Reviewed By: Jeff Kreider - RAM
The Cabinet of Curiosities
Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Douglas Preston
, Lincoln Child
Class/Genre: Mystery Fantasy Thriller Serial Killer
Series: Special Agent Pendergast
…
Special Agent Pendergast is back in Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's CABINET OF CURIOSITIES (Relic and Reliquary) along with Bill Smithback (Relic, Reliquary, and Thunderhead) and Nora Kelly (Thunderhead). Nora and Smithback are in New York and seeing each other. Special Agent Pendergast asks Nora to look into construction site that has unearthed 36 bodies, murdered, dismembered, and hidden a little over 100 years ago. The site used to be what was called a "cabinet of curiosities" a precursor to "museums". These bodies, are the earliest and biggest number in what appears to be a string gruesome murders that continued for some years and then stopped. Now, identical murders are occurring prompting police to believe there is a copycat serial killer on the loose, but Pendergast thinks it just might be the same guy. These authors have produced a string of medical/techno/speculative thrillers for a number of years and this is their seventh novel together. I've enjoyed every one of them. This one, however, didn't quite have the same "pizzazz" the others did. And I'm not sure what it was. Maybe I couldn't believe that Nora would get mixed up with a sleaze like Smithback. Maybe the suspense was too drawn out (there were times when I felt like shouting, "ALRIGHT, ALREADY! Let the shoe drop!" There were a number of perspectives going on at the same time and they circled around to each of them, leaving us in a series quasi-cliffhangers for the duration. I don't remember them doing that before. Maybe it was Pendergast, who always was quite an intriguing character, seemed almost supernatural this time in his powers of observation and intuition. I'm not sure.
There was some really good stuff in there, though. The historical basis for museum, and how comparatively recent that was. We got to know a bit more about Pendergast and his family and what drives him.
Jeff Kreider - RAM
Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Jeff Kreider - RAM
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