The Cabinet of Curiosities (Pendergast, Book 3 | Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child

The Cabinet of Curiosities (Pendergast, Book 3 | Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child | Cabinet of Curiosities

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The Cabinet of Cur...

	The Cabinet of Curiosities (Pendergast, Book 3 Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child Grand Central Publishing, 2003 - 656 pages average customer review:based on 271 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Hang on for the ride!

After reading the first three pages of "The Cabinet of Curiosities", I rushed to the library and checked out every Preston/Child book there was. A week later, my family was sulking, the house was a wreck and I missed several events I was supposed to attend, but I'd finished all eight books. I still think it was a week well spent.

Not one book disappoints and each can stand alone. The plot twists are unpredictable even to this jaded reader, and for more than a few pages in more than a few books, the hair deliciously stood up on the back of my neck--a very rare experience for me.

These books have elements I always hope for but rarely find in contemporary fiction. They're smart! Bits of arcane trivia, hints of the supernatural, a cast of colorful and likeable characters, dark foreshadowings of evil to come and sometime FBI agent Aloysius Pendergast, who knows things no one else does--no, no, REALLY no one else does. Trust me when I say Aloysius Pendergast is worthy of comparison with Sherlock Holmes and Lord Peter Wimsey. While reminiscent of both, he's much more. The reader finds out...no, I'm sorry, you'll just have to read it yourself.

"The Cabinet of Curiosities" is THE perfect thriller, but every one of the Pendergast novels is great; each is very different from the others. Just don't start reading until you have time to finish--I'll be catching up on chores for weeks, though the family seems to have gotten over it.

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Cabinet of Curiosities

Book arrived in excellent condition...I have not read the volume yet but am listening to an abridged version on tape and it's unusual, entertaining and very imaginative.

You might not sleep well at night

A doctor turned serial killer on the loose in New York City, vivid descriptions of human dissection while the victim is still alive and conscious, a diabolical prescription for prolonging human life - not the sort of stuff I usually read. But this book was a gift, and so I began reading, thinking that after a few pages I'd set the book down for good. But I found myself being sucked into the dusty basement archives of the New York Museum of History where the mystery begins some 130 years prior, being sucked in and glued to the spot. The Cabinet of Curiosities is a very explicitly told tale, rich in texture, mood, and historical fact, with bizarre characters, some of whom readily fit the bill as whodunit suspects. So I read on, read about the terrible plight of a teenage girl in the nineteenth century, imprisoned by the mad doctor. Knowing she would soon die, she writes a note in her own blood and conceals it in the lining of her dress. 130 years later, the note comes to light when a gruesome charnel pit containing 36 bodies is unearthed revealing the heinous crime. Despite the ghastly subject matter, I could not put this damn book down. Authors Preston and Child are very skilled at their craft, conjuring up detailed imagery of the Cabinets, the dusty archives, the icy cold of the killer's laboratories. They keep the pace and tension going throughout. When all is said and done though, a few of the players of this large cast exit without giving the reader total satisfaction. The throwaway lines summing up the ridiculously stupid Captain Custer, for example, did not quite do it for me. Still, if you're looking for a well written page turner, this is definitely worth reading. Review by David Marsh, Sea Chest Books

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great book

This is the first book of this series I listened/read. I'm hooked. I'll be getting the rest of them. It was thrilling, and keeps your attention through out the entire book.

I'm glad I got this from the library

This was an okay read except for the autopsy descriptions. Unless you're a doctor, you'll need an encyclopedia to understand exactly what sort of operation The Surgeon is performing on his victims.

If you're looking for an action-driven story that relies on implausible coincidences and if you don't mind annoying characters (such as the all-knowing gentleman detective Special Agent Pendergast with his unlimited financial resources and speshul abilities such as meditating himself through space and time), this could very well be an okay read for you too.

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