WHAT LIES IN TRUTH

Debut author Stricklin presents a historical novel that delves into a priest’s hidden life.

As the story opens, it’s 1911, and Martim Ferrera is standing trial in Portugal on a charge of treason for his participation in a plot to reestablish the country’s monarchy. Martim manages to escape to Brazil, and seven years later, he’s living a new existence as a novitiate priest in Wisconsin, where he makes the acquaintance of a strong-willed young woman named Henrietta Hoffmann. She’s almost immediately smitten with the mysterious cleric from Brazil, although she feels guilty about such romantic feelings, as Catholic priests can’t marry. It would be best for Henrietta to forget about him completely, but as years go by, she finds all the potential mates around her to be unsuitable, and even turns down a marriage proposal. When circumstances bring her back into Martim’s company, the two eventually fall victim to their passions, and when Henrietta becomes pregnant, the real trouble starts for both of them. The novel—which Stricklin, in a brief author’s note, says is based on a story from her own family history—makes very clear the bind Martim and Henrietta are in, and how there are no easy answers; the narrative tightens as Henrietta resorts to spinning an assortment of desperate lies. Some of the dialogue is on the bland side, and many of the members of the supporting cast have little to offer, other than to carry out their prescribed roles in predictable ways, whether they’re a stern bishop or a worried country boy who goes to the priest for help. However, as the couple’s fabrications pile up, readers won’t be able to foresee the choices they ultimately make.

A straightforward but tense investigation of a couple’s navigation of secrets and lies.