Title: The Sounding
Author: Carrie Salo
Publisher: 23 House
Publication Date: September 2011
Pages: 466
Format: Paperback
Genre: Paranormal / Thriller
Source: Review Copy from Publisher
In the Book of Revelation, a man named John has a prophetic dream. He dreams of the final prophecies that will come to pass - and the seven archangels that guard them. Each angel waits to sound their trumpet at God's appointed time, preparing humanity to fight and win the final battle.
2,000 years later, Father Chris Mognahan is a member of the Hetairia Melchizedek, a secret society within the Catholic Church that studies Biblical omens. The society asks Chris to investigate an unusually grotesque crime - a murder on a college campus where the killer's hand literally burned off the victim's face. While the killing seems isolated at first, the society ties the murder to the final Biblical prophecy and a terrifying omen that the order of the prophecies is about to be disrupted. The final battle is coming too soon - long before humanity is prepared to win it.
Suddenly, Chris finds himself fighting against time and hell to keep the prophecies in order and stop an early Armageddon. He is joined by a band of unlikely allies, and together they find themselves in Rome above the Vatican Necropolis - the city of the dead - where the future is revealed to them in ancient texts.
They are not alone, however; an evil as old as time itself hunts them. As they travel across continents on their mission, the demonic force follows relentlessly, waiting in every shadowed corner, and every dark place.
As Armageddon descends, Father Chris finds that his only hope lies in a young woman within the group who has a secret gift - and their belief that God Himself may have sent her to keep the final angelic trumpet from sounding out the early end of the Earth. (Goodreads Synopsis)
This book has an interesting premise, reminiscent of a Dan Brown Catholic-based mystery. In fact Catholicism is deeply entrenched in this book. I am not at all religious myself, but in this instance I didn't find it overpowering and was able to enjoy the piece.
I liked the storyline and thought the book was pretty well paced. Often I am well ahead of the author when it comes to plot twists, but I didn't see this one coming at all which made for exciting reading. It was interesting to see how Salo worked her 'Revelations Apocalypse' as it is a section of the Bible I've never had cause to read and most references I know of it are from the TV series Supernatural
Elise is a good character. She is strong and independent and yet we see her grow and change as she accepts her responsibilities. Chris was also well portrayed and I liked how their relationship was handled.
I had only one gripe with this book and that was POV. Sometimes the POV was fine, with characters given their own chapters or at least their own sections of thought with obvious breaks preparing the reader for the changeover. But there were chapters when all the major characters were together and head jumping occurred from paragraph to paragraph. While it was possible to keep up with who was thinking what, I did find it a slightly annoying distraction.
But overall, my impressions of this book were good and I would recommend it for fans of both paranormal/angel stories and fans of Dan Brown style works.
Check back here tomorrow for a guest post by Carrie Salo!
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