Rating: 
Summary: WHEW!!!
Review: What a book!!! I've been a Preston/Child fan for about 2 years now. The first book I read was Thunderhead. It WAS my favorite. I now put Cabinet at #1. I've read every Preston/Child collaboration except Mount Dragon, which I'm certain I will read someday.Agent Pendergast is my favorite character from these guys and to read a book where he was the main character, was a real treat. The suspense in this book was incredible. I can't believe I finished it already. No more Cabinet is not a good thing. Read this book!!! Read this book!!! Read this book!!! Adjectives for the book:
Creepy, cool, intense, suspensful, spooky, tight, gripping, gruesome at times, and then there's the stuff I don't have words for.
Rating:
Summary: A Very Good Read
Review: I, too, finished this book in two days. It's a very complex and interesting story. And the characters are great. A minor complaint it the authors' habit of using fifty cent words where two-bit words would do better. I disrupts the flow of the story at times. It didn't prevent me from enjoying the book, though.
Rating:
Summary: Sherlock Holmes aka Pendergast.
Review: This novel as well as their others weaves a pattern of the mysterious and startling. Each chapter weaves a separate pattern with Pendergast establishing the final form and shape. All other charaters revolve around Pendergast with Dr. Nora Kelly representing a modern female Dr. Watson. Well Done!
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Summary: They're back for more!
Review: How could a Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child novel rank fewer than five stars? In actuality, I would give all of their works somewhere around eight stars, any more than that being strictly for classics. However, these two authors are bound to write a classic one day, so it's only a matter of time. Back to "The Cabinet of Curiousities." I highly suggest you read "Relic", "Thunderhead," and possibly "Reliquary" before you read this novel (all available here at Amazon.com for your convenience!). This new novel ties in characters from those afore-mentioned: Special Agent Pendergast from the "Relic" duo; Nora Kelly from "Thunderhead"; and Bill Smithback (now William Smithback Jr.) from all three. This is an odd ensamble of characters, but it works out surprisingly well. The plot: A major tourist attraction in the late 1800's were the "Cabinets of Curiousities", a collection of rare--and mostly fake--artifacts from the world-over (think Ripley's Believe It or Not, only darker). One such cabinet is found in modern-day New York on a construction site...along with thirty-six corpses. In comes mysterious Agent Pendergast: pale, thin, intelligent, and all-together weird (and yet he's my favorite fictional hero). He rousts up archeologist Nora Kelly from her job at the New York Museum of Natural History, who has experience in rare digs (read "Thunderhead"). Before her examination of the site is over, a multi-millionaire construction guru destroys the site, as it stands in the way of his building. And the hunt begins to solve these hundred-year-old murders. Scientific details abound, as does the suspense when Kelly begins to realize that someone in the Musuem is working to keep any information of the corpses a secret. She asks her boyfriend Smithback (their relationship is rocky, to say the least) to aid her. If you are familiar with Smithback's character, you know he is a very flawed hero, and of course he ends up using his journalistic talents to make things worse for our heroine. But Kelly begins to uncover something, something that is so horrible that it is almost impossible to believe... And the killings start. They have the same M.O., and could be done by the previous killer...who, of course, is dead. The murders were a hundred years ago. He couldn't still be killing, could he? Pendergast thinks so, but his investigation into the new murders is in trouble right from the start. And to make matters worse, the killer has a list of victims...and Nora Kelly's name is at the top. An interesting surprise in this novel is the in-depth characterization of Pendergast, who has, until now, remained completely and utterly mysterious (he doesn't even have a first name!). But in this novel you get to know the man somewhat better, and it is a treat worth waiting for. That may seem like a complete summary of the book, but believe me, it is only the tip of the ice-berg. To view the rest (and what's left is by far the best), you must buy the book. And, since you're here, why not do it now? Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child's "The Cabinet of Curiousities" is a novel well-worth every penny you'll spend. It'll keep you up for hours and hours...even after you've turned the last page.
Rating:
Summary: Worth the wait
Review: I love the books by Preston and Child, and I have looked forward to this book coming out (heck, I even preordered it). I was not disappointed. It took a lot of cleverness to get Nora Kelly, Bill Smithback, and Agent Pendergast together for this one, but it worked. I like the way Preston and Child incorporate things that you know are far-fetched (the Museum monster from Relic, the radioactive sword from Riptide) and they make them soooo believable to where you start thinking HMMMMMMMM. I tell people if they like Michael Crichton they will like Preston and Child. This book gave insight into Agent Pendergast's personal life, which I found very enjoyable. A great read for the beach or anywhere for that matter.
