Selected Product:
| Thief of Souls
Hardcover
Author: Ann Benson
Release Date: November 2002
ISBN-10: B000HWYJFI
Average Customer Rating:
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The Eight
ISBN-10: 0345419081
ISBN-13: 9780345419088
List Price:$14.95
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ISBN-10: 0345386825
ISBN-13: 9780345386823
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ISBN-10: 0440236320
ISBN-13: 9780440236320
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ISBN-10: 0440225914
ISBN-13: 9780440225911
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ISBN-10: 0440225108
ISBN-13: 9780440225102
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Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com
With her acclaimed novels The Plague Tales and The Burning Road, Ann Benson has carved out a unique place on the literary landscape with her fascinating alchemy of mystery, history, and psychological terror. Now this gifted storyteller returns with an astounding tale of two crime waves separated by nearly 600 years. In each, the victims are children. In each, the perpetrator is a man of power and renown. And in each, the pursuit of justice is spearheaded by a woman who has seen the face of evil up close--and whose own life is entwined with a madman’s.
In the city of Nantes, in the year 1440, a woman hurries through the cobblestoned streets. Her world of faith, loyalty, and family is buckling under the weight of her suspicions about a dead child…and others who may have met the same fate--all at the hands of the same killer--the infamous Gilles de Rais. Soon Guillemette le Drappière, companion to the Bishop of Nantes, is investigating the young nobleman she helped raise from infancy. To unravel the truth, Guillemette must enter a dark realm of power, perversion, bloodlust--and bring to it the unforgiving light of the church she serves.
In the city of Los Angeles, in the year 2002, a detective gets the kind of call she dreads most: "My child is gone." Lany Dunbar, a mother, a cop, and a veteran of human horrors, cannot be prepared for where this search will lead her. For within days, Lany is certain that this missing-child case has exposed the work of a serial killer. At odds with her own department, sure that her killer is becoming more emboldened, Lany zeroes in on a suspect--while a suspect zeroes in on her.…
Two horrific crime sprees. Two extraordinary eras. The connections between them are at once eerie, compelling, and surprising. Only Ann Benson can weave together the strands of history and suspense with such mastery. Skillfully blending past and present, myth and reality, Benson catapults us from an age when wolves ran wild through the streets of Paris to an age of high-tech criminal profiling. A riveting, rousing adventure through time, history, and forensic science, Thief of Souls introduces two unforgettable characters, separated by centuries, linked by a passionate quest for justice. For in a race to stop monsters from more monstrous crimes, both women will discover a frightening truth: that within a killer is a child, and within a child are seeds of both innocence and evil.
book
| Customer Rating: | | Although there was a delay in receiving the book, as compared with others I've ordered recently, it arrived in good condition and within the alloted time. |
gruesome & disappointing
| Customer Rating: | | This book was not up to Ann Benson standards. It was far too bloody & the the link between past & future was loose & contrived. |
Enduring Morality
| Customer Rating: | | An admirer of Ann Benson's meticulously researched work, I became hooked on Thief of Souls from the very first page, which is unusual for me. The plot shifts rapidly between two parallel stories, each of which traverses rocky ethical, legal, and moral terrain. The heroines are two intensely humanistic women whose lives vary greatly, but who share the characteristic of willingness to sacrifice self-interest for the greater good of the communities in which they work and live. It is difficult to decide which story is the more compelling, and at the end of each chapter, I had to wrench my interest away from the one conflict in order to focus again on the other. In this "all about me" era, it is refreshing and heartening to immerse oneself in a tale of selflessness, dogged determination, and devotion to the good of others |
Very Good, but Not Great.
| Customer Rating: | I hope I don't lower the average stars given this novel by writing this review, and rating it only three stars.
Benson's formula(?), I say formula only because she has written two previous novels with chronological setting shifting betwixt present and past before this one has been slightly altered with this offering. Instead of a "medical" thriller, Ms. Benson has opted to write mystery/thrillers using am L.A. police detective, and a fifteenth century nun as her protagonists.Reading this the two heroines are not as dissimiliar as one may expect. Lany Dunbar though not specifically stated has some very classic christian values to her character. Mere Guillemette le Drappiere, while a respected nun and confidante/aide to the bishop of Nantes was not always a nunm and has some very pragmatic and secular values leftover before her life of service. One thing both ladies have in common is their passion to solve the mysterious disappearances of young children. As I said in title of review this book is very good, Benson seamlessly parallels the eras the action of her novel is set in. She writes with a meticulate attention to her chief characters' motives and humanity. There is only a couple flaws that bugged me very slightly as I read this book but I feel they are worth mentioning for the integrity of this review. 1) One reason I read this is the back blurb sounded really interesting setting half the novel in 1440 Nantes around "Bluebeard's" or Lord Giles de Rais's crimes hooked my jaded attention span. However while Benson gave equal "screen" teehee book i mean time to 1440 Nantes, I felt she could have characterized de Rais a little deeper. Until his trial he was like a phantasm mists of a character(perhaps intentional to further the plot), but if he is a draw to readers like myself I felt I would have liked to get inside his head more so to speak. 2.) This novel is probably longer than it could/should be, again another confession I skimmed about a hundred of the 600+ pages, because although it was entertaining and enjoyable it wasn't Great enough for me to self-justify reading every single word in the massive text.
Everyone's taste is different and this is the reason I can consciously recommend this title to others. While I felt it was long and dragged a little for readers of Benson, and readers that enjoy historical/contemporary fiction this could be the title you are looking for.:) |
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