A Book Review: The Cabinet of Curiosities by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Cabinets of curiosities – Also known as “wonder rooms”, were small collections of extra-orindary objects which, like today's museum, attempted to categorize and tell stories about the wonders and oddities of the natural world.

Douglas Preston and Lincolon Child, these 2 authors' names should ring bells for lovers of crime thrillers and detective fictions. In 1995, this duo published their first collaborative work, Relic, an atmospheric, techno-thriller novel set in New York Museum of Natural History. Relic became an instant success and an international best-seller. Furthermore, Relic began a saga for one of the most memorable fictional detectives in the 21^th century, Aloysius X.L. Pendergast, a formidable FBI special agent.

Up to date, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child have written 15 thriller novels featuring the adventures of agent Pendergast. Readers around the world received all 15 novels positively. However, a quick search on Goodreads reveals that The Cabinet of Curiosities, the 3^rd book in the series, has the best rating out of all Agent Pendergast novels. In fact, The Cabinet of Curiosities currently scores a stunning 4.25 out of 5 stars on Goodreads, which is an unusually high score for a thriller novel.

At this point, I am going to jump ahead, and say The Cabinet of Curiosities deserves these high praises and the good reviews. In my time as a reader, I have yet to feast my imaginations upon a thriller novel that is more gripping, and more thrilling, than The Cabinet of Curiosities. Today, on Daniel's Corner Unlimited, I would like to provide a review for this mesmerizing novel.

Synopsis:

A construction site in downtown Manhattan unearthed a blood chilling discovery. Buried underneath New York's buzzing metropolis lay a charnel house. It stored 36 mutilated corpses belonging to victims who were murdered in the 19^th century. This is the biggest serial murder in US history, its grotesqueness is rivaled only by the horrendous legend of Jack the Ripper in England.

FBI special agent Pendergast expressed unusual interests in this ancient murder case. He circled this one century old crime scene as a winter wolf homing on its prey. Pendergast also enlisted the expert skills of a young archeologist, Dr. Kelly, to aid his private investigations. Yet, the reason behind Pendergast's interests in this 120 years old crime remains a mystery. Together, Pendergast and Dr. Kelly reconstructed the killer's bizarre modus operandi, while piecing together the killer's motive, a motive so ridiculous it is almost laughable: The murderer was trying to prolong his/her life.

Meanwhile, the public watched on at this 100 years old murder case with morbid fascinations. After all, the killings took place 120 years ago so the killer must be long dead. However, after journalist Bill Smithback published a newspaper article on the murder case, a new killing spree, fashioned after the old killings, suddenly sprouted on the city streets, sending New York into a mass hysteria and panic. At this desperate time, agent Pendergast must bend his formidable power at deduction to solving both the new and old murder cases by all means, lest Dr. Kelly, Bill Smithback, and Pendergast himself should also taste the cold, cutting edge descending from the killer's cruel knife...

My thoughts on this book:

Many books tell stories about serial killers, but very few of them tell a serial killer's story as gripping, creepy, and suspenseful as The Cabinet of Curiosities. While this may sound like an overstatement, but I can say with confidence, that after you have read this book, you will probably agree with at least half of my statement (that is, the creepy and suspenseful parts of it). Indeed, lovers of the thriller genre will adore The Cabinet of Curiosities. This novel blends elements from detective fictions, horror, and mystery, into a wonderful thriller that will glue a reader to his/her seat for the duration of its reading.

The Cabinet of Curiosities immerses its readers into a haunting tale, where a sense of sinisterness and dread, creeps, constantly, in the background of the story. When I was reading this book, my heart throbbed at the perils threatening to engulf the book's main characters. The story took surprising twists and turns, it had me guessing and sweating over the suspense hanging at the end of every chapter. In turn, the suspense kept me turning the pages. This book, is simply unputdownable. The best description that comes to my mind, is comparing this book to the classic psychological thriller film, Se7en. I hope this description will give you an idea for the type of reading experience you will get from this book.

However, The Cabinet of Curiosities is not a flawless novel. Despite its brilliance, this book does have some minor drawbacks. I do not wish to spoil the story, so let me just say, some parts of the story had deus ex machina moments. Yet, these small drawbacks did not diminish the excellence, or the entertainment value of this book.

This book casts its spotlight on Agent Pendergast. The authors gave this charismatic, but eccentric FBI special agent a portrayal worthy of Sherlock Holmes. In this book, Pendergast's intellectual prowess and deductive abilities were off the charts. Having said this, Pendergast was far from being god-like. In this book, he made mistakes and paid heavy prices for his errors. I think Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child did an excellent job at writing Pendergast's character, a character who is both memorable and believable at the same time.

An intriguing story needs a memorable hero, and an equally impressive villain. Especially, a villain whose prowess can match that of the hero's. In The Cabinets of Curiosities, agent Pendergast met his match. The villain in this book is just as formidable as Pendergast in every aspect. While the villain appeared quite early in the book, but the authors masterfully cloaked the villain's identity behind a shadow of mystery, only to be unveiled at the end of the book. Furthermore, the depiction for the villain is so horrifyingly vivid that it will surely send chills down your spine.

The Cabinet of Curiosities is a very well-written thriller. It may not be a perfect thriller, but it certainly ranks as one of the best in the genre. This book extracts the finest ingredients from detective fictions, horror, and mystery, rendering a fast-paced, suspenseful novel that will keep you turning the pages from the moment you open the book until you close it. I had a great time reading it, and I recommend this book to fans of (fictional) crime thrillers, especially to those who like having a horror twist in their crime thrillers.