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Tuesday, April 14, 2026

My Reading Niche

 Good grief!  Has it been almost ten days since my last posting.  My bad.  My excuses are that my bronchial asthma has made me tired and more or less housebound.  That means that I've been reading a lot.  So much so, that I haven't been posting Book Reviews.  I want to hurry to get into the next book. 

I've found my reading niche.  I like conspiracy thrillers--think Raiders of the Lost Arc. I particularly like Vatican conspiracies.  I've been reading Glenn Cooper and am addicted.  I can't get enough.  I finish one and begin another without posting a review.  Sorry.  Not sorry, I just want to get back to my book.

Sunday, April 5, 2026

Overdue Debt

 One good thing about being sick is people understand that you can't go out and about.  Good.  I can stay home and read.  Since I've discovered Glenn Cooper and Cal Donovan, I've don't have to look around or wonder what to read next.

Next was The Debt.  Since I love history, Catholic history, conspiracy, thrillers, and intrigue, I loved this book.  Cal Donovan in his research has discovered that the Vatican hasn't paid a centuries old debt.  The interest would do more than choke a cow.  No way could it ever be paid.  But before I go into the arrangements to pay off the debt in a way to satisfy all parties, I have to tell you why I was interested.

It's silly.  Still.  The story begins with the Vatican kidnapping of Jason Sassoon.  The year is 1848.  Europe is in turmoil.  The pope has been routed out of Rome.  Napoleon is threatening.  The cardinals need money to hire soldiers to defend the church - they're desperate.  They can't ask the Rothchild's, again, they have to go to another.  Why would a rival of the Rothchild's, the Sassoon's help?  They would pay to get their son back.  This is the start.  But what caught my attention was the name Sassoon.  That's the name of a hair salon in Boston.  My favorite hairstyle was a Sassoon cut.  

I know.  Silly.  Still.  That's why I was rooting for the Sassoon family to be good people and come to an arrangement to satisfy what happened.  The history is true.  There is and was Rothchild's and Sassoon's.  The conspiracies abound in power families, politics, and life.

Cal Donovan discovers this debt and Pope Celestine wants to pay it back but the church has no money.  No one has that kind of money.  And the Sassoon family is split into the good Sassoon's and the bad Sassoon's.  The good are agreeable.  The bad are scheming money hounds.  Fortunately, the good ones hold the majority vote in the business.

So far, I like the endings in Cooper's Vatican novels.  They're satisfactory.  All the lines come together and are tied up neatly.  




Thursday, April 2, 2026

The Dead Tell Tales

 Since I've been sick all week, I was looking for books to read.  I saw Covenant of the Dead by Glenn Cooper on Facebook.  The Boston locale, murdered nuns, and it looked like a series.  Have I found a new Three Pines Mysteries? 



I hope so.  I could just picture the locales.  Been there, many times.  The major characters are Sister Elisabetta Celestino and Cal Donovan. Boston Police Detectives Santos and Trinh, are important, too.

Three nuns are murdered and there was nothing stolen except their rosaries.  Eli (Sister Elisabetta) and Cal pay a visit to the nuns.  Then in the Boston Globe, there's news that the murderer is a priest with a red nose. That fits the description of only one priest and he's accused.  He suspiciously dies before going to trial.

Eli and Cal pay a visit to the medium that said a priest with a red nose did it.  There's a picture above the mantel of Arthur Conan Doyle--think Sherlock Holmes.  It seems he had been to this very house and had a seance.  

That was over a hundred years ago and the Bostonians rioted to have these necromancers out of their city. A riot broke out and the medium's four children burned to death.  She blamed the nuns because they were very vocal with their rosaries and singing.  Mmmmmm.  Keep that in mind.

More tragedy to the medium's family.  Her husband and only remaining child were in a car accident.  Husband died and the daughter had to have her legs amputated.  This is the daughter who earns her living doing seances.  

Meanwhile, back in academia (Eli and Cal are professors at Harvard Divinity School).  They contact people in the know to look up Arthur Conan Doyle and Boston seance. Their research also uncovers similar nuns' deaths, dating back a hundred years.  After putting two and two together, rather parenthetical equations, the answer is revealed.

That's not the end.  This is a thriller.  Now that you know who and how, you better move fast to stop more murders.  




Rabbi

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