Thrilling for fans of the series.
The Rev. Curtis Black extended-family saga returns with Black’s son Dillon at the helm of a new megachurch in Mitchell, Illinois.
Dillon may have a congregation of more than 1,000 souls at New Faith Christian Center, but he lacks something every minister ought to have: a true calling from God. Knowing quite well that he’s a pastor called to the pulpit only by his own greed and his desire to avenge his father’s refusal to acknowledge him as a child, Dillon nonetheless prays daily, although his hopes for a true calling are buried underneath several other pleas for fame and fortune. When Raven, Dillon’s beautiful wife—whom Rev. Curtis has spurned for embezzling funds from his own church—decides she has also been called to the pulpit, the wheels of jealousy and vengeance begin to turn. Dillon doesn’t want to share his pulpit with anyone and certainly not with his wife. Nor does he want to give up the attentions of either his wife or his mistress, Porsha. Meanwhile, Dillon’s sister Alicia is finally happily married to Levi, the man whose love not only drove her to infidelity, but also drove her and her previous husband, Phillip, to a fatal altercation over a gun. Phillip’s death haunts Alicia, and she’s begun to hear disturbing voices urging her toward suicide. Will Alicia’s troubles and Dillon’s plans for retribution finally bring down the Black family? With so many novels and novellas in the franchise, Roby (Best Friends Forever, 2016, etc.) must deal with a lot of back stories, which slows down the pace; in several scenes, Alicia and Dillon spend more time ruminating about their pasts than acting in the present. Fortunately, all the breathless exposition often works well to establish Dillon as a heartless villain/protagonist.
Thrilling for fans of the series.Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4555-5959-6
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 2, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
An illuminating read for anyone interested in the inner workings of the Catholic Church; for prelate-fiction superfans, it...
Harris, creator of grand, symphonic thrillers from Fatherland (1992) to An Officer and a Spy (2014), scores with a chamber piece of a novel set in the Vatican in the days after a fictional pope dies.
Fictional, yes, but the nameless pontiff has a lot in common with our own Francis: He’s famously humble, shunning the lavish Apostolic Palace for a small apartment, and he is committed to leading a church that engages with the world and its problems. In the aftermath of his sudden death, rumors circulate about the pope’s intention to fire certain cardinals. At the center of the action is Cardinal Lomeli, Dean of the College of Cardinals, whose job it is to manage the conclave that will elect a new pope. He believes it is also his duty to uncover what the pope knew before he died because some of the cardinals in question are in the running to succeed him. “In the running” is an apt phrase because, as described by Harris, the papal conclave is the ultimate political backroom—albeit a room, the Sistine Chapel, covered with Michelangelo frescoes. Vying for the papal crown are an African cardinal whom many want to see as the first black pope, a press-savvy Canadian, an Italian arch-conservative (think Cardinal Scalia), and an Italian liberal who wants to continue the late pope’s campaign to modernize the church. The novel glories in the ancient rituals that constitute the election process while still grounding that process in the real world: the Sistine Chapel is fitted with jamming devices to thwart electronic eavesdropping, and the pressure to act quickly is increased because “rumours that the pope is dead are already trending on social media.”
An illuminating read for anyone interested in the inner workings of the Catholic Church; for prelate-fiction superfans, it is pure temptation.Pub Date: Nov. 22, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-451-49344-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 6, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2016
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
These letters from some important executive Down Below, to one of the junior devils here on earth, whose job is to corrupt mortals, are witty and written in a breezy style seldom found in religious literature. The author quotes Luther, who said: "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." This the author does most successfully, for by presenting some of our modern and not-so-modern beliefs as emanating from the devil's headquarters, he succeeds in making his reader feel like an ass for ever having believed in such ideas. This kind of presentation gives the author a tremendous advantage over the reader, however, for the more timid reader may feel a sense of guilt after putting down this book. It is a clever book, and for the clever reader, rather than the too-earnest soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1942
ISBN: 0060652934
Page Count: 53
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1943
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