The Paleontologist

A Novel

Luke Dumas

• Publisher: Atria Books
• Year: 2023
• eBook ISBN: 9781668018286
• Edition: 0

USA TODAY BESTSELLER
2024 ITW Thriller Award Winner
Esquire “Best Horror Books of 2023” Pick

A haunted paleontologist returns to the museum where his sister was abducted years earlier and is faced with a terrifying and murderous spirit in this chilling novel.

Curator of paleontology Dr. Simon Nealy never expected to return to his Pennsylvania hometown, let alone the Hawthorne Museum of Natural History. He was just a boy when his six-year-old sister, Morgan, was abducted from the museum under his watch, and the guilt has haunted Simon ever since. After a recent breakup and the death of the aunt who raised him, Simon feels drawn back to the place where Morgan vanished, in search of the bones they never found.

But from the moment he arrives, things aren’t what he expected. The Hawthorne is a crumbling ruin, still closed amid the ongoing pandemic, and plummeting toward financial catastrophe. Worse, Simon begins seeing and hearing things he can’t explain. Strange animal sounds. Bloody footprints that no living creature could have left. A prehistoric killer looming in the shadows of the museum. Terrified he’s losing his grasp on reality, Simon turns to the handwritten research diaries of his predecessor and uncovers a blood-soaked mystery 150 million years in the making that could be the answer to everything.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Chapter One: Something Is Coming
• Chapter Two: Inside These Hallowed Halls Find Death
• Chapter Three: Field of Screams
• Chapter Four: The Hateful Bone
• Chapter Five: To Whom It May Concern
• Chapter Six: Thanksgrieving
• Chapter Seven: Dr. Nealy’s Unexpected Assignment
• Chapter Eight: Bored of Directors
• Chapter Nine: Skeletons in the Closet
• Chapter Ten: A Far-Off Light in the Deep Expanse of Black
• Chapter Eleven: Creature Comforts
• Chapter Twelve: The Unearthing
• Chapter Thirteen: Digging Deeper
• Chapter Fourteen: Feast for a Scavenger
• Chapter Fifteen: Close Call
• Chapter Sixteen: The Hall of Loud Shadows
• Chapter Seventeen: The Science of Denial
• Chapter Eighteen: The Philanthropist
• Chapter Nineteen: Vigil and Vigilance
• Chapter Twenty: Visitors Welcome
• Chapter Twenty-One: The Anxious Hour
• Chapter Twenty-Two: Thunderstruck
• Chapter Twenty-Three: Speak of the Devils
• Chapter Twenty-Four: The Nesting Grounds
• Chapter Twenty-Five: The Fallout
• Chapter Twenty-Six: The Phantom Refrain
• Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Curse of Hawthorne Hollow
• Chapter Twenty-Eight: An Open Question
• Chapter Twenty-Nine: Without a Trace
• Chapter Thirty: Social Services
• Chapter Thirty-One: Milk and Sugarbush
• Chapter Thirty-Two: The Missing Peace
• Chapter Thirty-Three: A Bone to Pick
• Chapter Thirty-Four: Fright or Flight
• Chapter Thirty-Five: A Sketchy Accusation
• Chapter Thirty-Six: Initial Findings
• Chapter Thirty-Seven: Rank and File
• Chapter Thirty-Eight: A Dreadful Likeness
• Chapter Thirty-Nine: Mislaid Gems
• Chapter Forty: Broken Bones
• Chapter Forty-One: Life and Death
• Chapter Forty-Two: Dangerous Territory
• Chapter Forty-Three: Mueller’s Final Word
• Chapter Forty-Four: An Accelerating Descent Toward Total Chaos
• Chapter Forty-Five: Maiasaura
• Chapter Forty-Six: History in the Making
• Chapter Forty-Seven: The Two Officers
• Chapter Forty-Eight: A Flash of Blinding Light
• Chapter Forty-Nine: House of Bones
• Chapter Fifty: The Bone Man’s Tale
• Chapter Fifty-One: No Clowning Around
• Chapter Fifty-Two: Skyful of Ash
• Chapter Fifty-Three: The Long Dark After
• Chapter Fifty-Four: When the Dust (Un)Settles
• Epilogue: Dawn of a New Era
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Copyright