As Someone who loves and has studied palaeontology I was so excited when I read the synopsis of this book and realised that i had stumbled onto a horror book about dinosaurs!! The Paleontologist (I'm still surprised that the UK publishers kept the American spelling) is a wonderful mix of Jurassic Park and Night at the Museum. I was pleasantly surprised that the author has clearly done his research about palaeontology and how fossils are found and prepared even if he is a little off about how coveted and competitive paleo positions are. This book is filled with exciting plot twists that will have you wondering whether the characters are imagining things or whether there really is something going bump in the night. I would have liked for a few of the possible explanations for the goings on in the book to have been explored more and felt like some of the loose end could have dome with being tied off and fleshed out. Never-the-less this was a thoroughly enjoyable read and I would definitely recommend to any Dino-loving enthusiasts out there!

Dr Simon Nealy starts work at the museum where his sister disappeared. A good mix of mystery and supernatural, a well crafted novel which kept me reading to the end. A good cast of characters. I received this book from Little Brown Books LTD and Netgalley for a review.

A complex intriguing and hard to define debut, part mystery, part thriller mixed with some horror and supernatural vibes. As a child I was obsessed with dinosaurs and wanted to be a paleontologist so when I saw this book, I just had to read it. Drawn in by the chilling premise I read the whole thing in one sitting. The writing style was strong and easy to emerge into that you felt like you were discovering things alongside the main character. I think this book would appeal to a wide audience, especially those looking for something a bit different that the usual standard thriller or horror tropes. I’d highly recommend this gem of a book and I’ll be looking out for more by this author.

A thriller with Night At The Museum vibes had me so excited to read this book! I am rubbish for remembering or pronuncing the names of dinosaurs but I find it vrry interesting nonetheless.
The main characters pain about losing his sister when he was younger was very moving and I really felt for him throughout the book.
I did find a lot of aspects of this book unbelievable though. Like how he doesn't seem to question things that are strange enough for my liking. Like when he got that first weird letter at work and then straight after saw his colleague had a newspaper with cut out letters, he didn't challenge her. He also didn't tell the police about that when he reports the 2nd letter. I also didn't feel they were reacting realistically to literally seeing dinosaurs moving in the museum.

I enjoyed the illustrations but the journal entries had issues, a lot of text was missing.

I did feel like the book goes on for too long, a lot of unnecessary talk about Covid that didn't add to the story and a lot of waffle in general. I feel like we don't have to put so much detail into Covid in books, if you state that the year the story takes place in is during those dreaded years then we already know whats going down.

Why does everyone drink the poisoned tea the villain serves them during their confession?

I might have missed something but how come the guy didn't use all of his sisters body? Wasn't that the point; that he needed a full skeleton? He was even going to kill both siblings at once because he thought one wasn't enough. And he said that years later he considered trying to kill Simon again so he could get more- but apparently there were more of her bones in the museum this whole time? Why didn't he get them?

I liked how Fran is the one who helps him out in the end and the ending itself was a happy one which ties everything up really well.

Overall an enjoyable read.

I grew up being a dinosaur fan and while I still am, but decided to deviate from a career, or trying a career in Palaeontology for English Literature and Renaissance studies I still love to read about the study. I also love horror and paranormal so when I learnt there was a book that dealt with all those things (maybe not English literature academia side) I was so excited. Thankfully Luke Dumas did not disappoint me in the slightest.


The Paleontologist is perfect for fans of horror/paranormal prehistorical history, murder mysteries and probably a lot more. With a sprinkle of a darker version of Night at the Museum this one kept me hooked from the first page. The writing is superb and the set up fantastic. I adored how the paranormal was sprinkled in and became more and more prominent I loved how Simon seemed to become more open to accepting it. I also loved how Dumas weaved the supernatural, cultural, religious and factual elements together.


As always I don’t like to spoil a book so but the pacing, mystery and piecing together of what happened both in the age of the dinosaurs, the past and also present was amazing. I adored all the layers and trying to figure out what was going on along with Simon and the cast. The characters were also fantastic, Simon was very human, flawed but also likeable in their own way.
For me this was a perfect read, especially with ghostly dinosaurs, but I will say if you are not a fan of the supernatural or paranormal aspects the novel may not be for you. While they make up a rather large part of the novel there is still a good mystery there. As I say though for me it ticked all my boxes.

This book was so good! It was intriguing and really drawed me in. I'll be reading more of this authors work.

I really enjoyed this book. A Paleontologist gets a job at a once prestigious natural history museum that has fallen on hard times. Simon has been obsessed with dinosaurs his whole life so his career choice was a no-brainer. But giving up a brilliant job at a much better museum to work at the old Harrington Museum near his childhood home seems like madness. However, the dinosaurs are not Simon's main reason for wanting to return as he has a tragic history with the Harrington that he needs to confront once and for all. The comparisons between this book and the movie 'Night at the Museum' are justified, but there is so much more to this story than potential paranormal activity when the sun goes down. I think this is more a tragic story about family and forgiveness, though the.....other goings on are certainly entertaining and make for a very engrossing and enjoyable story. Highly recommended.