Extinction by Douglas Preston
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
In a twist from Jurassic Park, the author has conjured a super-rich vacation enclave where de-extincted megafauna roam free in the Rocky Mountains. Visitors can see mammoths and other non-aggressive vegetarian species from eons past. A young couple vacationing there is murdered under mysterious circumstances. From there the tale becomes fanciful, fast-paced, and “shocking” (although you’d have to be pretty slow not to see that some sort of scientific skulduggery was going to be revealed). Overall it was interesting enough to keep me going and is worth a few stars, but the characters were all incredibly dislikable except for the heroes, a spunky female state agent and a crusty male local sheriff, who, of course, start out at odds and slowly become attracted to each other amid gunfights and explosions. The plot is eye-rolling all around, but if you like schlock sci-fi thrillers, you’ll enjoy this one. By the end I was just glad it was over.