Once again Douglas Preston and Lincon Child have combined their writing talents to create the novel Riptide. They write all their books together. People who know each other very well have been known to finish each other's sentences. Douglas Preston and Lincon Child take this a few steps further; they must be able to finish each other's paragraphs, chapters, and even books. It's impossible to tell when one writer starts and the other finishes. Their books could be compared to those of Michael Crichton, with lots of action and suspense. However, there are some differences. Preston and Child usually have man vs. man and man vs. nature conflicts in their plots, and don't incorporate as much science fiction as Crichton in their writing.

Riptide is about an island off the coast of Stormhaven, Maine. The island is called Ragged Island because of the many holes that have been...