Review: The Cabinet of Dr. Leng

The Cabinet of Dr. Leng by Douglas Preston
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and Grand Central Publishing for the advanced copy as a gift. I really enjoyed the book! Here's my honest review:

I made clear after the last book that I felt it was one of the weakest entries in the series thus far. I found out later that it was meant to be the start of a new trilogy within the series (a trend in the long-running adventures of Pendergast - trilogies within the series are a regular thing), and amended my review to take that information into account.

This one knocked it out of the park. Absolutely loved it. It built on the history of the series, drew in concepts from one of my favorite books of all time, prior Pendergast story Cabinet of Curiosities, and really set up some new stakes.

It did end kind of abruptly, but that's normal for the second book in a trilogy, and one thing I'm really pleased about is how the authors didn't do what I expected at all. While one thing that happened was expected, there were so many things that went the opposite way I was thinking they would - especially the end. While I fully believe that the thing I thought would end this book will still happen in the second, I love that Preston and Child totally didn't take the obvious route to get there. And the surprises in store for long-time readers will be sure to shock and delight.

5 stars, and really makes me rethink my review of the last one in context of the trilogy. Highly recommended, but really, you need to have the context of the whole series. This is book 21, and you should also read Thunderhead between Reliquary and Cabinet of Curiosities.

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