Roc, New York, 2001, 1^st pr thus.  ISBN 0-451-45858-3.  Trade soft cover, 259 pages including Glossary.  Very good; light edge and cover wear, tight binding; remainder mark on bottom edge, appears unread.  ‘Chance Matthews has suffered enough tragedies. … What she doesn’t need is a strange girl with alabaster skin who knows things about Chance she can’t possibly know.  This girl speaks of being charged by an angel to battle monsters and claims she cannot do it alone.  She says she needs Chance’s help.  Chance doesn’t believe in angels.  Or monsters.  But among the artifacts left by her geologist grandparents, there lies a fossil of a creature that couldn’t possibly have ever existed.  But it did.  And still does…’ (from rear wrap)