Friday 28 June 2013

Blood of the Lamb by Sam Cabot


Father Thomas Kelly, a Jesuit priest, is happily based at a university when he is called to Rome by his former mentor.  A mysterious yet important document, the Concordant, has gone missing from the Vatican Library and must be recovered at all costs.  Kelly sets to work alongside an art historian, Livia, who claims to be representing a group who are just as interested in recovering the Concordant as the Vatican are.  But Livia has her own secrets, and the contents of the document are powerful enough to shake Kelly's faith to it's foundations.

Blood of the Lamb is marketed as The Historian meets The Da Vinci Code, so I was keen to get my hands on it as soon as possible!  There are certainly massive similarities with The Da Vinci Code; in both a male lead uncovers a deeply buried religious secret with the help of a female sidekick, but happily I found Cabot's writing much better than Brown's.  Despite there being a supernatural element to the story (the comparison to The Historian is a big clue), the mythology of the supernatural community felt authentic enough for the book to somehow pull off being realistic.

In addition to this, Cabot weaves in enough twists and turns to keep the reader on their toes.  I don't read many thrillers but I love intelligent, well written ones like this.  In fact, until about 97% of the way through the book, I was convinced that I had found a new favourite.  I loved everything about it, from the plot to the characters and the writing.  But then something happens in the end that stretches the credulity of the reader to breaking point and consequently, the whole story feels false.  The ending just went too far and unfortunately it ruined the book for me.  Honestly, it felt a bit silly.

The ending makes Blood of the Lamb hard to review and rate.  I do think the book had many, many positive features but they were ultimately over-shadowed by a bad ending.

Source: From the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.
Publication Date: 6th August 2013
Score: 3 out of 5

16 comments:

  1. Gah! It sounded so promising up to that ruinous ending!

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    1. I still enjoyed it, just wish I had been fore-warned that I would have to suspend belief THAT much.

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  2. Oh, I hate when that happens! I have a copy of this ready to read, but this kind of makes me want to read it even more...just to know what you're talking about!

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  3. Okay, I don't think there is more certain way to trigger curiosity towards a book than to say it was 97% awesome and then "something happens" :) Going to TBR :)

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    1. Yes, and please let me know what you think of the end! :P

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  4. That's too bad about the ending; I really loved The Historian and your review had me hoping for another great read...right up until the end. :)

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    1. The Historian is one of my favourites too, but I'm starting to think it's one-of-a-kind.

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  5. I'd certainly like to read this one. I do so like books with the Vatican setting.

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    1. Me too, Da Vinci Code/Angels and Demons are guilty pleasures of mine...

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  6. Oh man, you had me convinced 97% of the way through your review that this would be great! I am still intrigued though, I'd be interested to read other people's thoughts on that ending. I'll certainly keep an eye out for this title.

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    1. It comes out in August, I'll definitely be looking out for other reviews too.

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  7. Gah! That cover is super creeptastic! :)

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  8. This book sounded like it had a great premise but the ending let it down. Always a shame when that happens.

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  9. Oh, too bad about the ending! I recently had a similar experience with a mystery novel - great right up until a really contrived and confusing ending that left me severely disappointed.

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  10. You've just piqued my interest, Sam. To the TBR it goes. Thanks!

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