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Summary: Another Great Book
Review: Excellent Book!! Why say more
Rating: 
Summary: Another page-turner
Review: I was first introduced to Lincoln Child and Douglas Preston with "The Ice Limit," which was absolutely FANtastic! (Sooo... when's the sequel coming??) I then read their "Riptide," which was also good. And now this one, which is just plain fun to read. This just begs for a movie version; if done correctly, it could be a VERY scary flick. Heck! The BOOK was scary enough! This was suspenseful.So why did I give it just four stars? Well, the ending, while tense and frightening, was sort of a let-down. I expected a far better climax to a great buildup. Like they gave us all in "The Ice Limit." Pick this one up and have a fun read, despite a somewhat disappointing ending.
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Summary: Chilling "Cabinet of Curiosities"
Review: Entertainment is the primary purpose of any piece of fiction. Persons stick with a story because it entertains them. It is an escape from reality, a journey through someone else's life. It is adventure and mystery, joy and sorrow, the full spectrum of life brought to light. Fiction, good fiction, is fun. Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child accomplished this handily in "The Cabinet of Curiosities." For anyone interested in understanding the basic techniques of writing fiction, "The Cabinet of Curiosities" is a novel worth studying. The authors handle all the aspects of storytelling in a passable fashion. Dialogue is smooth and realistic. Characterization is believable. The plot, presented in a straightforward fashion, is handled cleanly and smoothly.
Characters are the key element to creating an entertaining story. Without characters that feel as if they are alive, struggling through one conflict after another, then all the other aspects of the story fall flat. All the chase scenes, explosions and epic battles mean nothing if the characters are lifeless. Fortunately, "The Cabinet of Curiosities" is populated with a cast of characters that come to life who not only act in a believable fashion, but speak with distinct, unique voices. Ranging from O'Shaughnessy, a down-on-his-luck Irish cop with a penchant for opera to the mysterious Special Agent Pendergrast, each character is memorable long after the final page is turned. These characters stand out all the more because this novel is not a delightful character sketch. This book is a present-day, gothic murder mystery. It has a plot that is driven by actions. Even during the infrequent flashbacks, the characters are directly involved. The characterization comes about as an interpretation of the actions that the characters take and the words that they characters use. Told from a limited third person point of view, there is rarely any confusion over who is speaking and through whose eyes a given scene is seen. Each character has their unique voice as they think and talk. These are delicate touches that are carried off in a deft manner. "The Cabinet of Curiosities" is a finely crafted, gripping novel of suspense. Stretching back to the 18th century, this novel explores the darkest side of human nature.
Rating: 
Summary: Somewhat tedious...
Review: I am always suspicious of books that are written by two people and having read these authors for the first time, my opinion has not changed. This book gets off to a very good start and is merrily rolling along when it starts to bog down in historical back ground. From that point on it has it's moments, but I found the going somewhat uninteresting and by the time I had waded to the end, only to have the authors explain to me what I had read I was more than a bit tired of the entire matter. I found that character development was uneven and sometimes contrary. I had expected to recommend this book based upon the early chapters, but having seen it through, I suspect you may have better ways to spend your time (and money).
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Summary: Maggie
Review: Yes, I really liked this book. While similar in topic (serial killers) the actual meat of the book-"what exactly was the killer up to?" kept me thinking long after I finished the last page. Not very often that I can read a book, and have the ending, the discovery of what the killer was trying to achieve make me think.
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Summary: Awesome thriller, begining to end!
Review: From the time I picked it up, till the time I put it down, I was fascinated by it. It was a great book. I ate it up in fact. With all kinds of plot twists, sub-plots, and other things, this book takes the cake. I found Pendergast, not too intelligant, but extremely well educated. He was very enigmatic, heck, you don't even find out his first name! Nora seemed a little in and a little out. At the end it will surprise you. This is definitly worth every penny, and every second spent on it.
Rating:
Summary: Middle of the pack
Review: As serial-killer stories go, this one was decent and often imaginative, but never quite adds up to "great". I appreciate that Preston and Child finally veered away from their adventure expedition formula (which I was getting tired of), but I wish they had just taken a little more time and care with this one. I get the sense it was rushed. They have a great historical hook with the curiosity cabinets, which I found absolutely fascinating, yet the story never gels into something special. The ending was a big disappointment filled with all sorts of exposition aimed at explaining everything we just read. I always take as a bad sign. It means the authors didn't do their homework on the plot, and didn't take the time to make sure the information came out during the course of the book. Instead, they just dump it all into the last several pages. So, once again, we're left with a book that isn't as good as RELIC (though this one could've been -- really! -- had they just taken a little more care and time).
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Summary: Loved it!
Review: I finished the book in four days and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was glad that the authors brought back Pendergast since I really like his character. Hopefully they'll bring him back for another book. I figured out who the killer was pretty early on but that didn't take away from the book in anyway and I found myself flying through. I recomend it to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: Thrilling Throughout
Review: Interest in THE CABINET OF CURIOSITIES began when I saw the cover and learned from the dust jacket that the setting was the New York Museum of Natural History. There's something magnetic about dark chambers and corridors winding deep into the guts of a building devoted to the past and holding mysteries and secrets about civilization. An excavation for repair and upgrade of an apartment building begins innocently enough until the skeletons of 36 people are uncovered. Once Nora Kelly, the museum's archaeologist and enigmatic Special Agent Pendergast become involved and identify the bones as the dismembered remains of murder victims from the 1800's, the bait was cast and I was hooked. This is the type of story with scenes that could be told around a campfire on a cool dark night deep in the woods. Each scene is frightening, slowly building in intensity, and leading to the story's ultimate climax. The mystery of the past is explained within the context of the present. The characters are delineated through vivid description of their physical traits and behavior, scintillating dialogue and insight into their thought processes. Each character has a well-developed personality creating strong reactions in the reader. In short, I became emotionally involved in the story and its characters. If you enjoy action-adventure mysteries that require exploration of the past to make sense of the present, you'll thoroughly enjoy this thriller.
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Summary: Characters repeatedly take stupid pills
Review: I have been a fan of Preston and Child for quite a while now, beginning with the incredible "Relic", and I have enjoyed all their past efforts. But this book seems to go off the rails very early on and never quite find its' way back on track. The plot reminded me "The Alienist" with the late 1800's scenes of murder in the Five Points section of Manhattan. Which was fine, those scenes were interesting. Put the characters, nearly all of which are returning (Pendergast, Nora Kelly, Bill Smithback) seem to completely forget they are in any danger at times when it is convenient to the plot. It is very frustrating and I found myself talking to the book the way you would yell at the screen during a slasher film. Also they seem to have had personality changes since their last outings, Smithback imparticular. This kept taking me out of the book and made finishing it a chore.
I also have a hard time with the villain and how he came across the secrets in the museum archives. It is not explained at all and I find it hard to believe that he alone would figure this out and then go completely off his nut. And while I understand Pendergast is a highly educated man, the constant use of 50 dollar words, allusions to unknown classic art, literature, music, architectural style, etc got VERY annoying in some chapters especially when the other characters seemed to understand these Dennis Miller style references (although they really shouldn't have based on their past experiences) but no help at all is given to the reader. It felt very much that the authors were talking down to the reader, and that is not the way to hold a reader to the end. The novel redeems itself a bit at the end if only by throwing a couple of plot twists that make things interesting, though not at all logical. All in all, not their best work. They should stick to the adventure expeditions and leave NY serial killing to Caleb Carr.
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