The Cabinet of Curiosities

Infobox Book |
name = The Cabinet of Curiosities


author = Lincoln Child,
Douglas Preston
country = United States
language = English
genre = Thriller, Science fiction
publisher = Grand Central Publishing
release_date = 2002
media_type = Hardcover
pages = 565
isbn = ISBN 0-446-53022-0
preceded_by = Reliquary
followed_by = Still Life with Crows

"The Cabinet of Curiosities" {ISBN 0-446-53022-0} is a 2002 novel by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.

Plot summary

Dr. Nora Kelly's life as an archeologist at New York City's American Museum of Natural History becomes complicated when Dr. Aloysius X. L. Pendergast, a secretive and highly resourceful FBI Special Agent, convinces her to help him uncover the truth behind a string of brutal murders that appears to stretch back 130 years.

The adventure starts out with the discovery of a long-buried tunnel at a construction site in Manhattan containing the bodies of 36 young people. Kelly's assistance as archeologist is needed by Pendergast. But they are soon frustrated by countervailing forces who oppose their involvement:
*Roger C. Brisbane III: Museum's first Vice Director
*Anthony Fairhaven: Wealthy entrepreneur, owner of the development property. Fairhaven is a large contributor to the museum, and to the mayor's election campaign.
*The City of New York: The Mayor and the police exert every effort to stop Pendergast and Kelly's investigation.

In spite of efforts to thwart them, Pendergast and Kelly make some important discoveries at the construction site, especially the gruesome manner in which the victims were killed. This modus operandi appears to have triggered a modern-day copy-cat killer.

The Police Department, in spite of its intention to curtail Pendergast, has to appear helpful to the investigation, and supplies a liaison officer, Patrick Murphy O'Shaughnessy. To the department's chagrin O'Shaughnessy is much too helpful and becomes a boon to Pendergast and Kelly.

Pendergast, Kelly, and O'Shaughnessy are also helped by William Smithback, Jr., ambitious journalist and Kelly's boyfriend.

The murders continue, and they move closer in to the museum resulting in a horrific murder in the museum's basement archives, and a frightening chase after Kelly.

The investigation reveals a startling secret in the Pendergast family, a successful means of prolonging life, and a murderous obsession to achieve the eradication of the mankind 'disease'.

The story introduces the cabinet of curiosity (created by the killer Leng), and hints at something hidden in it, which is featured in the consecutive novels.