The Lost Tomb

And Other Real-Life Stories of Bones, Burials, and Murder

Coming Soon

Contributors

By Douglas Preston

Foreword by David Grann

Formats and Prices

Price

$19.99

Price

$25.99 CAD

From the #1 bestselling author of The Lost City of the Monkey God, a jaw-dropping discovery of an Egyptian tomb opens up a slew of archaeological mysteries and deadly tales. Now in paperback with an EXCITING BONUS ADVENTURE!

What’s it like to be the first to enter an Egyptian burial chamber that’s been sealed for thousands of years? What horrifying secret was found among the prehistoric ruins of the American Southwest? Who really was the infamous the Monster of Florence?

From the jungles of Honduras to macabre archaeological sites in the American Southwest, Douglas Preston’s explorations have taken him across the globe. The Lost Tomb brings together a compelling collection of true stories about buried treasure, enigmatic murders, lost tombs, bizarre crimes, and other fascinating tales of the past and present.

  • “[S]o skillfully sketched is the lure of the unknown in Preston’s collection of essays. From the safe distance of the pages of The Lost Tomb, we are allowed a delicious taste of what it is to be consumed with the desire to know, even when all evidence points to the fact that, maybe, we are better off leaving a mystery alone.”
    Bookpage, starred review
  • AMAZON HISTORY BOOK OF THE MONTH DECEMBER 2023
    Amazon
  • “[A] gripping compendium of his journalistic work […] Throughout, Preston tackles his subjects with the obsessive enthusiasm of an amateur detective and the skills of a seasoned novelist; even those who read the articles when they first were published will take pleasure in new afterwords that provide updates about Preston’s theories. This is unbeatable reading for armchair sleuths.”
    Publishers Weekly, starred review
  • "Buffs of buried-treasure and long-ago true-crime tales will enjoy Preston’s expertly woven tales."
    Kirkus
  • "Sometimes nonfiction is even more intriguing than fiction, and Preston certainly knows how to keep readers’ attention while taking them on a journey into the mysteries of the past."
    New York Journal of Books
  • "“The pieces are so good and the reporting so thorough that The Lost Tomb is a worthy addition to library collections.”
    Booklist
  • "[I]mmersive and unputdownable"
    Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
  • "[T]he true crime book you've been waiting for."
    The Minneapolis Star Tribune
  • The Lost Tomb is a seminal work about things that really do go bump in the night that proceeds to show us exactly how that can be. An extraordinary achievement in all respects.”
    BookTrib
  • “If Indiana Jones had kept a diary, it might have read much like Preston’s new nonfiction work. After discovering a forgotten city in the Amazonian forest, an undertaking he documents in The Lost City of the Monkey God, the author travels across the globe, seeking to solve some of the ancient world’s most beguiling mysteries.”
     
    Alta
  • “THE LOST TOMB could not have come along at a better time […] this is a book worth savoring.”
    Book Reporter
  • "[A] must-read for adventure, true crime, and New Mexico enthusiasts."
    New Mexico Magazine
  • "A welcome addition to Preston’s truly gripping and impressive body of work."
    BookTrib
  • Praise for The Lost City of the Monkey God

    "Memoirs of jungle adventures too often devolve into lurid catalogs of hardships [but] Preston proves too thoughtful an observer and too skilled a storyteller to settle for churning out danger porn. He has instead created something nuanced and sublime: a warm and geeky paean to the revelatory power of archaeology...Few other writers possess such heartfelt appreciation for the ways in which artifacts can yield the stories of who we are."
    The New York Times Book Review
  • "A well-documented and engaging read...The author's narrative is rife with jungle derring-do and the myriad dangers of the chase."
    USA Today
  • "Deadly snakes, flesh-eating parasites, and some of the most forbidding jungle terrain on earth were not enough to deter Douglas Preston from a great story."
    The Boston Globe
  • "Breezy, colloquial and sometimes very funny...A very entertaining book."
    The Wall Street Journal
  • "This modern-day archeological adventure and medical mystery reads as rapidly as a well-paced novel, but is a heart-pounding true story."
    Shelf Awareness (Starred Review)

On Sale
Jan 28, 2025
Page Count
336 pages
ISBN-13
9781538741238

Douglas Preston

About the Author

Douglas Preston is the author of thirty-six books, both fiction and nonfiction, twenty-nine of which have been New York Times bestsellers, with several reaching the number 1 position. He has worked as an editor at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and taught nonfiction writing at Princeton University. His first novel, RELIC, co-authored with Lincoln Child, was made into a movie by Paramount Pictures, which launched the famed Pendergast series of novels. His recent nonfiction book, THE MONSTER OF FLORENCE, is also in production as a film. His latest book, THE LOST CITY OF THE MONKEY GOD, tells the true story of the discovery of a prehistoric city in an unexplored valley deep in the Honduran jungle. In addition to books, Preston writes about archaeology and paleontology for the New Yorker, National Geographic, and Smithsonian. He is the recipient of numerous writing awards in the US and Europe, including an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Pomona College. He currently serves as president of the Authors Guild, the nation’s oldest and largest association of authors and journalists.

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