THE TAKEN GIRLS, Glenn Cooper thriller in his classic mode

THE TAKEN GIRLS
GLENN COOPER
Lascaux Media (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$17.99 paperback, available now

Rating: 3.75* of five

The Publisher Says: From Glenn Cooper, the internationally bestselling author of the Cal Donovan thrillers, comes a gripping thriller of kidnapping, conspiracy, and what powerful men will do to hold on to what they have.

Two little girls vanish from a villa on the Calabrian coast—Victoria, five, and Elizabeth, eight, sisters, the granddaughters of an American billionaire. It looks at first like a kidnapping for ransom.

But no demand ever comes. No ransom means no one wanted money—they wanted the girls.

Years pass. Their grandmother's hair goes white. And then, on an ordinary afternoon, the girls come home. Victoria is still five. Elizabeth is still eight. The same faces, the same small hands—not a day older than the night they disappeared, and dying of something no child should carry.

Everyone wants a story that lets them sleep. The Vatican opens a quiet file on a miracle. The tabloids sell something stranger. But one man keeps pulling the thread everyone wants left alone—until it leads to an old Spanish estate, and to what the powerful will do to hold on to what they have.

Victoria and Elizabeth were not the first children taken. And they are still collecting.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: It's never aliens. Or god. Never.

Just like the only monsters are people. For something to be SUPERnatural, we'd need to know everything that could ever happen naturally. A glance at the news will tell you we do not know everything that could happen naturally. So reading his very complex puzzle-box of a story was an exercise in seeing if the author could get me to the end without making me feel I'd been treated like a mushroom. (Kept in the dark and fed a lot of shit.)

I've read several of the author's religious-themed stories before, and found them like this one: Pleasantly diverting. I do wish he'd stop writing female characters, or take a sensitivity course...they're ciphers or stereotypes.

The patriarch who hires our omnicompetent investigator grated on my nerves. Marcus, said investigator, doesn't put a foot wrong that does not, in the end, result in the solution being moved forward. It's a bit annoying, but in line with most books in this chase-thriller genre. By the midpoint of the story there was a clutter of problems that were either going to get solved or niggle at me as unfinished business; nothing got left behind but it made the ending a breathless rush. That's fine for me but y'all who prefer endings that peel back layers will not enjoy it because it will feel rushed. I myownself would say it's calculatedly fast-paced, but that'a a poTAYto poTAHto argument I've found is not worth anyone's time getting into.

It was a read that engaged me but gave me no one to root for because the people were believably shitty. It's a good distraction that will never play games with your trust, people you don't like don't suddenly turn out to be sweetness and light playing a role (a trope I abhor) or suddenly doing other about-faces. The story resolves in line with its parameters only not quite so simply as one is led to expect. Nice work on that, Glenn Cooper!

THE SILENCE OF FLESH, ambitious, interesting, flawed

THE SILENCE OF FLESH
GLENN COOPER
Lascaux Media (non-affiliate Amazon.com link)
$5.99 Kindle edition or free to read with Kindle Unlimited, available now

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: He gave everything to God—except the one truth he could never speak.

From international bestseller Glenn Cooper, known for his Vatican thrillers and historical mysteries, comes his most intimate novel yet—a literary exploration of secrecy, conscience, and spiritual burden.

Anthony Budd is a quiet, reform-minded cardinal—young, devout, and untainted by scandal. When deadlock in the papal conclave threatens to fracture the Church, his name emerges as a compromise. He accepts the will of God with humility. But buried beneath his composure is a secret he has carried for decades—a truth that could upend everything he believes, and everything the Church demands of him.

As Pope Innocent XIV, Budd must navigate the brutal realities of Vatican politics, the weight of his vows, and the quiet threat of blackmail from a voice in the shadows. Someone knows who he is. And they intend to destroy him.

The Silence of Flesh is a novel of inner war—a man at odds with the Church he loves, the body he inhabits, and the truth that may undo both.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Could Author Cooper have timed this release ant better?! Even got the regnal ordinal right! One could be forgiven for thinking permaybehaps he had some inside information...or at least a discreet nod of approval from On High.

I'm a great deal lower on the cosmic food chain, but I too offer my (qualified) nod of approval. More research into the current usages of nomenclature, Author Cooper.

Cardinal Budd is a character I think we all hope will be a truthful representation of church officialdom. As the new Pope Innocent (!) XIV, he is someone who would inflame the civil war over progressivism that Western culture is having very broadly. In fact, if you'd like to see the progress of that civil war, go look at the schism in Goodreads reviewers' ratings and opinions about this read. Goodness gracious me.

So big kudos for that service to us all! Anything that gets people stirred up and talking is, in my view, a good thing. It's not going to get resolved any time soon, this book might not change a single position, but positions can never change if they're simply unchallenged.

I found the characters in the story hard to relate to, as I expected; I've known in my core there was no god since I was five. I find people who believe in one utterly perplexing. I find people who "serve" a god I do not for a second believe they believe in reprehensible. There are good people who, for some reason, believe this guff. There are not professional administrators who do, or I'll eat your hat. Executives have the inside story, so they can by definition see through the charade of their organization's public relations. It's like lawyers; they know the law, and its execution, too well to buy the tale spun to dazzle the outsiders into accepting impartiality and fairness rule the juridical roost.

I'm all the way there supporting the conversation this story should ignite. I felt, though, distant and almost cold-shouldered by the way this story does not examine the stunningly complex battle lines it could have drawn. I understand the author's choice not to do the direct confrontation of the issue raised. I can't say I agree; an earlier, and more direct presentation of the secret issue Innocent (!)XIV was carrying would, to my mind, suit Cardinal Budd's stated personality traits better. As such I questioned whether what I was told was Budd's personal behavior pattern was accurate. I'll note here that I had he same issue with the much more disappointing Conclave, film and book.

I don't wish to leave the impression that I did not enjoy this read; I did, with all the schadenfreude I was expecting to revel in. I note the areas I felt the execution of the story did not match the author's ambitious imagination to be sure you will go into the read with the most information I can reach back to you from my readerly vantage point.

But go into the read I hope you will, and soon.