ORPHAN TREE AND THE VANISHING SKELETON KEY

A girl capable of time travel attempts to prevent Armageddon in this fourth installment of Brown’s eschatological fantasy saga.

It’s 1998, and 16-year-old Daniela Rose Cavanaugh is the Orphan Dreamer. She’s destined to use her time-traveling Glass Tattoo to try rescuing humans from a pandemic, the precursor to Armageddon on Earth. In this novel’s concurrent narrative, set in the present day, humanity faces multiple threats, from Covid-20 to an “invisible planet” set to collide with Earth in less than a year. But Covid-20 may be a “trial run” for a deadlier pandemic that fallen angel Nomed has long been planning. Daniela’s mission to avert Armageddon involves traveling to 575 B.C.E. to find Yahweh’s prophet Ezekiel and solve the mystery of the enigmatic Skeleton Key. At the same time, she dreams of her “oily boy,” teen Cillian Finn, who’s an enslaved person in India. She prays to Yahweh, asking for an angel to help Cillian, though she’s still unsure if the boy is the prophesied Antichrist—perhaps the most discernible sign of humanity’s end. With the companionship of her best friend and assistance from a powerful angel, Daniela hopes to save the world. Despite the time-hopping narrative, Brown’s epic tale is easy to follow. Not only do chapter headers clarify the time period and locale, but the story often stays in one era for prolonged narrative stretches. Characters spend much of the story discussing everything from religions to the racism that Daniela, as a brown girl, and others have endured. They also repeatedly, sometimes excessively, address certain topics, like who or what are the Nephilim, the human/fallen angel hybrids eagerly anticipating Armageddon. But Brown’s smart, incisive writing ensures the measured story avoids lulls with many surprises.

A lengthy but absorbing tale steeped in profundity.