Anna S. (annapi) reviewed on 1/2/2010 + 334 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

I actually give this one 2.5 stars. The premise is a good one - celebrated biographer and benefactress Mary Jo Stanton is found dead on her knees in the garden of her Dublin estate, with a cilicio, a medieval belt-like equivalent of a religious hair-shirt, around her neck. Suspicion falls on the religious order she was a part of, Opus Dei, as Superintendent Peter McGarr discovers that Mary Jo was about to release in a scandalous biography that Opus Dei's founder, Jose Maria Escriva, was her fleshly and not just spiritual father. As McGarr's investigation proceeds, the danger creeps closer to his family. All things that piqued my interest, but the delivery somehow fell short. The book took me a long time to finish as it could not hold my attention for very long, and I really could not connect with any of the characters, although the writing did not have any obvious flaws. Perhaps it was because I picked up a book in the middle of a series that clearly had established ongoing plot lines with its major and supporting characters, but that doesn't usually confuse me and I've met many of my favorites that way, so I doubt I'll be trying this author again unless there's nothing else around.

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