Not exactly a genre buster but still an enjoyable mystery best devoured immediately after Bentley’s first effort.
A suspenseful thriller that weaves together journalistic research and fictional embellishments in a tale of a stolen religious artifact.
The priceless San Pedro cross, recovered by professional salvagers off the Bermuda coast, is stolen from the Bermuda Maritime Museum and replaced with an artfully crafted forgery. Anthony Fallon, one of the divers who originally discovered the cross, is made aware of its disappearance; a secretive group of Catholic cardinals is, as well, and its members pursue the artifact zealously for reasons that are initially obscure. After official investigations into the matter repeatedly come up empty, the matter seems closed; however, when Kat Alexander, Anthony’s diving partner, dies, an obituary photograph reveals that she’s wearing a necklace that may contain a special key—one that “opened a secret compartment in the historic Chair of St. Peter allowing access to the very first papal ring,” which belonged to St. Peter; it also may house the real cross. The church pressures Howard, Kat’s husband, to exhume her remains and retrieve the key. Meanwhile, Howard solicits Anthony’s aid in finding his daughter, Sarah, who’s lost at sea. Anthony agrees, despite their mutual dislike due to past romantic tension between Anthony and Kat. Both men wrestle with her loss while also trying to locate the real cross. This novel serves as a sequel to Bentley’s The Cross (2014), but its plot is self-sufficient enough to be read independently. That said, there are repeated references to pertinent events and relationships in the first book, so it may best be enjoyed in tandem with it. The author skillfully blends his meticulous investigative research into real-life Christian history with creative drama, turning an already fascinating story into a gripping mystery. The subplot concerning the Silenti, a cadre of furtive, conspiratorial priests apparently unrestrained by morality, is formulaic, even tired, and it’s one that will be all-too-familiar to readers of pulp thrillers; even the group’s name is saturated with melodrama. The book remains a fast-paced pleaser, though, delivering action and emotionally intelligent characterization.
Not exactly a genre buster but still an enjoyable mystery best devoured immediately after Bentley’s first effort.Pub Date: Dec. 17, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4602-8007-2
Page Count: 348
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Feb. 11, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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