The Cabinet of Dr. Leng

The Cabinet of Dr. LengParallel universes are at the heart of this multifaceted novel with several central characters from the two universes that the characters enter. Constance Greene is now back in 1880 reliving her life before flashing forward to the present. Flashing back to this time she hopes to stop the atrocities that were inflicted on her older sister, Mary and her brother, Joseph by a diabolical doctor named Enoch Leng. Since this take place in a different universe the author methodically and meticulously describe NY and many other locations in a vivid and authentic way allowing us to visit our city and places within New York that you might have forgotten and remember the lack of amenities and the difference in travel mode, traffic lights and dress as well as the way people spoke back then. The universe is unique and created including Constance as a younger woman although she was really born during this earlier time and was a victim of Dr. Leng that gave her an elixir that he tried on many others that were sent to his sanitarium and she was the one it worked on allowing him and Constance to be young forever. She hardly ages since Leng gave her the Elixir and prolongs her life and then hoping to save Mary and Joe in the past the authors introduce many new characters the first a Mr. Murphy who gets snagged as her driver and she plies him with money that keeps him happy, but he seems to enjoy the subterfuge and the danger. Mr. Mosley has access to the Jail where her brother is being kept and the scenes that follow when they break in are quite different than what you would see on a murder or mystery today. To blend into this life in the past Constance reinvented herself as a rich matron and the best scenes were with the director and Charles Tiffany himself as she brought valuable jewels to give to them for a huge price so that she’d have bank credit and money to throw around to get what she needed done and have people to help her achieve her goals. The jewels are remarkably and vividly explained and the final one will floor you when you picture the size, the perfect color and carat and cut and you will wish there were pictures of all of these valuable stones Then the authors flash to the present and the Museum of Natural History where there is some in a freezer that froze to death. When the police investigate and go into the freezer and have someone check out the lock and the security measures they realize that this man was murdered. Homicide and then Coldermoon has to deal with one with the Lakota Indian Tribe. Coldermoon is back and so is Pendergast depressed, lonely and upset hoping to fix the machine that tool Catherine back in time and wants to meet up with her but first he needs to send Coldermoon on his way to a new partner and new case with a different director. Meeting Dr. Leng is chilling as he asks about the patients or shall I say his victims and his diagnosis without even really caring about them leaves you to believe he’s heartless, diabolical and sadistic. His assessment for one young man definitely will destroy him. In the present Lieutenant Commander VincentD’ Agosta is handling the murder of the two of Eugene Mancow of the curator of the anthropology department. Thought to be well liked, no enemies and his field of study North American ethnology. Dr. Ivan Mussorgsky the chairman of the Mammalogy Department, agreed to create another door for the freezer because the police needed the original one to establish chain of custody. The manner of murder is questionable and the entire remembrance about the museum makes it come to life for D’Agosta. Looking at the emergency release in the door they realize it was tampered with. When looking closer they see something that confirms it’s homicide. Then D’Agosta get a frantic call from Mrs.Trask about Prendergast and his visit does not focus on the real issue instead he want’s information about the murder of the man in the freezer and he wants Proctor to go to Savannah to recover the machine Constance used to go back in time. Constance has employed the help of Mosley to rescue Joe from his cell and then hopefully get him to tutor him and provide a proper education and leave his job at Blackwell. The result will be to free the rest of her relatives and hopefully rid the world of Dr. Leng. Constance is called Livia or the Duchess of Ironclaw and no one knows her real identity.  Added in after Coldmoon is sent to handle the murder of a Lakota Indian his partner just wants to leave after Running is arrested but Coldmoon finds evidence to the contrary and wants to follow up on it given not much time by his boss. But an article in the paper brings to light the murder St the museum and he connects the middle of the curator to that of Twoeagle and the robbery of the original pipe bonding to Sitting Bull which he replicated and replaced the real one that was stolen but did the curator have something to do with the murder victim he was looking into? What about who might have killed him and what’s the timeline? As Constance has helped to wait and find her younger self hoping to take her to her mansion and safety but how will she desk with her young self? Constance at 9 was in awe of her surroundings but why did Joe feel not the same? Then her carriage collides with another and D’Agosta is going to meet Coldmoon about the Mancow murder and the murder on the Rosebud reservation. The interaction at with museum personnel brings to light information about sitting bull, the articles they have been given, and understanding why authentication processes, in this case, are vital to explain why Mancow was killed and what Two eagles did.Then we go back to Constance and Mrs.Flint and the Red Ball and why Constance is befriending her. The electrician in the present explains the machine and how intricate the mechanisms are and hopefully, it will work to help go back in time. Then who is the mysterious man who picked up a corpse and buried it oddly and why more? Add in the research and technology and this book has something for everyone. Then Constance decides to push the envelope even further by creating her views and perceptions of who should be invited to the ball and a shocking request to bring someone from the past to her present in 1880. As Dr.Leng enters the ballroom the interaction between him, and Constance seems unstrained, but both have their own thoughts she knows it is him does he realize who she is? Then Pendergast does something to unravel Vinnie and in the present, he rocks more than a boat. Leng is diabolical as you meet him in his lab and then hope to get hold of Constance and Joe. There is much more to come. See who winds up in the past. See who double-crossed or tries to double-cross Pendergast. What is the outcome and what is Mary’s fate? Will they return to the present? What’s next as the authors create an ending that will send chills all over you and fear in your heart until they pen the conclusion? What does Leng want, and will Constance comply? The ending leaves you filled with fear, trepidation and wondering that the authors have planned. Fran Lewis just reviews