As regular readers of my blog know, I’m a fan of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child’s novels featuring Special Agent Pendergast. When I got my new iPhone, I decided to test out iBooks by downloading the next book in the series, The Cabinet of Curiosities.
Like Relic and Reliquary, Cabinet is set in New York City, though the Museum of Natural History plays a somewhat reduced role in the story. While demolishing an old building to make way for a new skyscraper, workers discover a grisly collection of dismembered corpses dating from the 19th century. The find suggests the work of a serial killer and the crime becomes even more revolting when it seems to inspire the work of a modern copycat who stalks Pendergast and his friends Dr. Nora Kelly and William Smithback.
Although Cabinet was an enjoyable read overall, I didn’t like it as much as Relic or Reliquary. At times it seemed like the authors were relying too much on the grossout factor of vivid surgical descriptions and the ending of the book was rather unsatisfying. (SPOILER ALERT: The villain dies almost by accident after handling weapons that were coated in poison. This poison manages to transform him into a horror film monster with bloody sores, rotting flesh, and a withered eyeball within a matter of minutes.)
Also, William Smithback seemed Too Stupid To Live at some points. He knows that his girlfriend, Nora Kelly, is in hot water with her bosses at the museum, but his efforts to help her through his journalism only antagonize them even more. After Relic and Reliquary, Smithback really should have learned that his attempts to help people out through the papers usually don’t work out. Later on in the book, Smithback finds himself trapped in the killer’s house, largely because he didn’t believe Pendergast’s theory about who committed the crimes. Granted, the theory was outlandish, but given what Smithback saw in the other books, you’d think he might be a bit less skeptical.
In previous reviews of Pendergast books, I’ve commented that, at times, Pendergast can be something of a Mary Sue. Preston and Child have made efforts to fix that and the Pendergast of Cabinet isn’t as unbelievably perfect as he was in previous books.
I also find myself coming to dislike Preston and Child’s habit of endlessly shifting the point of view. Murder victims, policemen, and even the villain himself join the three main characters in sharing their POV with the reader. It’s just too much and the reader is often left scratching his head wondering why the story is suddenly being told from the point of view of some random cop who will never reappear.
I wouldn’t say that the Pendergast series has jumped the shark yet, but I find myself losing more and more enthusiasm with each passing book.
OVERALL GRADE: B
Codex Lochianus 