Book Review: The Cabinet of Dr. Leng (Aloysius Pendergast, #21) by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

The Cabinet of Dr. Leng (Aloysius Pendergast, #21) by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child was published on January 17, 2023 by Grand Central Publishing.  It tells the story of how Constance has found a way back to 1880 and is on a quest to save her sister and brother from a certain fate.  In the present day, Pendergast is searching for a way to reunite with Constance.

I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for free in exchange for my honest review.  I was thrilled to be given this chance as I've heard such great things about the writings of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.  However, I wasn't aware that it was the twenty-first book in a series until after I started reading it.

Well written, engaging, and entertaining are a few words that describe The Cabinet of Dr. Leng by Preston and Child.  I really enjoyed reading this story and was glad that I was finally able to read something by these authors.  I will definitely go back to the beginning of the series and work my way through the twenty other books that preceded this edition at some point in time.

However, this is not a book that can be read as a stand alone.  I was a bit confused when I started reading it because I felt like I was plopped right in the middle of a book, and I had no idea what was going on at first.  It took a few chapters to be given a synopsis of what had happened in previous books in the series.  Then, as the book was coming to a conclusion, I was expecting it to be wrapped up in a bow, but it wasn't . . . at least not entirely because there is a cliffhanger, and I really hate cliffhangers.

There was an authors' note at the end of the story that basically said that The Cabinet of Dr. Leng was just one book of a four book arc that basically picks up where the last one ended and ends in a cliffhanger.  Preston and Child apologized for this and stated that they were working as fast as they could on the next book.

Because The Cabinet of Dr. Leng (Aloysius Pendergast, #21) by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child picked up where the last book ended without giving a reader any context of the previous book and ended in a cliffhanger, I could only give the story three out of five stars.  Had this not been the case, it would have been five stars.  Fans of this series will likely be in love with this story regardless.  With that being said, if you haven't read any of the other books in the series, you should at least start a few books back to have some context for this one.  I look forward to reading other books by these authors.

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