Relic (Pendergast, Book 1) by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

This may be only the first Pendergast book by this pair, but it is the last one I will read. I think they were trying to create a more sophisticated Fox Mulder, and failed utterly. The heroic FBI agent was flat and lacked personality, although the monster was as grotesque as any from the X-Files.

The setting should have been interesting - the Smithsonian renamed and relocated to New York - but the characters inhabiting it were bizarre parodies of scientists and administrators.

To add to their other crimes against literature, they stole without attribution the Churchill line about Russia - "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma." I don't believe they even gave the lazy researcher's excuse "didn't somebody once say: ... ." I find that line frequently in stories - along with the query : "Who was it said " ... ?" This, of course, gives the characters the opportunity to discuss who said it and why their own situation is different.

Oh well, this was a disappointment and not worth any further effort toward discussing it.