This virgin-birth thriller from Cooper (Sign of the Cross, 2018, etc.) is lighter and funnier than you might think, whether...
Three virgin pregnancies lead to a schism in the Catholic Church, but it’s nothing a Harvard professor can’t tackle.
Pope Celestine IV isn’t sure what to think when he hears that a Blessed Virgin Mary is once again on Earth—and not just one, but three different teenage Marys in geographically disparate locations, each preparing to have a baby without ever having done the deed. Is it a miracle or some sort of modern science? Celestine calls on his longtime friend Cal Donovan, a prominent scholar of religion and archaeology, to help plumb the miracle. Cal is the answer to the question, “What if being a Harvard professor made you a superhero, and you were also as appealing to women as, say, Shaft?” So he’s more than ready to ditch his romantic getaway with his ladylove to visit two of the Marys (Marias, really) in their hometowns. Because he can’t be literally everywhere at once, he enlists the help of his colleague Joseph Murphy to visit Ireland Mary and share his thoughts on the matter. While Cal confirms the Marys’ virginities and pregnancies, he doesn’t have much insight into the mystery, and he’s preparing to return to his daily routine when the world is shaken by the news that all three Marys have disappeared. The Marys are in fact housed in a large mansion somewhere in the U.S., not exactly against their will but certainly not with their blessing. Not even caretaker Sue Gibney, who’s responsible for the girls’ everyday lives, is clear about the greater plan. When cardinal George Pole tenders his resignation to the Vatican, Celestine senses there’s another change coming, but even Cal can’t save the Catholic Church from a wave of believers focused on this modern apparent miracle—or can he?
This virgin-birth thriller from Cooper (Sign of the Cross, 2018, etc.) is lighter and funnier than you might think, whether intentionally so or not, from the reams of hymen talk to the alma mater the author coincidentally shares with his hero.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-7278-8821-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Severn House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 17, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
Slaughter (Cop Town, 2014, etc.) is so uncompromising in following her blood trails to the darkest places imaginable that...
Twenty-four years after a traumatic disappearance tore a Georgia family apart, Slaughter’s scorching stand-alone picks them up and shreds them all over again.
The Carrolls have never been the same since 19-year-old Julia vanished. After years of fruitlessly pestering the police, her veterinarian father, Sam, killed himself; her librarian mother, Helen, still keeps the girl's bedroom untouched, just in case. Julia’s sisters have been equally scarred. Lydia Delgado has sold herself for drugs countless times, though she’s been clean for years now; Claire Scott has just been paroled after knee-capping her tennis partner for a thoughtless remark. The evening that Claire’s ankle bracelet comes off, her architect husband, Paul, is callously murdered before her eyes and, without a moment's letup, she stumbles on a mountainous cache of snuff porn. Paul’s business partner, Adam Quinn, demands information from Claire and threatens her with dire consequences if she doesn’t deliver. The Dunwoody police prove as ineffectual as ever. FBI agent Fred Nolan is more suavely menacing than helpful. So Lydia and Claire, who’ve grown so far apart that they’re virtual strangers, are unwillingly thrown back on each other for help. Once she’s plunged you into this maelstrom, Slaughter shreds your own nerves along with those of the sisters, not simply by a parade of gruesome revelations—though she supplies them in abundance—but by peeling back layer after layer from beloved family members Claire and Lydia thought they knew. The results are harrowing.
Slaughter (Cop Town, 2014, etc.) is so uncompromising in following her blood trails to the darkest places imaginable that she makes most of her high-wire competition look pallid, formulaic, or just plain fake.Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-242905-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
With an aura of both enchantment and authenticity, Bardugo’s compulsively readable novel leaves a portal ajar for equally...
Yale’s secret societies hide a supernatural secret in this fantasy/murder mystery/school story.
Most Yale students get admitted through some combination of impressive academics, athletics, extracurriculars, family connections, and donations, or perhaps bribing the right coach. Not Galaxy “Alex” Stern. The protagonist of Bardugo’s (King of Scars, 2019, etc.) first novel for adults, a high school dropout and low-level drug dealer, Alex got in because she can see dead people. A Yale dean who's a member of Lethe, one of the college’s famously mysterious secret societies, offers Alex a free ride if she will use her spook-spotting abilities to help Lethe with its mission: overseeing the other secret societies’ occult rituals. In Bardugo’s universe, the “Ancient Eight” secret societies (Lethe is the eponymous Ninth House) are not just old boys’ breeding grounds for the CIA, CEOs, Supreme Court justices, and so on, as they are in ours; they’re wielders of actual magic. Skull and Bones performs prognostications by borrowing patients from the local hospital, cutting them open, and examining their entrails. St. Elmo’s specializes in weather magic, useful for commodities traders; Aurelian, in unbreakable contracts; Manuscript goes in for glamours, or “illusions and lies,” helpful to politicians and movie stars alike. And all these rituals attract ghosts. It’s Alex’s job to keep the supernatural forces from embarrassing the magical elite by releasing chaos into the community (all while trying desperately to keep her grades up). “Dealing with ghosts was like riding the subway: Do not make eye contact. Do not smile. Do not engage. Otherwise, you never know what might follow you home.” A townie’s murder sets in motion a taut plot full of drug deals, drunken assaults, corruption, and cover-ups. Loyalties stretch and snap. Under it all runs the deep, dark river of ambition and anxiety that at once powers and undermines the Yale experience. Alex may have more reason than most to feel like an imposter, but anyone who’s spent time around the golden children of the Ivy League will likely recognize her self-doubt.
With an aura of both enchantment and authenticity, Bardugo’s compulsively readable novel leaves a portal ajar for equally dazzling sequels.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-31307-2
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
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