Michael Crichton, the #1 New York Times
bestselling author of Jurassic Park, returns to the
world of paleontology in this recently discovered novel—a
thrilling adventure set in the Wild West during the golden
age of fossil hunting.
The year is 1876. Warring Indian tribes still populate
America’s western territories even as lawless gold-rush
towns begin to mark the landscape. In much of the country it
is still illegal to espouse evolution. Against this backdrop
two monomaniacal paleontologists pillage the Wild West,
hunting for dinosaur fossils, while surveilling, deceiving
and sabotaging each other in a rivalry that will come to be
known as the Bone Wars.
Into this treacherous territory plunges the arrogant and
entitled William Johnson, a Yale student with more privilege
than sense. Determined to survive a summer in the west to
win a bet against his arch-rival, William has joined
world-renowned paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh on his
latest expedition. But when the paranoid and secretive Marsh
becomes convinced that William is spying for his nemesis,
Edwin Drinker Cope, he abandons him in Cheyenne, Wyoming, a
locus of crime and vice. William is forced to join forces
with Cope and soon stumbles upon a discovery of historic
proportions. With this extraordinary treasure, however,
comes exceptional danger, and William’s newfound resilience
will be tested in his struggle to protect his cache, which
pits him against some of the West’s most notorious characters.
A page-turner that draws on both meticulously researched
history and an exuberant imagination, Dragon Teeth
is based on the rivalry between real-life paleontologists
Cope and Marsh; in William Johnson readers will find an
inspiring hero only Michael Crichton could have imagined.
Perfectly paced and brilliantly plotted, this enormously
winning adventure is destined to become another Crichton
classic.