This was a really entertaining read. Gruesome, but interesting. ( )

I really liked this one. I found the whole premise imaginative and captivating; it was nice to get a P&C with a 19th century flair, and it was so much fun to get to see more of Pendergast being awesome. A wonderfully creepy thriller. ( )

This is a good thriller , a bit long but a fun read. ( )

A great third book in the Pendergast series. I'm glad Preston and Child left the Mwbun storyline for what it was. A third instalment involving the Mwbun figure would have been tiring - as the second instalment was already beginning to bore.

Now, with a renewed theme to guide Pendergast, Smithback and some new characters into a new mystery, Preston and Child have made a great come-back for the series. We're even allowed a few glimpses of the personal life of the mysterious agent Pendergast, of whom we finally learn not his name, but his initials! Some Pendergast family history is also revealed, as the murders this wonderful character is investigating this time are tie in to him on a personal level.

All in all a very good thrilling crime book, and I will be looking forward to reading the fourth book in the series. ( )

Once I started this book, I could not put it down. Sorry kitties...you will have to fend for yourselves. It caught my attention from cover to cover. Excellent! I can't wait to read the other books. ( )

A disappointment, I really had to force myself to get through the last 150 pages. A good initial premise, but suffers from far too many unbelievably stupid characters on one hand, and unbelievably omniscient characters on the other. The only thing about this book that makes any sense at all is to look at is as a metaphor for what happens when science runs amok. ( )

Angustiosa, claustrofóbica y terrorífica ( )

The first chapter captured me. I just love how this one flows.

This book was so much fun. I really liked Relic, and have read most the two authors' books. This one is hands down my favorite. Yes, you really have to suspend your disbelief, but they do really try to make the impossible science that pops up believable. That's not the point. The history of museums, like the American Museum of Natural History, as cabinets of curiosity is fantastic. For a science/history geek like myself, this view of museums as the evolution of what was basically freak shows is really interesting. It's a dark and twisted view of what has come to be simply educational. Granted the two headed calves didn't make the transition, but the knowledge that so much of this stuff comes from the same crazy old guy who collected things like two headed calves and elephant man skulls in fascinating. The plot revolves around just such a man and just such a cabinet. It helps that the lead investigator is just as kooky. The ambiance alone is reason enough to grab this book. It could just as easily be a horror story as a thriller, mystery or scifi novel. ( )

Is the elixir to eternal hands found? Pendergast investigates.... ( )

Cabinet of Curiosities is my fourth book by these authors (Relic, Reliquary, and Brimstone) and while it wasn't without a few annoying faults I found it to be extremely interesting and entertaining at the same time. In this book, we find that a new construction project is delayed when the excavation crew unexpectedly discovers a 19th century coal tunnel holding skeletal remains of 36 brutally murdered people.

Almost immediately after the discovery is made, Dr. Nora Kelly (an archeologist and curator at the Museum of Natural History, Thunderhead) is visited by the mysterious, refined and independently wealthy FBI agent Pendergast (Relic & Reliquary) who takes an unusual interest in the remains. Dr. Kelly reluctantly joins Special Agent Pendergast for an unofficial examination of the site, and together they make a startling discovery...a clue has been left behind by one of the victims that proves to be an important piece of information in the search for the perpetrator of this hideous crime.

All of this is connected with a Cabinet of Curiosities (collections of items of historical and/or archeological interest, these predated museums like the New York Museum of Natural History...some of the items were genuine -- others contrived to bring in the public and their money) that was once located on the site. Pendegast and Kelly are almost immediately ejected from the site as the wealthy builders money buys his way to having the site cleared and back on track with their building schedule in a matter of hours, but not successfully covering up the discovery of the remains of what could be the work of the most prolific serial killer in American history. With a taste for this mystery and a piece of clothing (with a note inside) that Kelley and Smithback (Relic & Reliquary, her boyfriend in this book) manage to sneak in and retrieve the trio is well on their into a mystery that threatens to consume them all.

