The Cabinet of Curiosities: A Novel

The problem is most likely I've listened to all the subsequent Pendergast installments, then went back and listened to this one. If they'd been listened to in order, it would probably have been much better.

It was nice to hear from some old friends and discover how Pendergast met Nora. I was disappointed that Constance wasn't included in this book more. I had assumed that this book explained more of how they met and they discovered each other. But, it wasn't there. Is there another missing installment??

Anyway, I was "grossed-out" at some of the situations, but I still couldn't stop listening. It was really gruesome. Even more so than others of this series. I suppose I can take death.. but suffering bothers me.

I was worried about the narrator. This being the 3rd in this series, but Mr. Marosz did a fantastic job. I wouldn't hesitate to listen to his books again.

Yes, I'd recommend it to all die-hard P&C fans, but understand, it is disturbing!

When the Audible abridged version of this book was released in 2002, I was excited because I had read the print version and knew it to be a wonderful story. It is one of my favorite Pendergast novels. Really enjoyable due to the excellent narration of Rene Auberjonois. However, I knew it lacked somewhat because of the abridgement.

A lot of us were really disappointed that we had not been offered an unabridged version--but here it is. I was a little hesitant because they are using a new narrator, Jonathan Marosz. I went for it anyway, and am glad I did. He isn't Rene, but he does a good job of creating the individual voices, and I found his subtle affect very pleasing after I got used to it.

THE CABINET OF CURIOSITIES is so much fun to listen to because it is classic Pendergast. He blackmails, manipulates, and smooth talks his way through any situation. A continuous thorn in the side of the "authority figures" he is a true friend to the regular folks, and has a huge array of contacts he can call on when needed.

Pendergast is attempting to solve the mystery of 36 people who were murdered and buried about a hundred years ago--their bones were found when a new building site is being cleared in New York. We go back in time to the world of the 19th Century -where some made money by putting strange oddities on display - and calling them Cabinets of Curiosities. Some were real, but some were contrived to make the displays as gruesome as possible (like sewing two lamb heads on one body.) The murderer had his own Cabinet at the time, which he used for more than one purpose---

One disappointment--In this book there is no D'Agosta- who I kind of missed. Pendergast does enlist the aid of another New York policeman, however, and also an Archeologist from the New York Museum of Natural History. Both good characters!

A reporter, Bill Smithback, is writing a story about the murder victims-with details about how they were killed-- and soon afterward, current day murders start occurring which are so similar to the old one's, they could have been committed by the same person. Except, of course, there is no way he could be alive today-or could he?? This story weaves us back and forth through the past and present, as Pendergast attempts to solve the mystery. However, the method of these murders is so unique, that it is hard to believe this is a "copy cat killer." To say more would spoil the surprise--


Truly an enjoyable book. Edge of the seat type thriller. Very recommended!

The book had an interesting premise and Preston and Child were very good at keeping our FBI agent Pendergast as quirky and enigmatic as ever. I did not like Jonathan Morosz's reading. It sounded like reading, with little difference in voices and Pendergast's southern dialect really poorly done. But the most irksome part of listening to this book was the numerous miscues with editing. Whole sections were read twice, which would jolt me from the story every time.

I enjoy Dick Hill's performances. Scott Brick also comes to mind. Don't know who edits these, but definitely needed a better editor!

Although fairly predictable, I enjoyed the story.

Typical Pendergast, if you follow. New twists and turns. Historically intriguing. Our hero gets personally involved in this one. Nice to know our steely nerved stoic has a soft underbelly. For those of you who have not read any of this series before, there WILL be blood. It's not for the squeamish, but not overdone, and it is a good mystery.

I really enjoyed learning a little more about who Pendergast is and where he came from. His origins are still mysterious and I'm guessing more will be revealed over time. I found there was a nice balance of a focus on the individual story as well as some development of Pendergast as a character.

My favorite was O'Shannessy. Although he was somehow the only NYPD officer who had some common sense, I enjoyed his quick retorts and sense of humor. He was probably the only NYPD character that you could really like so perhaps I was cornered into it but gladly so.

I'm not sure what it was, but I wasn't a huge fan. He was not bad by any means, but he wasn't amazing. Books like these need a strong narrator, which the first two in the series had. This performance on it's own is good but compared to the first two it feel short.

A few others mentioned it but thought I would too. The editing in this book is poor. There were at least 5 occasions were a line was repeated. It often came at times where there was a long character narrative which really threw me off. I can forgive one or two, but it is a little frustrating to have half a dozen in there.

The story is enjoyable, and although being somewhat predictable, it's a good listen

HOWEVER multiple times during the book a line or two, or in once case almost half a paragraph is repeated - bad editting....

