DAUGHTER OF BELIAL

An American woman’s fate has ties to a dangerous, millennia-old secret society in this debut thriller.

After a public clash with her cheating boyfriend, 24-year-old Sophie Greer is positive she’ll lose her job in Paris. But Edward Hughes, CEO of the mergers and acquisitions firm that employs her, lends an unexpected helping hand. He also seems genuinely interested in Sophie, asking her to dinner and, later, a work-related meeting in Moscow. Sure, he’s handsome and charming, but Sophie is understandably wary. He knows maybe a bit too much about her, like her favorite dish (“The magret de canard is out of this world”). Things only get more unnerving from there, as Edward’s father and half brother have a bizarre fixation on Sophie as well. She winds up in a variety of places, including Los Angeles, and mingles (sometimes unwillingly) with the Hughes family and associates. But what exactly is going on? All anyone gives Sophie are “riddles” as she tries to figure out how she connects to The Order of Belial, some sort of secret organization. But the more she learns, the deeper she falls under the merciless spell of her apparent destiny. Juvenelle cloaks her series opener in a rich, brooding atmosphere. Most characters, for example, evade Sophie’s questions, and the quick-witted, cool-headed hero struggles with deciding which Hughes brother, if any, to trust. Details gradually come to light, especially for readers, as Sophie’s first-person narration periodically changes to Edward’s perspective and others’ viewpoints. The story grows darker as it becomes more apparent what The Order is, and some readers will have trouble sifting through the harsh content of myriad later scenes. The author’s prose is nevertheless crisp and often lyrical, especially when describing a Parisian daytime walk and the LA streets at night. As the novel inches closer to its ending, signs of a subgenre crop up and peak with an unforgettable cliffhanger.

A superb hero hunts for answers in this sharply written, increasingly disturbing tale.