While I enjoyed much of Cabinet of Curiosities, it has a number of "sore" points for me and I find that much of what I don't like about this particular work can be laid squarely on the shoulders of one Agent Pendergast. As in his previous appearances, he is superior in every way to every one around him (richer, more refined, better dressed, more knowledgeable, and just slightly ahead of everyone else in piecing together the pieces of the puzzle). The authors certainly tried to make him more appealing this time out, personalizing and going into detail with his life and his past...but overall it falls flat and one is left with the feeling that none of the other characters is as marvelous or important as Pendergast...he's just too perfect. As a result of the attention given to Pendergast, interesting characters like Kelly and Smithback can only function on the periphery, as sidekicks or buffoons; I just felt that they weren't as well developed as they might have been if the authors didn't place so much importance on Pendergast.

My other major complaint with the book is that it drug on for 100-150 pages too long, well beyond the "reveal" and where (I felt) the authors has the opportunity to take the ending to a truly horrific and unique levels of mad scientist genius they didn't...they took a sharp right turn and ended in a way that really felt like a let down after all the effort that went into the build up. I would have liked to have seen something a bit more exciting (and unique), but that's just me.

Despite its flaws, Cabinet of Curiosities is quite a good read, It kept me up two nights in a row...just one more page, with eyes burning and me feeling desperately tired...I just had to read ONE more page! For me this was ALMOST as good as Relic (which was my favorite so far by Lincoln & Child), I love the descriptions of the museum and of New York (both the historical and contemporary descriptions) and the history of the Cabinets of Curiosities was quite delightful! I'll definitely be picking up more of their work in the future. I give this one a B+, I love Pendergast...but I feel that this character might be becoming a pet character for these authors and as such is bordering on becoming unreal (and annoyingly so)...he hasn't quite reached that point, but I could see it happening. So...overall, great late night reading with just the right mix of horror, thriller and a dash of science that's hard to put down! I'd recommend it in a heartbeat, especially if you liked their previous work. ( )

Disturbing, grisly and gothic - what more could you ask for in a thriller? Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child just keep delivering. I can't read enough of their books. ( )

Creepy ( )

This is by far the best book these two co-authors have written.

On the process of reading. Liking it so far. Witty and fast pacing. ( )

In an ancient tunnel underneath New York City a charnel House is discovered. Inside are 36 bodies - All murdered and mutilated more than a century ago. While FBI agent Pendergast investigate the old crimes, identical killing start to terrorize the city the nightmare as begun again. Fear the past. ( )

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 Five Points neighbourhood in the 1880s, bent on prolonging his life span by any means. When a newspaper story on the old murders appears to ignite a new series of horrifyingly similar killings, panic overtakes the city.
On the case are FBI Special Agent Pendergast - Southern, pale, refined, unorthodox, and possessed of a Holmes-like brain - and Dr Nora Kelly, an astute archaeologist at the New York Museum of Natural History. Together they embark on an investigation that will take them from the gleaming skyscrapers of midtown Manhattan to the crumbling archives of the Museum, from a mass grave under a Chinatown brownstone to a house of abominations on Riverside Drive. And as the death toll rises and the city descends into bedlam, the pair must use every resource available to track down the killer … before the killer gets to them. Not a very likely scenario, but enough twists and turns to keep you guessing almost until the end. Lincoln Preston is a pseudonym for Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. ( )

slow at first but once I got into it, I couldn't put it down, especially at the end. The Bill Smithback character got on my nerves. ( )

1st intro to Agent Pendergrast...great book & series ( )

Review by Jeremy Taylor

Since bursting onto the popular fiction scene in 1995 with the blockbuster thriller The Relic, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child have been wowing critics and readers alike with their combination of airtight suspensful prose and carefully executed research. The Cabinet of Curiosities is their seventh bestseller, and it delivers exactly what fans have come to expect.

Nora Kelly is a humble research scientist working at the New York Museum of Natural History (the same setting as The Relic). She wants nothing other than to be permitted to carry out her work in peace, unfettered by the beaurocratic niceties and political backstabbing that plague the administrative offices of that great institution. So when an FBI agent bursts uninvited into her office and asks her to come with him to observe an archeological crime scene, her world is turned upside down. Within hours Nora is sucked into a dangerous game of discovery related to a gruesome series of century-old murders. As Nora and Special Agent Pendergast uncover clue after clue pertaining to the unspeakable violence that haunted New York one hundred years earlier, they get closer and closer to realizing that this old evil is not yet dead. And when new bodies begin turning up, they find themselves pursuing a menace more terrible than they could have imagined. But are they the pursuers, or the prey?

