Allreaders.com
Author Douglas J. Preston and Lincoln Child booklist (click here)

Book Review By James S Turner
The Cabinet of Curiosities by Douglas J. Preston and Lincoln Child

    Before there were museums in New York, there were personal oddities put on display by private collectors, these displays were called cabinets of curiosities. When a construction crew uncovers 36 bodies, all with parts of there spine removed, burried in the basement of what was once a cabinet of curiosity display 130 years ago, it draws the interest of special agent Pendergast, who with archaeologist Nora Kelly, discover that Enoch Leng, in the late 1800's used the missing spinal parts in an attempt to produce an elixer enabling him to prolong his life.
    Shortly after an article in the paper appeared, discribing the murders and the theory behind them, new murder victems, all killed in the same fashion as those first discovered, start appearing.
    While the police are searching for a copy cat killer, Agent pendergast and Nora Kelly, convinced the key to the new murders lay burried in the past, try and find out as much about the mysterious Enoch Leng and his work as they can in order to determine if these new murders are the work of a copy cat killer or the work of Leng himself.


Plot & Themes
Tone of story - suspenseful (sophisticated fear)
How difficult to spot villain? - Difficult, but some clues given
Time/era of story:
Misc. Murder Plotlets - solving long-past murder
What % of story relates directly to the mystery, not the subplot? - 90%
Special suspect? - chronically deranged person
Kind of investigator
Kid or adult book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
descript. of violence and chases - 40 %
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 40 %
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 10 %
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 10 %
Crime Thriller Yes
Murder Mystery (killer unknown) Yes

Main Character
Gender - Male
Profession/status:
Age: - 20's-30's
Unusual characteristics:

Main Adversary
How sensitive is this character?
Sense of humor - Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters

Setting
City? Yes
City: - New York

Writing Style
Accounts of torture and death? - very gorey references to deaths/dead bodies and torture
Unusual forms of death - perforation--swords/knives
Unusual form of death? Yes
Amount of dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
Back To Main Menu