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Even if this book was terrible, the subject matter was so interesting to me, that it still would have gotten an okay rating. Thing is, the book wasn't terrible, it was a pretty good book also. Agent Pendergast was an interesting character, a little too secretive to join my pantheon of favorite literary characters (John Corey, et al), but enough that I bought more of the Pendergast series to read more about him. My caveat here is that this book is the third in the series, so maybe we learned more about Pendergast in the first two books, or maybe not, I'll let you know after I read the first two. Anyway, in regards to this book, great plot, interesting subject matter, like I said, keeps you guessing about the identity of the "bad guy" til the end. A thoroughly well done book, if you ask me. ( )

Initially interesting becominging increasingly odd & fantastic. Rene Auberjonois made this a book worth listening to but ultimately it's pretty forgettable ( )

Initially interesting becominging increasingly odd & fantastic. Rene Auberjonois made this a book worth listening to but ultimately it's pretty forgettable ( )

The Cabinet of Curiosities is the third book in Preston & Child's Agent Pendergast series. It includes Dr. Nora Kelly, the archaeologist from their book, Thunderhead, which was published between Pendergast book 2, Reliquary, and this book. I had checked out an audio copy, but it was abridged. At least I could spare my chronic eyestrain by reading only the parts that were left out of the audio copy.

It takes a very long time for us to find out why Agent Pendergast is so interested when some bones are discovered under a construction site, but he gets Dr. Nora Kelly of the New York Museum of Natural History to look at them. They're balked from doing as much as Pendergast would like. Nora and her gentleman friend, reporter Bill Smithback, Jr., a reporter for 'The New York Times" manage to retrieve a green dress that has a note inside. That note is an important clue.

Those 36 bodies were the victims of a 19th Century serial killer, Dr. Enoch Lang. Smithback writes about the bodies when Dr. Kelly is given grief by an arrogant jerk named Roger C. Brisbane III, the museum's First Vice President & General Counsel. Then a tourist is murdered in the same way as those 19th century victims, followed by a young model. The public is more than a little upset.

A Sergeant Patrick Murphy O'Shaughnessy of the 7th precinct is assigned to be Pendergast's New York Police liaison (read, hinder the special agent), but O'Shaughnessy is an honorable man. He doesn't respect Captain Custer, but he comes to respect Pendergast.

The research is very interesting, as are the difficulties with the killer, who is dubbed 'the Surgeon'. There are plenty of dangerous situations for our four main characters that lead to really bad situations at the climax.

NOTES:

Section One: Boneyard

Chapter 5: See Thunderhead for how Kelly and Smithback met.

Chapter 8: A cyclorama can be a picture in the round viewed from inside. It can also be a curved scene as part of a set.

Section Two: Men of Science

Chapter 4: Reinhart Puck hasn't seen Agent Pendergast since 'the Troubles of '95'.

Chapter 5 has the text of an important 12-13 July 1881 letter from Shottum to McFadden.

Chapter 8 has the text of William Smithback, Jr.'s article about the discovery of the bones.

Chapter 12: We're told how Margo Green and Lieutenant D'Agosta are doing when Pendergast talks to Smithback.

Section Three: The Appointed Time

Chapter 2: The first present-day victim is autopsied.

Chapter 4: The second victim sees a man in a derby hat.

Chapter 6: Pendergast is attacked.

Chapter 10: Clara McFadden describes Enoch Leng.

Chapter 11: Pendergast uses his '...powerful mind game he had developed, an adaptation of Chongg Ran an ancient Bhutanese Buddhist meditation practice...' to visit J. C. Shottum's Cabinet of Natural Productions and Curiosities in 1881. He calls the technique a 'memory crossing'.

Chapter 12: The 'New York Post has dubbed the current serial killer 'the Surgeon'.

Chapter 13: Pendergast learns how Constance Greene, Mary Greene's little sister, made a living after Mary was murdered.

Section Four: Many Worm

Chapter 2: Nora Kelley rents an apartment Enoch Leng rented. She uses the alias 'Betsy Winchell'.

Chapter 3: Nora always carries the penknife her brother, Skip, gave to her for her 16th birthday. It helps her make a discovery in chapter 4.

Chapter 6: We learn what happened to Tinsbury McFadden after he disappeared.

Chapter 9 has some descriptions of Pendergast's apartment in the Dakota building.

Section Five: Horse's Tail

Chapter 1: America's first serial killer? Well, Dr. Leng's murders did take place earlier than H. H. Holmes' killings. There's some dispute about whether or not H. H. Holmes should be considered a serial killer, even though he did murder several people at different times.

Chapter 6: Pendergast consults Wren in the New York Public Library.

Chapter 8: Smithback, using the alias 'Maurice Fannin' and pretending to be from Human Resources, accesses old records at the Museum of Natural History.

Section Six: The Old Dark House

Chapter 1: Smithback looks at the old records he swiped.

Chapters 2, 4, and 6 are about a subplot of Captain Custer looking for the Surgeon.

Chapters 3 & 5: Part of the inside of 891 Riverside Drive is described.

Section Seven: All Those Dreadful Little Cuts

Chapter 1: Pendergast visits his Great-Aunt Cordelia.

Chapters 2, 4, & 6 are devoted to Captain Custer's case.

Chapter 7: Agent Pendergast's second name is 'Xingú. His third name is his great-great grandmother Constance's maiden name.

Section Eight: The Search

Chapters 2, 4, 6, & 8 are devoted to Captain Custer's case.

Chapter 5:

a. The crest over the door of 891 Riverside Drive has three apothecary balls over a sprig of hemlock.

b. Agent Pendergast and Dr. Kelly find a mummified corpse.

Chapter 7: We meet O'Shaughnessy again.

Section Nine: In the Dark

Chapter 1:

a. Pendergast has a memory crossing to his childhood home (since burned down), a former monastery, Maison de la Rochenoire mansion on Dauphine Street in New Orleans.

b. The subway massacre is probably a reference to book two, Reliquary.

c. The Pendergast family crest is a '... shield containing a lidless eye over two moons: one crescent, the other full, Below was a lion, couchant.'

d. Pendergast visits his family's necropolis during the memory crossing, Some ancestors are named and their livelihoods described. I am wondering how a mansion in New Orleans has a subterranean chamber. Is it in a part of the city that isn't below sea level? Shame on his great-great grandfather for having built a smaller and simpler tomb for his wife than for himself.

Chapter 3: Pendergast explains a few things to the Surgeon.

Chapters 5, 7, and 9 - 11 not only involve a life-or-death chase, they describe rooms underneath 891 Riverside Drive.

Chapter 13 takes us back to Custer, who has gotten no smarter since the last time he appeared.

Chapter 14 tells us what the Greek inscription carved into the escutcheon outside Leng's house means. We also learn what Leng's end plan was.

Epilogue Arcanum:

a. We learn why Anthony Fairhaven created the Little Arthur hospital for children with rare diseases.

b. Pendergast makes a reference to Poe's 'The Cask of Amontillado'.

b. There's a visit to Mary Greene and fellow victims' new grave #12 at Gates of Heaven Cemetery, where a little ceremony is held.

I enjoyed learning about Agent Pendergast's family background. The little hint that will lead to a revelation in a future volume (and a new supporting character) was also enjoyable. I think I need to read books one and two. ( )