Preston worked as a writer and editor for the American Museum of Natural History and taught writing at Princeton University. He has written for The New Yorker, Natural History, National Geographic, Harper's, Smithsonian, and The Atlantic. The author of several acclaimed nonfiction books, including the bestseller "The Monster of Florence,” Preston is also the co-author with Lincoln Child of the bestselling series of novels featuring FBI agent Pendergast. His latest is “The Lost City of the Monkey God.”