Readers intrigued by Edwards’ internal struggles will enjoy following his investigation, though they may be bored by the...
From debut author George comes a novel about a scandal in the Catholic Church and a priest trusted to investigate it.
Father Edwards was a young priest when he met young Sister Frances, who was having trouble with her vocation. “Sister Frances preferred daydreaming to prayer” and “often broke the rule of silence by talking to other nuns while they tried to pray.” Straightlaced Father Edwards is called in to try and counsel Sister Frances, though the plan soon backfires as the two find themselves in love: “Each discovered an interior loneliness and a yearning for a deeper relationship unaware that the sweet wine of lust began fermenting in their veins.” Though Sister Frances decides to leave the church and return to her life as a woman named Constance, Father Edwards chooses to join the Navy as a chaplain. Twenty-five years pass; Edwards pursues his career in the Navy, while Constance, after a difficult start, becomes a lawyer. When Edwards retires from the Navy, the two end up reuniting in San Francisco. Edwards, still known for his no-nonsense attitude, is asked to investigate allegations of sexual abuse within the church. As a well-heeled bishop explains to Edwards of the alleged victim’s mother: “She doesn’t trust my staff or the pastor. She is more likely to trust someone like you, a retired naval officer.” So begins an investigation that involves coverups, sinister figures, and Edwards’ introspections on the loneliness of his profession—which is where the novel is at its best. “He could meditate on the cross, read the words of Jesus and pray for his friends….But, he had no intimate, human presence in his life, no one to touch, to talk with or listen to.” However, as the story paints an intriguing portrait of Edwards, it does so while other characters fall flat. Wicked diocesan attorney Radlee Cunningham—“like a Neanderthal when he gets cornered”— does all he can to settle with victims of sexual abuse. Meanwhile, blunt and skeptical Constance is always keen to point out: “These holy people are selfrighteous [sic] hypocrites.”
Readers intrigued by Edwards’ internal struggles will enjoy following his investigation, though they may be bored by the many supporting characters.Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2014
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 266
Publisher: Book Baby
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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