Preston and Child have mastered the art of capturing readers’ interest from chapter one and keeping them riveted page after page. There is not a boring page between the two covers. If anything, the action is almost too intense. Halfway through the book it seems that the climax has arrived, and one wonders what can possibly happen for the remaining 200 pages. The answer is that the climax never peaks, and by the end, the reader feels an almost physical exhaustion—which, of course, is precisely what the authors intended.

Certain scenes describing the aftermath of violent crimes are a bit more gory than some might prefer, and one particularly gruesome sequence describes in chilling detail a criminal spinal surgery being performed on a live, unsedated patient. Such techniques go a long way toward portraying the depraved depths of the villain’s insanity, but they also lead to a disconcerting reading experience, to say the least.

Preston and Child are a somewhat unlikely pair. Douglas Preston is a teacher who used to work in a museum; Lincoln Child is a book editor with an affinity for collecting and publishing horror story anthologies. Each has published a number of books individually, but it is when they combine forces that the real magic happens.

Reading The Cabinet of Curiosities is very like watching a thrilling and fast-paced movie, only better. The authors manage to capture the excitement of a real-time visual experience while maintaining the ability to get inside characters’ heads that makes reading literature so much more rewarding than cinema. The plot is a bit far-fetched, without question, but the characters are just flawed enough to be convincing, and the relationships between them seem real.

This book is no literary masterpiece. It feels more like a graphic novel than an enduring classic. There are some inconsistencies in the story and in the character treatment, such as the description of the villain as a monster who wanted to “cure” the human race by eradicating it and yet somehow “didn’t care for the killing” he was forced to do in order to survive. Agent Pendergast has the unique and unexplained ability to go on mental journeys deep in his subconscience by imagining a chess game being played in his mind and then, in an altered state, uncover hidden solutions to puzzles and answer questions he couldn’t resolve while fully awake. But the book is refreshing in a way, because the villains are so evil, and the heroes are so opposed to the wickedness they are up against, that there is never any question of who is right and who is wrong. In an age where books that all but deify sin are hailed by many as works of art, a story about real good fighting real evil is a nice change.

The Cabinet of Curiosities is truly an engrossing book. It is named after the private collections of oddities and scientific baubles (along with a good many fakes) that served as quasi-sophisticated entertainment in the period of American history after freak shows and before real museums. The authors did their homework. They describe these “cabinets” and the people associated with them as if they actually had visited one. Their descriptions of the New York Museum of Natural History and the side streets and back alleys of New York City today and New York City of the late 1800s, along with their knowledge of medical procedures and terminology, lend a substancial degree of authenticity to their tale.

Douglas and Child do not write for the faint of heart or weak of stomach. This is an R-rated book. But if you don’t mind a little gore and are looking for a fast read with an exciting plot, realistic characters, suspenseful narrative, and a thriller of an ending beneath the streets of New York, this is the book for you. A word of caution before you begin reading: be prepared to be sitting in one place for a long time. And watch those dark corners after you’re finished.

(http://www.cerebralexchange.com/books...) ( )

FBI agent Pendergast, journalist Bill Smithback, and archaeologist Nora Kelly join forces to stop a vicious murderer when the discovery of an underground charnel house in downtown Manhattan reveals information about a serial killer who stalked the neighborhood in the 1880s and has apparently set off a new series of terrifyingly similar killings. ( )

Oh I loved this book. I didn't really know anything about real cabinets of curiousities so it was interesting to learn about them. I think this is my second favorite in the Pendergast series (after Relic) for it's well played out mystery and suspense as well as giving a bit more history into Pendergast and his family. ( )

This book scared the hell out of me. I can't wait to read the others in the Pendergast series. ( )

If you love a mystery, this is the book for you. Based on some of the characters from earlier books, this story mixes history and crime. ( )

Brilliant book, thrilling and spell binding ( )