Makes me wonder if these repeats were left in, what did they take out instead.


Judi

This was my first taste of the Pendergast series, and won't be the last.
The tale starts out with a grim discovery of a mass murderer's graveyard, hidden beneath a construction site in New York. It's quickly covered up, but not before FBI agent Pendergast gets interested. The somewhat illusive character employs the help of several people to help him delve in to the mystery of the bone discovery.
From then on, it's a roller coaster ride of suspense, murder, intrigue, and horror. No one is safe in this book, and you find yourself saying 'oh no, this can't be happening!'. What a thriller this is, and guaranteed to keep the earbuds on.

This is suppose to be the third book in the series, but if you want, I believe you can skip it and I suggest you do skip it. It is a stand alone book, so reading the previous two is not necessary, but since they are better then this by far, you should read the first two (Relic and Reliquary). This is advertised as being another under the city of New York book, but that has very little to do with the book. It is mostly a Mad Scientist type book.

Included in the book is a putting down of the NYPD. Either Child or Preston must have gotten a parking ticket that upset them, as they do all they can to make the NYPD look like a bumbling bunch of fools. The many segments about the NYPD, not only was a put down, but did not really have much to do with the story. The mundane detailed descriptions of the cops and there administration, just made the story longer and more boring. If I want to read about cops, I will buy a book about cops, it is not like there are not a million of them out there. I go to Preston and Child for Thrilling off the wall type stories. I already have the next three books in this series in my audible library and book 7 on CD. I hope this is not what I am going to be hearing.

We also learn a lot more about Pendergas in this book. Why he does not wear a cape and a mask I don't know. The parts about Pendergas veer into comic book stuff. He is slender, but muscular. He plays chess and bridge in his head. He never plays bridge with real people as they can not come close to beating him. He is his only real challenge. I am not making that up, that is word for word what they said. When being operated on, he will not let them put him under. He needs his brain to stay alert. In another part of the book, he operates on himself. One way he solves the crime, is by traveling back in time in his brain, back to before he was born. It was never explained how he did that. In his head he goes back in time and walks streets and goes into homes he has never been in before and he watches events happen, that he has never witness before. He also speaks Mandarin and Cantonese.

The book does have some good moments. With all P&C novels you get some history. Did you know that in 1871 there were 28,000 homeless children in NYC?

Top 10

The Relic, the Reliquary... also H.P. Lovecraft's "The Terrible old Man": of the mysterious old man with a terrible power for murder, & "The Shunned House": with it's long family history of strange happenings and deaths, & "the Hound": with it's horrific collection of strange things and the terrible fate of the collectors. But maybe Lovecrft's "Herbert West-Reanimator" with it's gruesome surgery/magic and underground tunnels and horrific out comes.

Special Agent Aloysius X. L. Pendergast; he is the Elric of Melnibone of the F. B. I. - in this tale he becomes more pale (nearly albino), more strangely alien, and wizard-like. The story passes from a New York dectetive noir story and veers towards becoming a sword and sorcery adventure. Quite exciting, and very twisted! Pendergast is revealed to be even stranger than thought, with some VERY strange family, and he's becoming less human and more like Elric with each book.

Yes, however... it was too long to get it all in...it's a wonderfully twisted tale that gets weirder and more twisted the more you hear...and yet retains it's brilliant wit and it's ever so smart human questions on "just really what would you do if..."

These horror/crime stories reach nearly insane Lovecraftian madness, but, unlike Lovecraft, Preston saves us from falling into insanity with a hero of such power as to match the terror & alien-other-ness of the weird-crimes echoing ghostly step for step. I thrill to these books with their very creepy "Tales from the Crypt" pre-code grotesque and chilling violence. But most of all, what these are really about is that I love the ultimate X-files investigator - the one man who could face such mind-bending horrors and win - our hero: Special Agent Aloysius X. L. Pendergast. The more I read and discover about him, the more questions there are about his shadowy past, and the stranger he becomes, but the more heroic and awesome. He's one of the all time great anti-heroes. He is Sherlock Holmes & Elric of Melnibone & Carl Kolchak & Bela Lugosi (as a southern gentleman) all transmogrified together into a dreadfully delicious tall, black-clad, ice-cold, albino Vincent Price of a man: Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast.

I liked this narrator better than the one that read the 1st 2. And they removed that echo-ey thing when people thought that was a little odd.
The Audible order for series is not quite right: this is listed as #3, but I think there's another before this, because they keep referring to a dig in Utah.
There is an odd thing where occasionally a sentence or 2 is repeated. Was the narration read to have commercials inserted?
My only criticism with the writing is the some adjectives are over-used and some character types are too stereotyped. You know who is going to die because they are the morally bankrupt characters.