The Cabinet of Curiosities

The Cabinet of Curiosities by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child is the third in the Pendergast Series. I haven't read the previous two novels but they are on my list now.

I was chatting with a guy on the bus yesterday, he was reading a different Douglas Preston novel, and he said that this was the weaskest in the series. If that is truly the case than I am in for a treat.

The only thing I was having trouble with was that I couldn't read as fast as my curiosity. So I found myself looking through pages in the book to see if certain characters survived or not. Yep, that's cheating. But there is so much detail in the story that I did find myself wanting to get through it and skip the details just so I can find out who done it and why and who survived.

The story is about a serial killer in the turn of the 19th century. His crimes are unearthed at a construction site in New York. After breaking the story in the Times the city is suddenly faced with a copy cat serial killer. Will Agent Pendergast be able to solve the crime before another murder takes place? Will the NYPD? And what do all these murders have to do with the Museum of Natural History?

The museum is the next evolutionary step in what used to be Cabinet of Curiosities. People started private collections of nature and natural phenomenon. Those collections would sometimes go on view to the public. But as the world moved forward the Cabinets became less popular. And the Museum of Natural History inherited many of these collections. Strange skeletons, mason jars filled with unusual creatures, gem stones, dinosaur fossils, shrunken heads, elephant feet. You name it, the Cabinets had them.

Overall this was a well written and fun read. And I look forward to more of their books.