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A gothic triumph – drenched with atmosphere, and saturated with fascinating characters and dastardly deeds, contributing to an undercurrent of evil so thick you may find yourself as unable to stop shuddering as you are to stop reading.
When Lieutenant Maxine Grant, just finishing up a maternity leave, must leave baby Hugo to deal with a new and grisly murder, Maxine and her partner DS Jules Demers are faced with a prime suspect, Pauline Caron (the victim’s sixty-five year old wife, none other than Maxine’s former schoolteacher) bloodied, dazed, and deep in a state of shock.
As the plot develops, a multigenerational story across timelines unfolds, smoothly weaving first-person narratives between Maxine and two new female protagonists: the turn of the twentieth-century tragedy of Lucienne, a young mother in Paris faced with the tragic disappearance of her two young daughters; and a post-WWII-era and fatherless teenager named Lina whose young life in rural Quebec is fraught with peer bullying and the seeming disinterest of her always-absent mother.
Brimming with witchcraft, satanic rites, murders, dismemberments, fires, seances, and debauchery, this story interlaces so many dark and devious twists and turns it will take a bucket-of-wits (not to mention nerves-of-steel) to put the pieces of this intensely-puzzling narrative together. (An exercise in which, no matter how skillfully carried out, this reader can pretty much guarantee you will still miss that whopper-of-an-ending-out-of-nowhere).
Without giving the plot away (no spoilers here), let me just repeat, this story sports one crazy, horrifying (and totally unpredictable) ending!
A devilishly-brilliant read, this is a book for lovers of fiction-noir that begs to be savored – albeit with the lights fully on, and while comfortably snug in a shadowless (and highly secure) reading room.
A great big thank you to the author, and the publisher for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.
Note: This Book will be released on Sept 15, 2022
