Welcome to 2012 and the first “Read Me!” of the year! If you saw the post of my Top Ten Books I’m Excited to Read in 2012, you’ll recognize The Rook. It’s described by reviewers as a “supernatural thriller,” which gets my attention right away. Here’s the blurb from Amazon:
“‘The body you are wearing used to be mine.’ So begins the letter Myfanwy Thomas is holding when she awakes in a London park surrounded by bodies all wearing latex gloves. With no recollection of who she is, Myfanwy must follow the instructions her former self left behind to discover her identity and track down the agents who want to destroy her.
She soon learns that she is a Rook, a high-ranking member of a secret organization called the Chequy that battles the many supernatural forces at work in Britain. She also discovers that she possesses a rare, potentially deadly supernatural ability of her own.
In her quest to uncover which member of the Chequy betrayed her and why, Myfanwy encounters a person with four bodies, an aristocratic woman who can enter her dreams, a secret training facility where children are transformed into deadly fighters, and a conspiracy more vast than she ever could have imagined.
Filled with characters both fascinating and fantastical, THE ROOK is a richly inventive, suspenseful, and often wry thriller that marks an ambitious debut from a promising young writer.”
And the reviews are pretty good:
“Utterly convincing and engrossing—totally thought-through and frequently hilarious. The writing is confident and fully fledged. Even this aging, jaded, attention-deficit-disordered critic was blown away.” (TIME Lev Grossman )
“The pace never lets up in this entertaining high-action read….First-time novelist O’Malley has fashioned a near-perfect supernatural thriller. The heroine is appealing, the villains all monsters or freaks, and something unexpected happens on almost every page. Don’t start this book unless you’ve got lots of time, because you won’t want to put it down. It’s that good.” (Library Journal David Keymer )
“Impressive debut, a supernatural detective thriller distinguished by its adept use of humor….Dry wit, surprising reversals of fortune, and a clever if offbeat plot make this a winner. Dr. Who fans will find a lot to like.” (Publishers Weekly )
The comparison to Dr. Who sold me! You can visit Daniel’s website here.
Leave a Reply