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The Cabinet of Curiosities (2002)

by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child

Other authors: See the other authors section.

Series: Nora Kelly (0.5), Pendergast (3)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
4,0321132,971 (4.01)122
In an ancient tunnel underneath New York City a charnel house is discovered. Inside are thirty-six bodies all murdered and mutilated more than a century ago. While FBI agent Pendergast investigates the old crimes, identical killings start to terrorize the city. The nightmare has begun. Again.
  1. 71
    The Alienist by Caleb Carr (Bookmarque)
    Bookmarque: Similar in feel and approach, an excellent mystery novel.
  2. 50
    The Keep by F. Paul Wilson (Scottneumann)
  3. 40
    Cemetery Dance by Douglas Preston (LisatheLibrarian)
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» See also 122 mentions

English (102)  Spanish (4)  German (4)  Dutch (2)  All languages (112)
Showing 1-5 of 102 (next | show all)
If you enjoy the Pendergast series you will probably love this book.

I liked Relic quite a bit, it was different and Preston’s “insider” details on the museum added
To the atmosphere. ( highly recommend his non-fiction book, dinosaurs in the attic.)

There is an ingenious serial killer, an archeologist , a cop, an FBI agent and a reporter… what more could you ask for?

Unfortunately for me, it just felt a bit like they were trying too hard… one passenger pigeon won’t do, they throw a wholE flock at you…
Literally, at one point, and, for me, metaphorically,throughout the book

( )
  cspiwak | Mar 6, 2024 |
(2002)Pretty good thriller with some sci-fi & horror elements thrown in. In seven bestselling novels (from Relic to The Ice Limit), Preston and Child have delivered a body of science-based thrillers that for high excitement and robust scientific imaginings rival those of Michael Crichton. Their eighth outing is another richly entertaining tale, about the hunt for a seemingly immortal serial killer at work in New York City. Preston and Child revive characters and settings from earlier novels, often a red flag that authorial imagination is tiring; but in this case, all comes together with zing. There's FBI Special Agent Pendergast (from Relic), pale, refined and possessed of a Holmes-like brain; dogged New York Times reporter William Smithback Jr. and his fiery erstwhile girlfriend, Nora Kelly of the New York (read American, where Preston used to work) Museum of Natural History (both characters from Thunderhead with the museum the setting for Relic). The action begins when groundbreaking for an apartment tower in downtown Manhattan reveals a charnel house of murder victims from the late 19th century. Enter Pendergast, who for unexplained reasons taps Kelly to study the remains before the site is stripped by the building's developer, a Donald Trump-type who, with the mayor's backing, will accept no construction delays. As Kelly calls on Smithback for investigative help, the city is struck by killings that duplicate the earlier murders, with the victims' spinal cords ripped away and clues pointing to a 19th-century scientist who sought the secret of immortality. Featuring fabulous locales, colorful characters, pointed riffs on city and museum politics, cool forensic and paleontological speculation and several gripping set pieces including an extended white-knuckle climax, this a great beach novel, at times gruesome, always fun: Preston-Child at the top of their game. (Publishers Weekly)
  derailer | Jan 25, 2024 |
The discovery of a mass grave from the past seems to link to a new spree of killings with similar damage to the corpses. ( )
  DrApple | Jan 22, 2024 |
8467200170
  archivomorero | May 21, 2023 |
Even if this book was terrible, the subject matter was so interesting to me, that it still would have gotten an okay rating. Thing is, the book wasn't terrible, it was a pretty good book also. Agent Pendergast was an interesting character, a little too secretive to join my pantheon of favorite literary characters (John Corey, et al), but enough that I bought more of the Pendergast series to read more about him. My caveat here is that this book is the third in the series, so maybe we learned more about Pendergast in the first two books, or maybe not, I'll let you know after I read the first two. Anyway, in regards to this book, great plot, interesting subject matter, like I said, keeps you guessing about the identity of the "bad guy" til the end. A thoroughly well done book, if you ask me. ( )
  MrMet | Apr 28, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 102 (next | show all)
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» Add other authors (6 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Preston, Douglasprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Child, Lincolnmain authorall editionsconfirmed
Auberjonois, RenéNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Cappi, Andrea CarloTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Fröba, KlausTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Marjamäki, PekkaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
Dedication
Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child dedicate this book to the teachers, professors, and librarians of America, most especially those who have made a difference in our own lives.
First words
Pee-Wee Boxer surveyed the jobsite with disgust.
Quotations
[From Shottom's 1881 letter to McFadden]
It was, I knew now, not gas escaping from a corpse. And this was not the work of a man who trafficked with body snatchers, with corpses stolen from graveyards. This poor creature on the table was still alive. Leng practiced his abominable work on those who still lived. (Section 2, chapter 5)
[Pendergast is visiting via memory crossing]
What the old monks had used this subterranean vault for, Pendergast never learned. But almost two hundred years before, this place had become the Pendergast family necropolis. Here, over a dozen generations on both sides of the family -- the fallen line of French aristocrats, the mysterious denizens of the deep bayou -- had been buried or, more frequently, reburied. Pendergast walked on, hands behind his back, staring at the carved names. Here was Henri Prendregast de Mousqueton, a seventeenth-century mountebank who pulled teeth, performed magic and comedy, and practiced quack medicine. And here, encased in a mausoleum bedecked with quartz minarets, was Eduard, a well-known Harley Street doctor in eighteenth-century London. And here, Comstock Pendergast, famed mesmerist, magician, and mentor of Harry Houdini.

Pendergast strolled farther, passing artists and murderers, vaudeville performers and violin prodigies. At last he stopped beside a mausoleum grander than those around it: a ponderous conflation of white marble, carved into an exact replica of the Pendergast mansion itself. This was the tomb of Hezekiah Pendergast, his own great-great grandfather. (section 9, chapter 1)
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In an ancient tunnel underneath New York City a charnel house is discovered. Inside are thirty-six bodies all murdered and mutilated more than a century ago. While FBI agent Pendergast investigates the old crimes, identical killings start to terrorize the city. The nightmare has begun. Again.

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Hachette Book Group

3 editions of this book were published by Hachette Book Group.

Editions: 0446611239, 0446530220, 1600242138

 

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