Rating: 
Summary: Stay out of the Basement
Review: Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child like to mix science with spookiness in new and different ways. Starting back with 'Relic', where they often use hints of the occult and ancient evils to lure and entertain the reader, while the underlying mystery is really based on a weird but almost believable science. 'The Cabinet of Curiosities' is a bit less occult, and the science this time is up front and deadly, as a serial killer from New York Cities ancient past walks the streets again, taking lives to prolong his own. This novel reunites key characters from several of Preston and Child's most successful stories. Prendergast, the FBI agent from 'The Relic' and 'Reliquary,' Nora Kelly, the archeologist who sought to solve the mystery of her missing father in 'Thunderhead,' and William Smithback, the overbearing report in all three of the tales. Nora is curator at the New York Museum of Natural History struggling with a tiny budget and an unsympathetic management team. As well as the additional curse of having Smithback for a fiancée. Agent Prendergast appears and convinces Nora to help him survey a site recently discovered during construction. Despite resistance from the buildings owner Nora is introduced into the basement of what once was one of the city's famous 'cabinets' - exhibits of curiosities collected from around the world. What she finds is a 19th century chamber of horrors, the skeletal remains of 36 victims of a manic serial killer. Their heads cut off and the spinal chord dissected right out of their backs. Despite an intense effort at a cover up by the Museum's management and the builder, Nora and Prendergast manage to piece together the story of Enoch Leng, and eccentric but brilliant scientist who had a laboratory in the same building that the corpses were found in. He had long ago disappeared from sight. To all appearances, one of the United States most prolific killers was dead and gone. Until Bill Smithback takes Nora's story of the victims and publishes it without her permission. Suddenly the killings start to happen all over again. Is it a copycat, or does Enoch Leng still live? This is a story with no need of special effects. Instead, the reader is treated to the atmospherics of museum back rooms and eerie 19th century rooms full of the grotesque. The killer wears a bowler and sports a set of antique dissection knives. Always seeming to lurk in corners and shadows, he makes Jack the Ripper look like a fun loving womanizer. Prendergast is the Holmes like investigator who finds his own need for compulsive secrecy has endangered everyone around him. Nora Kelly is a tough intelligent woman who becomes more and more determined to solve the puzzle with him. And, I'm afraid, Bill Smithback continues to play the buffoon, who parlays a frustrated quest for an apartment with Nora into a near miss with a gruesome death. Some slight weakness at the end keeps this from being a perfect story but it does not miss by much. Despite the references to previous books, there should be no trouble picking this one up and reading it first. It gives nothing of its past away, and may very well inspire you to read some of the earlier tales.
Rating: 
Summary: Penny Dreadful
Review: At one place in the narrative, a character mentions seeing penny-dreadfuls on a table. Those Victorian one-cent horror novels have (d)evolved into this latest offering from Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Opening with the discovery of a century-old charnel, the book introduces familiar Preston-Child characters into a new landscape. The story departs from the fantastical science investigations we saw in Thunderhead and The Ice Limit, returning to the science-horror hybrid of The Relic and The Reliquary. Where this book falls flat in comparison is in the vast sections of mildewed Victoriana and the clunky ending. The authors join Thomas Harris in resurrecting Cicero's Memory Palace construct as a major plot device. Here, they wield Memory Palace alongside Hindu meditation techniques to result in what essentially amounts to large sections of time-travelling narrative from a main character. Major portions of the mystery are solved as SA Pendergast memory-palace-meditates himself back to the scene of the crime. It is here where the book begins to unravel. As more and more complex problems are resolved using contrived methods or elementary "Oh, I forgot to look in THAT file for the villain's address...." I grew really weary of the conclusion. What was a 5 star book is greatly diminished by the way the authors chose to tie things together.
Rating:
Summary: Definitely their best since Relic
Review: This book was so gruesome and often even upsetting I recommend that unless you are possessed of a strong stomach, do not pick it up. If you love horror, however, you will like this foray into twisted evil. If it doesn't shock you, you have become more jaded than Enoch Leng, the "villain" of the piece. Four stars instead of five because some occurrences seem too far-fetched, but if you're willing to suspend disbelief, you will find it a memorable read. I had to keep putting it down to prepare myself to take on the next creepy, dark and scary chapter.
Rating:
Summary: 7 TIMES A CHARM
Review: Well, Preston and Child are back again with book #7. It was a while for this book to come out, but I thought it was worth it. Again we are shown the seamy side of New York, through superb descriptions of crumbling buildings and dank, moldy basements. This story we are reintroduced to Pendergrast and Nora Kelly as well as Smithback the reporter, and they all have good chemistry.
That, I loved about this book, however the plot was not that believable and I figured out who the killer was halfway through. But did I not like this book? I loved it, these guys should be the primer for how an action book should be written, they don't dottle on with too much dialogue or unnecessary information. The descriptions of the past were top notch and the build up to the end was very well planned out. As always these guys never really leave any lose ends. And The Cabinet of Curiosities is no exception. Good book, I can't wait to read Lincoln Child's new solo book Utopia.
Rating:
Summary: Preston and Child once again deprive me of sleep!
Review: Douglas J. Preston and Lincoln Child have been consistently writing novels that keep me reading until the early hours of the morning. The Cabinet of Curiosities was along the same lines as their other works, seeing that I finished it at 2am! The writing style is easy to read and these two keep the action/surprises there mixed in with the brilliant details making their books almost impossible to put down! The Cabinet of Curiosities was a wonderful novel that brought great action and scientific details together to form a compelling story. The Characters of Nora Kelly, Bill Smithback and Agent Pendergast are back and they form a great trio that moves this book along at a great pace. The Novel has all of the great twists and turns that you come to expect from these two authors, and they are at the top of their game in this one. I would highly recommend this book and I would also recommend all of the other Preston Child books as they will not disappoint!
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