Review by Booklist Review
Famine. Disease. Virgin pregnancies. High priests. Exorcisms. Has the best-selling Patterson gone medieval? No, he's back in contemporary Boston for another one of his nursery-rhyme thrillers ( Hide & Seek, Jack & Jill, etc.). This one spins an allegorical tale about good versus evil, but the juxtaposition of modern-day setting against ancient beliefs just doesn't work. Anne Fitzgerald, ex-nun turned detective, and Justin O'Carroll, priest turned detective, are hired by the Archbishop of Boston to help investigate apparent virgin pregnancies of two otherwise normal teenage girls. Could these be true miracles? No one seems to doubt it, which becomes a serious narrative problem. Not only is the public's lack of skepticism hard to buy, it also deprives the story of needed tension: the faith of the true believers versus the doubts of the rest of society. The tale gains a little momentum, though, when the floods, droughts, and waves of disease sweep the hemispheres, forcing even the most unbelieving reader to root for the faithful few. Patterson's legion of fans will queue up for this one, of course, but they may be disappointed. Let's hope Patterson dumps the nursery rhymes next time and brings back his Alex Cross series. --Mary Frances Wilkens
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This updated YA adaptation of Patterson's 2000 thriller is built on a powerful premise: two pregnant teens, Kathleen of Newport, R.I., and Colleen of Maam Cross, Ireland, are medically confirmed to be virgins. This and further otherworldly occurrences (plagues, droughts) seem to conform to a prophecy given by the Blessed Mother Mary at her 1917 apparition in Fatima, Portugal, that two virgin births would occur, one the Son of God, the other the son of Satan. The Roman Catholic Church assigns Fathers Rosetti and O'Carroll to authenticate the medical claims, while a Boston cardinal hires private detective Anne Fitzgerald. Anne, the novel's protagonist, is a former nun who gave up the calling because of feelings she had for Father O'Carroll. Her chapters, first-person accounts, are narrated by Soler, an actress who, though her Boston accent is acceptable, sounds a bit too young and too sweet for a practicing PI, even one who'd formerly carried a rosary instead of a gun. Reader Ballerini handles the objective, third-person chapters, which follow the grueling progress of Father Rosetti, whose Italian accent thickens during his many moments of extreme stress in encounters with a deep-voiced Satanic figure. Age 15-up. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
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Review by Library Journal Review
Two virgins are pregnant, and prophecy has it that one will give birth to the Messiah and the other to Satan's child. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Warn the fans: this isn't a new Alex Cross psychokiller foray (Pop Goes the Weasel, 1999, etc.), but instead a rewritten and retitled version of Virgin, Patterson's apocalyptic 1980 horror novel. At the French shrine of Lourdes in 1917, three children delivered a prophecy from the Virgin Mary: At some point in the future, two girls will experience near-simultaneous immaculate conceptions; one will give birth to a new Savior; the other will bring the Antichrist into the world. Now, in an undated present, with strange new plagues and catastrophes filling the news every day, and the Pope dying of a horrible virus, private detective Anne Fitzgerald is abruptly hired by Boston's Cardinal Rooney to keep an eye on young Kathleen Beavier, a spoiled, trash-talking (but virginal) rich kid. Kathleen's attempt to get an abortion is stymied when she finds her doctor's bleeding corpse hanging from a hook in a South Boston clinic. Since then she's been hearing nasty voices and believes she's being watched by animals. An ex-cop with a Harvard psychology degree, Fitzgerald is also a former nun who left the order after falling in love with a priest. Though that love affair was never consummated, fate will reunite Fitzgerald with good-looking Father Justin O'Carroll. Meanwhile, in an Irish village, poor but pure Colleen Deirdre Galaher is getting dirty looks from the nuns at her Catholic boarding school. Sent from Rome to investigate, Father Nicholas Rosetti, the Vatican's international expert on miracles, finds himself aroused by the sight of the girl. Could this have anything to do with the inexplicable fainting spells he suffered in Rome only days ago? And what about that nasty voice that reviles him in his dreams? One can only hope that the ridiculous, cliff-hanging finale's promise of a sequel will never be fulfilled. Post'Exorcist horror clichs, updated with a handful of contemporary references. (First printing of 1,000,000; $1,000,000 ad/promo; author tour)
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