Fri 19 Jun 2009
Reviewed by Walter Albert: DOUGLAS PRESTON & LINCOLN CHILD – The Cabinet of Curiosities.
Posted by Steve under Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Reviews[3] Comments
DOUGLAS PRESTON & LINCOLN CHILD – The Cabinet of Curiosities. Grand Central Publishing, hardcover, June 2002; paperback: June 2003.
One in a series of novels by the co-authors, this features Pendergast, an enigmatic FBI agent, who is investigating old crimes that are suddenly made current by a series of murders in NYC that are either copycat killings or improbable crimes by the still surviving killer.
A newspaper reporter plays the role of the HIBK heroine (although he’s male), walking into situations that any sensible character would stay away from.
The bizarre nature of the crimes and the gradual unfolding of the killer’s identity and his rationale kept me reading but I ended the read with a feeling of dissatisfaction about the length of the book (629 pages) and lapses in narrative interest.
From Wikipedia: “Aloysius X. L. Pendergast, PhD is a fictional character appearing in novels by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. He first appeared as a supporting character in their first novel, Relic, and in its sequel Reliquary, before assuming the protagonist role in The Cabinet of Curiosities.”
Later novels:
Still Life with Crows (2003)
“The Diogenes Trilogy” —
Brimstone (2004) (Book One)
Dance of Death (2005) (Book Two)
The Book of the Dead (2006) (Book Three)
The Wheel of Darkness (2007)
Cemetery Dance (May 2009)
June 19th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
You certainly can’t call the Preston and Childs books detective stories in the purest sense, they are clearly thrillers, and pretty extravagant ones at that, but good fun and generally I don’t mind the length.
There’s a trilogy in the middle of the series, consisting of Brimstone, Dance of Death, and The Book of the Dead involving Pendergast’s battle to the death with his cruel and mad brother Diogenes. Brimstone has for a villain no one less than Wilkie Collins Count Fosco replete with pet mice in his waistcoat.
I think the best designation for the Pendergast books would be extravagant tales. There’s as much Sax Rohmer as there is classic detective story, and Pendergast is a throwback to Sherlock Holmes and Philo Vance distilled through the pulps and Gothic horror. Pendergast has almost as many traits of the Shadow or the Spider as Holmes or Vance, and realism is not a major concern of the two writers.
I find them grandly entertaining, especially the Holmes/Moriarity battle between the brothers, but admit that there are lapses along the way. Many characters reoccur from one book to the next, and the reporter in Cabinet features in the latest entry in the series. Pendergast’s Watson, New York policeman D’Acosta, goes back to Preston and Child’s first book Relic, and was played in the film by Tom Sizemore.
Pendergast’s escape from a maximum security federal prison in Book of the Dead is pure fantasy, but if you let yourself give over to it quite fun as are most of the books. I really don’t know if there is a word that encompasses what these books are, but they owe as much to books like Eugene Sue’s The Mysteries of Paris, Paul Feval’s Le Habits Noir novels, Gaston Leroux’s Phantom of the Opera and Routablle book, and the extravagant adventures of Arsene Lupin and even Doc Savage as they do to the detective story or police thriller.
One thing is certain, you don’t want to pick one of these up expecting a normal thriller about an FBI agent solving crimes. Compared to Pendergast Hercule Poirot is a police procedural. But if you know what you are getting going in these are a delight.
June 20th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
Well, gee. I’ve been doing my best to ignore the shelf at Borders that these Preston & Childs books are on. While Walter’s review was only luke warm, after reading your comments, David, there’s no getting around it. I’ll have to take a look the next time I’m there.
I say this just in case I end up buying one or two (or three), so everyone will know who’s to blame.
— Steve
February 14th, 2010 at 6:19 pm
[…] Comment: Previously reviewed by Walter on this blog: The Cabinet of Curiosities, 2002, Pendergast #3. […]