinosaurs coming back to life, but an exciting story set in the Wild West of the 1870s. Pioneers are heading West, Indians are attacking stagecoaches and gold rushes are drawing fortune-seekers in the Western territories. Rich, young Yale student William Johnson takes a bet that he will go out West, and signs on to be the photographer with the fossil hunter Othniel Charles Marsh. William has no clue how to take photographs, and no idea what he is getting into. Marsh is suspicious and secretive, and has an enemy, the rival fossil hunter Edward Drinker Cope. Marsh is paranoid that Cope will find the best fossils before he does.
After many twists and turns, William finds himself the caretaker of a huge cache of treasure – dinosaur bones – in a hostile town out West, and he has to find a way to get them back East by himself.
This is a thrilling tale full of Indians on the warpath, scoundrels, gunfights and fantastic fossils. It’s based on the rivalry between Marsh and Cope now known as the “Bone Wars.” And it’s a new Michael Crichton book. They are as rare as, ah, dragon’s teeth!
Robbin BaileyConcord Public Library
Visit CPL at concordpubliclibrary.net.
