Fans of Dan Brown will enjoy this invigorating, informed quest to uncover ancient secrets.
In Kartal’s (The Prophet’s Scribe, 2012) religious thriller, a post-grad Sovietologist traverses the globe in search of Jesus’ handwritten autobiography.
Frankie Karter, a minor MI6 agent and Eton-trained student of Soviet history, is called to his grandmother Irena’s deathbed in the Georgian capital in 1987. Irena reveals a family secret involving Frankie’s late grandfather, Nickolas: The Bolshevik revolutionary stole the original Gospel of Jesus from Joseph Stalin. She leaves Frankie three items: an ancient Nestorian ring, an unfamiliar address in Krakow and the first sentence of Jesus’ Gospel, written on Egyptian papyrus in his own hand. Irena instructs Frankie to locate the rest of the Gospel but warns that many would kill for this document. In the style of The Da Vinci Code, Kartal sends Frankie on a dangerous quest for the Messiah’s own words—leading him to Poland, Russia and Rome—with a slew of evil international operatives on his tail. Frankie—along with his friend Rich, a post-grad student specializing in religious antiquities, and Bogdan, a well-connected Polish acquaintance—manages to stay one step ahead of the spies and smugglers who covet the treasured scripture. Frankie’s pilgrimage unearths a wealth of lies, secrets and betrayals, resulting in a trail of deaths. His circuitous quest is revealed in very short chapters, allowing readers a moment to digest the plethora of clues and historical facts embedded throughout the text. A self-proclaimed truth addict, Frankie is determined to learn what lies behind the sacred writings while keeping his enemies at bay. His adventures ultimately lead to a face-to-face confrontation with the most powerful figure in religious history. Shocks and twists underscore Kartal’s masterful storytelling, but this slim volume could easily be developed further. Although Kartal attempts to tie it all together at the end, readers will still be left with weighty, unanswered questions.
Fans of Dan Brown will enjoy this invigorating, informed quest to uncover ancient secrets.Pub Date: March 18, 2012
ISBN: 978-1466494794
Page Count: 239
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Small-town claustrophobia and intimacies alike propel this twist-filled psychological thriller.
The loss of her police officer father and the discovery of an abandoned car in a local lake raise chilling questions regarding a young woman’s family history.
When Hazel Sharp returns to her hometown of Mirror Lake, North Carolina, for her father’s memorial, she and the other townspeople are confronted by a challenging double whammy: As they’re grieving the loss of beloved longtime police officer Detective Perry Holt, a disturbing sight appears in the lake, whose waterline is receding because of an ongoing drought—an old, unidentifiable car, which has likely been lurking there for years. Hazel temporarily leaves her Charlotte-based building-renovation business in the capable hands of her partners and reconnects with her brothers, Caden and Gage; her Uncle Roy; her old fling and neighbor, Nico; and her schoolfriend, Jamie, now a mother and married to Caden. Tiny, relentless suspicions rise to the metaphorical surface along with that waterlogged vehicle: There have been a slew of minor break-ins; two people go missing; and then, a second abandoned car is discovered. The novel digs deeper into Hazel’s family history—her father was a widow when he married Hazel’s mother, who later left the family, absconding with money and jewels—and Miranda, a consummate professional when it comes to exposing the small community tensions that naturally arise when people live in close proximity for generations, exposes revelation after twisty revelation: “Everything mattered disproportionately in a small town. Your success, but also your failure. Everyone knows might as well have been our town motto.”
Small-town claustrophobia and intimacies alike propel this twist-filled psychological thriller.Pub Date: April 9, 2024
ISBN: 9781668010440
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Marysue Rucci Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.
Ten years after her teenage daughter went missing, a mother begins a new relationship only to discover she can't truly move on until she answers lingering questions about the past.
Laurel Mack’s life stopped in many ways the day her 15-year-old daughter, Ellie, left the house to study at the library and never returned. She drifted away from her other two children, Hanna and Jake, and eventually she and her husband, Paul, divorced. Ten years later, Ellie’s remains and her backpack are found, though the police are unable to determine the reasons for her disappearance and death. After Ellie’s funeral, Laurel begins a relationship with Floyd, a man she meets in a cafe. She's disarmed by Floyd’s charm, but when she meets his young daughter, Poppy, Laurel is startled by her resemblance to Ellie. As the novel progresses, Laurel becomes increasingly determined to learn what happened to Ellie, especially after discovering an odd connection between Poppy’s mother and her daughter even as her relationship with Floyd is becoming more serious. Jewell’s (I Found You, 2017, etc.) latest thriller moves at a brisk pace even as she plays with narrative structure: The book is split into three sections, including a first one which alternates chapters between the time of Ellie’s disappearance and the present and a second section that begins as Laurel and Floyd meet. Both of these sections primarily focus on Laurel. In the third section, Jewell alternates narrators and moments in time: The narrator switches to alternating first-person points of view (told by Poppy’s mother and Floyd) interspersed with third-person narration of Ellie’s experiences and Laurel’s discoveries in the present. All of these devices serve to build palpable tension, but the structure also contributes to how deeply disturbing the story becomes. At times, the characters and the emotional core of the events are almost obscured by such quick maneuvering through the weighty plot.
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.Pub Date: April 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-5464-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
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