The new Preston/Child novel doesn't come out for a month or two, so I decided to start reading their solo novels in the meantime.

There are some fun "in-jokes" in THE CODEX that tie it squarely into the world of the co-written novels, but this is a much more straightforward action thriller than the Pendergast novels. The setup is simple: A rich billionaire knows he is dying, so he buries his inheritance in a far-flung location, leaving his sons to find and retrieve it. There are some twists, of course, and the whole thing is a nice, brainless "popcorn" adventure novel. If you're looking for a novel that will provide hours of intense literary analysis, this isn't the book, but if you want a quick, escapist novel, you could do a lot worse than this one!