Excellent start of an exciting series

Museum of Natural History in New York. While preparing the opening of a major exhibition on superstition, two lost children and a guardian are brutally murdered.
The Agosta police lieutenant is in charge of the case, soon supplemented by an FBI inspector who comes from Louisiana, Pendergast.
A broken claw is found on one of the corpses. His DNA is an incredible blend of human and reptilian genes ....

"Relic" is the first episode of the adventures of Pendergast, atypical investigator from the Southern aristocracy. While the story is probably not as successful as in the last novels, certainly the character of Pendergast is imperfectly developed. But Preston and Child know already snapping up our attention and never let go; the pursuit of hundred pages of the beast in the basement of the museum are just as oppressive as fascinating.
The young Margo Green researcher or journalist Smithback are pleasant secondary characters that you find in other adventures.
In short, Relic is my sixth "Pendergast," and I can not get bored. If you like the genre "fantastic policeman", Preston and Child are the masters, and therefore Relic is unavoidable. Enjoy reading!