The Cabinet of Curiosities | Douglas J. Preston, Lincoln Child

The Cabinet of Curiosities | Douglas J. Preston, Lincoln Child | Entertaining, but characters are a little flat and ending is a bit of a let down

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The Cabinet of Cur...

	The Cabinet of Curiosities Douglas J. Preston, Lincoln Child Grand Central Publishing, 2002 - 496 pages average customer review:based on 270 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

In downtown Manhattan, a gruesome discovery has just been made-an underground charnel house containing the bones of dozens of murder victims. Research reveals that a serial killer was at work in New York's notorious Five Points neighborhood in the 1880s, bent on prolonging his lifespan by any means. When a newspaper story on the old murders appears to ignite a new series of horrifyingly similar killings, panic overtakes New York City. Now, FBI agent Pendergast, journalist Bill Smithback, and archaeologist Nora Kelly join forces to protect themselves from a vicious killer...before they become the next victims.

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A worthy, captivating, thrilling ride and read.

This is the best book from the duo author that I've read thus far (again, I don't read in order of the published date). It kept me captivated, interested and in tune for the duration of the read and beyond. The air of mystery by was perfectly described through the ornate details. This book dwelled further into Pendergast's life and his family.

Entertaining, but characters are a little flat and ending is a bit of a let down

This is the fourth Agent Pendergast novel I've read and the second best so far. I enjoy the genre blending element of these novels and find Pendergast to be an interesting character. The premise of the novel is intriguing and the suspense, for the most part, builds well.

In the four novels I've read, including Cabinet of Curiosities, Preston and Childs come close, but don't quite realize the full potential of this series. I enjoyed Cabinet of Curiosities but I have a few relatively minor complaints as well.

1. The characterization is a little weak: The Police Captain is a cliché. While a stupid man might arguably rise to that rank in the NYPD, I find it hard to imagine that anyone could rise to the rank of Captain without being at least a little savvy when it comes to the politics of the Department and City. The scenes where he blunders and blusters into the investigation grated a little on me because I could never believe they were real. The weak characterizations extend beyond just the police captain. I found almost all of the characters a little thin. Pendergast himself is made a little too superhuman in this novel, both mentally and physically, which strained credibility a little for me.
2. The novel is a little padded: It's probably 50 or so pages longer than it needed to be and the diversions tend to bog the novel down.
3. The ending is a bit of a let down: The killer's experiments in the 1800's and early 1900's were, as we come to learn, an ends to a means. When the mystery of this larger purpose is revealed, it's a little unwhellming and a bit of a let down.

Despite my minor complaints, this is still a very entertaining novel. Not exactly a `home run', but a solid page turner none-the-less. The blending of history, science, the supernatural, and crime makes for an entertaining mix. My complaints about the ending and the bloated writing are consistent to all of the Pendergast novels I've read so far. Where this novel falls a little short of my favorite Pendergast novel, Still Life With Crows, is the characterization. The secondary characters in Still Life were much richer and more fully realized.

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In truth it's Horror!

This is my favorite Agent Pendegrast novel.
The plot was very similar to an old NightStaker episode that feature a feidn who stalked Seattle in search of spinal fluid to gant him eternal life.
I'm happy that Preston has made the cross-over to thrillers, but in truth the novels like Relic are horror novels with a heavy dose of mystery and splash of police procedural added to make them more board in their market demographics I guess.
It's solid thrills all the way, even if a little over the top at times.

The Fury and the Power (Fury and the Terror) If you want to read the novel that was the mother of all terror thrillers with spies and conspiracies check out John Farris's work.

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Eh, it was okay...

This was the first time I had read a Preston and Child book. I read a lot of reviews that highly praised this book. And I honestly expected it to be a lot better then what it was. To me personally, I found this book to be kind of "high schoolish," meaning it doesn't really fit my idea for an adult book? (Minus the language in certain areas of the book) But I can say that they did a good job building your suspense up, however they dropped it just as fast and moved on to another topic. So with that being said, I just found this book to be "OK" and I doubt I will read anymore books by Preston and Child.

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