The Cabinet of Curiosities: Difference between revisions

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When a construction crew unearths an old coal tunnel, thirty-six bodies of young men and women killed over a century ago are uncovered. While the developers and police dismiss it as irrelevant and ancient history, Agent Pendergast takes an interest, enlisting the help of Dr. Nora Kelly to discover the origin of these horribly mutilated corpses. Their investigations take them into the amazing world of Cabinets of Curiosities, the origins of The New York Museum of Natural History, and the story of what is possibly New York's first serial killer. But all the while something is lurking in the shadows, and someone is killing people with the same horrible, surgical precision of 130 years ago.

 

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* [[Apocalyptic Log]]: Shottum's letter detailing his last days and his horrible discoveries.

* [[Bavarian Fire Drill]]: Smithback does this to get in to the museum's personnel archives. He tries it on Fairhaven, but that man knows how to deal with Smithback.

* [[Freudian Excuse]]: {{spoiler|Fairhaven becomes obsessed with immortality as a result of watching his older brother die a horrible death from old age at ''sixteen'' thanks to progeria.}}

* [[Hot Scientist]]: The cops questioning Nora perk up and try to be suave with her when they are shocked to see a rather attractive young woman after the stream of "geek" types they've been interviewing.

* [[Immortality Immorality]]: Pendergast is given the reasoning that the immortality formula can only lead to disaster. If it is held by the few privileged, the masses would eventually revolt in demanding it's wide availability. If it is widely available, it would lead directly to overpopulation. In either scenario, the potential for horrible people to gain extra decades and even centuries to ply their evil is unacceptable.

* [[Jack the Ripoff]]: The modern murders are pegged as copycat killings of the original 1880s murders.

* [[Officer O'Hara]]: NYPD officer Patrick "Paddy" O'Shaughnessey, who is described as having "probably the most Irish name in New York." The book then goes on to subvert the trope at every turn, making him a boon to the investigation, a guy with a standard New York accent, and a lover of opera.

* [[Perfect Poison]]: {{spoiler|What Leng was truly in search of, and in enough quantities to wipe out humanity.}}

* [[Police Are Useless]]: Custer is a prime example.

* [[Poisoned Weapons]]: {{spoiler|One of Leng's ideas to disperse his poisons to the human race. It's what kills Fairhaven.}}

* [[Room Full of Crazy]]: Or, more accurately, house full of crazy in {{spoiler|the extensive personal collections of Leng left in his mansion on Riverside Drive.}}

* [[Serial Killer]]: The Surgeon and Dr. Enoch Leng.

* [[So You Want to Live Forever]]: Leng's goal, {{spoiler|but only a means to an ends for him. Fairhaiven plays the trope straight, looking for immortality out of a terrible fear of death.}}

* [[Turn in Your Badge]]: O'Shaughnessey is placed on administrative leave pending an investigation into his conduct. He figures this is just a fancy way to fire him.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Thriller Literature]]

[[Category:Horror Literature]]

[[Category:The Cabinet of Curiosities]]

[[Category:Literature]]