The horror genre has long and firmly taken root not only in literature and cinema, but also in the souls of many thrill-seekers. One of the prominent representatives of the mystical horror trend is the American writer Lincoln Child. “Forgotten Room”, “Ice-15”, “Utopia”, “Relict”, “Still Life with Ravens” are exciting action-packed novels that cannot be torn off from reading. The release of each new book by this author is an expected event, the circulation is swept from the shelves in a matter of days. The novel "Relic" has long turned into a successful film adaptation, raising $ 33 million in the United States alone.
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 readers about this talented author.
Biography, the beginning
Creator of breathtaking mystical horror films writer Lincoln Child was born in Connecticut in 1957. Even in elementary school, Lincoln discovered that the letters and words into which they were composed attracted him strangely, and in the second grade he wrote a short story, Bumble the Elephant, which was never published anywhere, but eventually lost.
The school years, though for Child, were fruitful for dozens of short stories, and even a science fiction novel, remained in his memoirs with hysterical bursts of self-doubt and a fair amount of embarrassment from the quality of his own works.
After graduating from school, the strange desire to put letters into words only got stronger, and in 1975 Lincoln left for Minnesota to enter the faculty of English literature at Carleton College, where teachers repeatedly noted as a very talented student. Lincoln Child College graduated with honors in 1979.
Editor
After graduating from an educational institution, the young man went to New York, where in five years he went from assistant to the editor-in-chief of St. Martin's Press, while compiling ghost stories, some of them (Dark Company and Dark Banquet) even came out in hardcover in 1984 and 1985.
By the end of 1985, Lincoln Child had organized a special unit in the publishing house dealing with mystical literature, which he directed over 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, recalling his second youthful hobby - programming and system analysis.
About ten years at MetLife as a programmer did not bring Child satisfaction, but allowed him to create and release, in collaboration with Douglas Preston, "Relic", which became the first novel of a long joint project. At the end of the work on the book, in 1995, Lincoln Child went free swimming and has since been steadily improving his writing skills.
Magnificent tandem
Over twenty years of creative activity, six novels have been released from Child’s pen, each of which is eagerly awaited by readers around the world. But the most famous writer brought books written in collaboration.
The acquaintance with Douglas Preston took place in the late eighties, when, while still collaborating with the publishing house, Child edited the first book of a promising writer and historian, called “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 later released, successfully screened. The plot focuses on a museum exhibit brought by a young researcher from the jungle 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 turned out to be damp, but very exciting and entered the top 40 best works in the genre of literary horror, compiled by the Association of American Horror Writers.
Over the next twenty years, the cycle of Alois Pendergast was replenished with fifteen novels, during which the brave FBI agent descended 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”), He visited a Buddhist monastery ("Wheel of Darkness"), caught an arsonist at a ski resort in Colorado ("White Fire") and committed many other no less noble and courageous acts.
All books in the series are distinguished by a twisted plot, dynamism and completeness of plot lines. Some novels are given to Conan Doyle, but in general, the series earned the accolades that fell upon her.
Gideon Crew
In 2011, Child and Preston presented a new series of novels to the attention of readers, the main character of which was a young engineer, and part-time 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 supposed to pay for the stolen secret drawings.
Like the previous project, books about Gideon Crew were enthusiastically received by English-speaking readers and critics, and currently the series has four novels, of which only one has been translated into Russian.
Solo swimming
In parallel with the creation of two exciting episodes in collaboration with Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child in 2002 released the first solo book Utopia. On its pages, the author, with his characteristic deep immersion in technical details, described an amusement park that has four magical worlds filled with exotic attractions. A visit to the attractions allows visitors to test their endurance and strength, to show dexterity and attention. A group of terrorists that suddenly appeared on the territory begins a series of bloody sophisticated murders in order to get the technological secret of the park.
In 2007, Child created the first novel of his own series, entitled From the Depth. The hero of the book was an enigmatologist, Professor Jeremy Logan, who brilliantly unravels the mysterious, sometimes mystical crimes, into the world of which Lincoln Child plunged his heroes. The author’s books quickly gained popularity and stood on a par with the most popular horror novels.
To date, the series has four action-packed mystical thrillers.
Secrets of a forgotten room
The last book about Jeremy Logan that 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 puzzles, terrible secrets and secret organizations will appreciate the inexplicable twists of the plot.
In the Mystery Center, a mysterious research center for private clients, suicide occurred. 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 of himself. Moreover, it seemed strange that shortly before the tragedy, he behaved inappropriately, heard voices and showed aggression towards colleagues and friends.
To investigate the tragedy, Jeremy Logan, a former collaborator and historian with a reputation for ghostbusters, was 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 discovers a room without windows, and in it there is a strange machine of unknown purpose, driven from the outside.
Slow Weekdays
Lincoln Child, whose biography is full of unexpected twists, is by nature a very versatile person. In the sphere of his interests are poetry, created before the fifties of the twentieth century, and literature of the same period; playing music on various instruments, from the usual piano to a five-string banjo and digital devices; History of America and England; motorcycles and exotic parrots; Italian costumes butterflies and hiking in the mountains; archeology; felt hats; non-traditional programming languages and rhythm and blues ...
Currently, Lincoln Child, whose books are distributed daily in millions of copies, lives in the northeastern United States, in the state of New Jersey, with his wife and daughter. In his free time he reads John Keats, listens to Beethoven and Brahms, and collects Chateau d'Yquem.