Book Review: The Paleontologist | Luke Dumas

A haunting portrayal of memory, grief, and the insatiable search for truth. Luke Dumas’s novel, The Paleontologist, blends science and the metaphysical in a story of one man’s search for answers to his sister’s disappearance twenty years earlier.

About the Book | The Paleontologist

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 from the author of A History of Fear—perfect for fans of Simone St. James and Katy Hays.

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 break-up 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.

Are these the ravings of a madman? Or is there something supernatural at play? And what does this have to do with Morgan’s disappearance?

Another atmospheric mystery from Luke Dumas, The Paleontologist is a ghost story unlike any other that will haunt you long after you turn the final page.

Review | The Paleontologist

Even as far as ghost stories go, The Paleontologist is a story that haunted me long after I finished it. The most troubling imagery in the book isn’t the ghostly dinosaur figures that haunt the halls of the Hawthorne museum, but rather the whisps of memories that hang over Simon like dark clouds.

“In my field, a partial skeleton can still be considered complete.”

Simon Nealy is a young prodigy in the field of Paleontology, having risen the ranks at the Field Museum at a young age. A horribly break up caused by trauma and the breakdown of Simon’s mental health in the wake of the pandemic cause Simon to seek something else. That comes in the form of a position at the Hawthorne Museum of Natural History, which is located in Simon’s hometown in Pennsylvania.

Simon has not returned in decades, so many of his memories of his childhood are broken and grim. Many of his worst memories surround this museum—the time he realized his attraction to the same sex at an exhibit which led to years of mocking from his classmates, the disappearance of his sister from this very museum when she was only six years old. Simon and Morgan had been sent without their mother—an addict who disappointed them over and over. Morgan remained in the bug exhibit while Simon went to look at the dinosaurs. Morgan was never seen again and Simon has spent his life wracked with guilt.

When child services eventually intervenes, Simon went to a suburb of Chicago to live with his Aunt Colleen. Knowing the trauma that plagued Simon’s childhood, Colleen took him to the city as she got to know the child she had taken responsibility for, including a trip to the Field Museum that ultimately reminds Simon of his love of museum, dinosaurs, and history.

“You must forgive yourself, Simon,” his therapist implores.
“But how can I when they never even found her bones?”

Back at the Hawthorne Museum, Simon finds the pandemic has shuttered what little was left of the museum. He’s tasked with building an exhibit to showcase a dinosaur discovered by his predecessor, Dr. Albert Mueller. The paleontologist had been asked to leave the museum fifteen years earlier, leaving behind an ill-preserved set of dinosaur bones he had discovered and troubling diary entries heavily guarded in the museum’s files.

While working at the museum, Simon is haunted by sounds from an unseen dinosaur prowling the building. Is it his imagination, or is something haunting the Hawthorne Museum? But more troubling than the ghostly sounds are the real clues that Simon uncovers that suggest his sister Morgan never left the museum. Who was responsible for taking her life? And where are her bones?

The story weaves together Simon’s past and his present. Simon is a meek figure, both in physicality and in personality. But beneath it all lies a man who is dogged in his search for answers about what happened to his sister. The story carries many layers, and Dumas brings atmospheric scenes and elegant prose to make the story (like the dinosaur bones themselves) come to life.

The mystery will keep the reader hooked as more troubling twists and turns begin to paint a picture of what happened to Morgan all of those years ago. I also felt that there was some catharsis in Simon’s story. His grief has consumed most of his life, robbing him of relationships, social connections, and happiness. But his grief also fuels him to find the truth. There’s a symmetry in Simon’s work and his life that I found poetic. I won’t spoil where the book heads, but go in knowing that the reader will (along with Simon) find many of the answers they seek. But still, as in life, not everything can be explained.

Thank you to Atria Books for my copy. Opinions are my own.

About the Author | Luke Dumas

Luke Dumas is the USA Today bestselling author of The Paleontologist, A History of Fear, and two forthcoming novels from Atria Books.

He received his master’s degree in creative writing from the University of Edinburgh and is a graduate of the University of Chicago. His nonfiction has appeared in Literary Hub, CrimeReads, Hobart, Panorama: The Journal of Travel, Place, and Nature, and more.

Luke has worked in nonprofit philanthropy for more than a decade with organizations including San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and the American Red Cross.

Luke was born and raised in San Diego, California, where he lives with his husband and dogs.