Da Vinci Code fans will be mildly intrigued.
A globe-trotting, perspective-shifting thriller filled with conspiracy theories and secret societies.
When the novel opens, the daughter of noted neurosurgeon Maurice Bergman is in a coma: She was poisoned at an archaeological dig site near Sidon, Lebanon, where Joseph, the father of Jesus, purportedly rests. Her father must take her to Rome in order to cure her. Once there, she’s given a drug that magically wakes her, and she’s able to explain to her father what occurred: She stumbled on the bones of St. Joseph, and an angel appeared to her in the guise of her dead mother to give her some kind of a fertility doll. Elsewhere, two men who were hired to fetch the statue of the Virgin are now explaining themselves not to the priest who hired them, but to a third party; the exact mechanics of their criminal endeavors remain murky throughout the novel. Also involved are an Austrian professor of Egyptian antiquities named Ernst Von Biden and an American investigative reporter, Marvin Challet, who seem to be representing the interests of the Catholic Church. Narrative focus switches between these groups from chapter to chapter, further complicating an already bewildering story. Inconsistencies and questions abound, even beside the credulity-straining Gnostic plot. For example, if this girl is so ill, why is she in her father’s house and not in the hospital? Even the best neurosurgeons don’t have access to the necessary level of machinery and medication at home. Furthermore, it’s difficult to swallow that a father fearing for his daughter’s life would automatically take the word of a stranger who calls to inform him about his daughter’s poisoning and who further insists that the treatment for this condition is available only in Rome. Even if that were true, logic dictates that it’s much easier to send medication than to bring a girl in a coma overseas. Indeed, none of the medical aspects of the novel can be looked at too closely. Punctuation errors, usually involving commas, pop up on nearly every page, as does an overreliance on ellipses to indicate speech patterns. Frequently, clunky phrasing and poor diction submerge the narrative—i.e., “laughed belly laughs.” The author also often ignores that old standby of writerly advice: Show, don’t tell. Sometimes, even the dialogue is painfully expository: “You must be weary having just arrived from Lebanon,” a man helpfully explains to his guests.
Da Vinci Code fans will be mildly intrigued.Pub Date: July 2, 2010
ISBN: 978-1451518559
Page Count: 262
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
An ambitious collection—which asks the world to stop its destructive ways and recognize the importance of Africans—that...
A narrator rails against racism and ignorance in this debut poetry volume.
Celly’s book contains hundreds of poems, most of them quite short, that describe a man who is living in a universe full of unenlightened individuals who cause destruction because of their lack of knowledge. In particular, they do not appreciate the contributions of people of African descent and confound the narrator with their bigotry, murderous ways, and inability to become edified. Nevertheless, he is self-assured and encourages others to follow him. “I am the maestro without the orchestra,” he writes in the volume’s opening poem, “A Maestro,” but notes that humans won’t have the privilege of discerning what’s in his mind “until they stop killing each other.” As the many poems in the volume progress, he begins to refer to himself as “The Negus,” an African emperor or king. He has the “noble blood of the Kongo Kingdom” in “Legendary Blood,” descended from warriors, geniuses, and visionaries. The tone of the poems overall seeks to be high-minded, with references to The Prince by Machiavelli and the French Revolution. There is also a call to emulate African rhythms, such as the Congolese rumba or the songs of Bob Marley, in “It Must Rhyme and Flow.” A mysterious “they” is often mentioned, though it is unclear if this is a reference to Western society, racists, or uneducated people. Yet the narrator, who has a commanding presence, does describe an overall war on Africa and encourages Africans to rise up. Moreover, he transcends race and the color barrier and desires something mystical. “I am not a Negro. I am renegade. I am the Negus straight from heaven,” he writes in “Defined by Color Only Not So Fast!” Celly’s expansive volume, which aspires to thoughtful and strong lines about humanity and its failings, is not hostile but uses grandiose language to ponder and decree. While there are hundreds of poems, many are quite vague and are just one line or a short paragraph. The work is not entirely an exercise in self-aggrandizement, but the collection’s message can get lost amid the numerous ambiguities and repeated proclamations.
An ambitious collection—which asks the world to stop its destructive ways and recognize the importance of Africans—that remains hampered by nebulous and unspecified pronouncements.Pub Date: July 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-68319-824-6
Page Count: 262
Publisher: Tate Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An often gripping work with an engaging protagonist.
In Leatherman’s (Vanity Insanity, 2014) novel, an Omaha, Nebraska, high school teacher uncovers danger on campus as she grapples with challenges in her personal life.
Reeling from her ex-husband’s remarriage, Annie Day is distressed by the idea that her American dream has been tarnished. As the single parent of a son, Oliver, she certainly has her hands full. But when human bones are discovered on the high school campus where she teaches American literature, she faces a new set of worries. While police work to establish whose bones they are, she starts receiving strange, upsetting notes, including one that simply reads, “BE CAREFUL.” She finds refuge in her classroom, supporting her students by working with them after school, preparing them for college entrance exams, and helping them to relate class materials to their own lives. The mystery of the bones ultimately links to disturbing criminal activity at the high school. Readers will root for Annie and enjoy her inner dialogue, which features her disdain for poor grammar and her fondness for murder-mystery TV shows, especially Dateline. At points, though, the main story drifts. The novel features several side plots, such as Annie’s search for a ghost that she encountered on vacation and her attempt to deliver a letter she finds in the attic, revealing a shocking family secret of the house’s previous owners. Additionally, there are several chapters from the perspective of Annie’s cowboy relatives in the 1930s, relating a saga that’s intriguing enough to have been its own novel; however, they don’t directly enhance Annie’s story, which is strong enough without them. Leatherman’s prose is often excellent, as in a humorous, memorable scene during parent-teacher conference day, when a hungry Annie mentally compares parents’ personalities to snacks: an overbearing couple is undercooked dough, a saucy mother is a sour cherry ball, a sweet grandmother is cinnamon toast. The author tackles the main mystery plot with poignancy at the end of the story, but more in-depth exploration throughout would have been interesting.
An often gripping work with an engaging protagonist.Pub Date: Dec. 16, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5376-5901-5
Page Count: 436
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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