American writer Lincoln Child: biography, best books and reviews

The horror genre has long and firmly established roots not only in literature and cinema, but also in the hearts of many fans of thrills. One of the brightest representatives of the direction of "mystical horror" is the American writer Lincoln Child. "Forgotten room", "Ice-15", "Utopia", "Relict", "Still life with crows" - exciting action-packed novels that can not be torn from reading. The output of each new book by this author is an expected event, the circulation is swept off the shelves in a matter of days. The novel "Relic" has long turned into a successful adaptation, which collected 33 million dollars only in the US.

Despite the wide popularity, information about the biography and personal life of the writer is extremely small, and the one that is, is fragmentary. To correct this injustice, we decided to tell the readers about this talented author.

Biography, the beginning

Creator of exciting mystical horror writers Lincoln Child was born in Connecticut in 1957. Back in primary school, Lincoln discovered that the letters and words in which they form are strangely attracting him, and in the second grade he wrote a short story Bumble the Elephant, nowhere published, and eventually lost altogether.

School years, although they became fruitful for Childe for several dozen small stories, and even a fantastic novel, remained in his memories with hysterical outbursts of self-doubt and considerable embarrassment from the quality of his own works.

At the end of the school, the strange urge to put letters into words only strengthened, and in 1975 Lincoln went to Minnesota to enter the Faculty of English Arts at Carlton College, where he was repeatedly noted by teachers as a very talented student. Lincoln Child College graduated with honors in 1979.

Editor

After graduating from the school, the young man went to New York, where for five years he went from assistant to editor-in-chief of the St. Petersburg publishing house. Martin's Press, in parallel compiling collections of ghost stories, some of them (Dark Company and Dark Banquet) even came out hardcover in 1984 and 1985.

By the end of 1985, Lincoln Child had organized a special department in the publishing house dealing with mystical literature, which he directed for the next two years. During this time, three volumes of the collection Tales of the Dark and several other works for fans of the horror genre were published.

Systems Analyst

In 1987, the fate of the writer makes an unexpected turn, and he leaves the publishing business, remembering his second youthful hobby - programming and system analysis.

About ten years of work at MetLife as programmer did not bring Child satisfaction, but allowed the creation and release of co-authorship with Douglas Preston "Relict", which became the first novel of a long joint project. Upon completion of the work on the book, in 1995, Lincoln Child went on a free voyage and since then has been steadily improving his writing skills.

Magnificent tandem

For twenty years of creative activity, six novels have come out from Child's pen, each of which is eagerly awaited by readers around the world. But the most widely known writer brought books written in co-authorship.

Acquaintance with Douglas Preston took place in the late eighties, when, while still working with the publishing house, Child edited the first book of a budding writer and historian, dinosaurs in the attic. In the early nineties, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child created a team that gave enthusiastic readers a series of novels about Aloise Pendergast.

FBI Agent Alois Pendergast

In 1995, the first novel of the series, Relic, was released, later successfully screened. In the center of the story is a museum exhibit brought by a young researcher from the jungles of South America to the New York Museum of Natural History, and a series of mysterious bloody murders that occurred through his fault.

The book was, albeit damp, but very exciting and included in the top 40 best works in the genre of literary horror, compiled by the Association of American Writers of Horrors.

Over the next twenty years, the cycle about Alois Pendergast was enriched with fifteen novels, during which the FBI agent went down into the underworld of New York ("Reliquary"), investigated the murder of a black archaeologist in a quiet town in the Midwest ("Still Life with Ravens"), Visited the Buddhist monastery ("Steering Wheel of Darkness"), caught the arsonist at the ski resort in Colorado ("White Fire") and committed many other equally noble and brave deeds.

All the books of the series are characterized by a twisted plot, dynamic and completeness of the storylines. Some of the novels are given by Conan Doyle, but on the whole the series deserves praise.

Gideon Crewe

In 2011 Child and Preston presented a new cycle of novels to the attention of readers, the main character of which was a young engineer, and in combination the brilliant hacker Gideon Crewe, who became a secret agent. In the first book of the series, a charming intelligence officer investigates the murder of a Chinese physicist who was to pay for the stolen secret drawings.

Like the previous project, the books about Gideon Crewe were enthusiastically received by English-speaking readers and critics, and at the moment the series consists of four novels, of which only one is translated into Russian.

Single swimming

In parallel with the creation of two exciting series co-authored with Douglas Preston in 2002, Lincoln Child published the first solo book "Utopia". On its pages, the author, with his usual deep immersion in technical details, described an amusement park that has four magical worlds filled with exotic attractions. Visiting the attractions allows visitors to experience their endurance and strength, to show dexterity and attention. A group of terrorists suddenly appeared on the territory and began a series of bloody sophisticated murders in order to get the technological secret of the park's arrangement.

In 2007 Child created the first novel of his own series called "From the Depths". The hero of the book was an enigmatologist, Professor Jeremy Logan, with brilliance unraveling mysterious, at times mysterious crimes, in the world of which he plunged his characters Lincoln Child. The author's books quickly gained popularity and stood in line with the most popular horror stories.

To date, the series includes four action-packed mystical thrillers.

Secrets of a forgotten room

The last book about Jeremy Logan, which Lincoln Child has published to date, is The Forgotten Room. The sixth book, created without the involvement of a co-author, received many positive reviews and, according to readers, fully met their expectations. Fans of intricate mysteries, terrible secrets and secret organizations will appreciate the unexplained twists of the plot.

In the "Lux" center, engaged in mysterious research for private clients, there was a suicide. The scientist who laid hands on himself was considered one of the most psychologically stable workers, had extensive plans for life and many reasons to be proud. All the more strange it seemed that shortly before the tragedy, he behaved inadequately, heard voices and showed aggression towards colleagues and friends.

To investigate the tragedy, Jeremy Logan, a former employee, a historian who is addicted to paranormal phenomena and has the glory of a ghost hunter, is invited to the center.

The investigation leads Logan into the western wing of the research center building, formerly owned by an eccentric millionaire. There he finds a room without windows, and in it - a strange machine of unknown destination, controlled from the outside.

Slow everyday life

Lincoln Child, whose biography is full of unexpected turns, is very versatile by nature . In the sphere of his interests are simultaneously poetry, created before the fifties of the twentieth century, and literature of the same period; Playing music on various instruments, from the conventional piano to the five-stringed banjo and digital devices; The history of America and England; Motorcycles and exotic parrots; Italian costumes; Butterflies and hiking through the mountains; archeology; Felt hats; Non-traditional programming languages and rhythm and blues ...

Currently, Lincoln Child, whose books diverge on a monthly basis, lives in the northeast of the United States, in New Jersey, with his wife and daughter. In his spare time he reads John Keats, listens to Beethoven and Brahms and collects Chateau d'Yquem.