If you haven’t read part one of my review of eleven of their books, here it is.
I took about a month long break from the Preston and Child books and resumed my acquaintance with their characters in The Cabinet of Curiosities. Up until this point only vague teasers have been given the reader about the mysterious FBI agent, Aloysius Pendergast. In this story we get to learn a horrific and diabolical secret about his family. On the historic side, we are taken into the heyday of the age of “cabinets of curiosities”. Something I never realized was that there were such things as cabinets and they were just small cupboards. The cabinets were the advent of today’s museums. They were more often on the sensationalist side, filled with more hoakum then educational artifacts. Yet, there were some that were more serious and these gave birth to our museums. However, the Cabinet of Curiosities that Special Agent Pendergast, Nora Kelly, and William Smithback are drawn into holds horrors beyond belief.
I’m giving this book more than just one paragraph because it was by far my favorite. It is fascinating and terribly terrifying at the same time. The authors did a great job of drawing me into the shadows and I really tried not to tear through it so fast. I was also drawn into the lives of the characters again.
I almost needed a short breather after Cabinet of Curiosities, but I really wanted to find out what was next for my favorites characters. Still Life With Crows was next and it threw me off in two ways; it opened with a horrible, ritualistic murder, and only Pendergast was present. I was a bit bitter that there was no Smithback to nose around for a story, no Nora, or Margo Green, and my favorite police detective D’Agosta was absent as well. That disappointment vanished with the introduction of Corrie Swanson; a goth/punk girl who is completely out of place in the small, cornfield town of Medicine Creek, Kansas. Pendergast is in need of a vacation and for some reason he’s drifted to Medicine Creek and seemingly stumbles upon a murder that the local police force is hardly equipped to handle.
By now, Pendergast is showing how much of a team player he is not and we start to see that as perfect as he appears, there are some flaws. It’s these flaws, these cracks in his ever-so-perfect facade that are explored and torn open in the trilogy of books that center around a character known as Diogenes. Just as Sherlock Holmes had Moriarity, Pendergast has Diogenes.
In Brimstone, Diogenes is only hinted at while Pendergast and D’Agosta investigate a series of murders in which it appears the killer is the Devil. Their investigation takes them from a mansion on Long Island to Florence, Italy. Smithback is nowhere to be seen, but we learn more about Bill’s arch-rival, Bryce Harriman. He stays in New York to cover the unfolding story of the Apocolypse while in Italy we are introduced to the beautiful Viola Maskelene. The story ends with a hell of a cliff-hanger and within minutes I was starting on book two of the Diogenes Trilogy, Dance of Death.
Dance of Death brings Diogenes to full light. This story centers around January 28th, the date in which Diogenes will bring about his “most perfect crime” and destroy, ultimately, Pendergast. It is a match of wits and in trying to prevent Diogenes from completing his plans, Pendergast’s life is being torn apart. Pendergast’s good friend, Vincent D’Agosta, is with him every step of the way; jeopardizing a budding relationship and his own life.
With the beginning of The Book of the Dead, we’re hoping that Diogenes is gone, but that’s not the case. Diogenes shows his genius and his madness by returning in his efforts to finish what he started. In this story a fantastic tomb, long ago sealed up in the depths of the New York Museum of Natural History, is opened up and prepared for a huge gala. All our favorites, Smithback, Nora Kelly, D’Agosta are back along with a few other favorites. Pendergast’s darkest secrets come out and we learn more about Pendergast’s strange and beautiful ward, Constance. Eli Glinn, from The Ice Limit, returns as well. The action does not stop and does a wonderful job of tying up the entire trilogy. Thankfully, this is not the last book for Preston and Child.
I really hope that Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child continue their collaboration. I love the world they’ve created and am loathe to leave it behind. Although, I do have James Rollins’ books to read. That’s a whole ‘nother review, though.
Tags: Amazon, books, horror, Preston And Child
