Sci-Fi, Fantasy & Horror Reviews

Book Review: The Rook

By Sandy Amazeen Jan 17, 2012, 3:01 GMT

"The body you are wearing used to be mine." So begins the letter Myfanwy Thomas is holding when she awakes in a London park surrounded by bodies all wearing latex gloves. With no recollection of who she is, Myfanwy must follow the instructions her former self left behind to discover her identity and track down the agents who want to destroy her. She soon learns that she is a Rook, ...more

Waking up in a London park drenched by a downpour and the ground littered with bodies all of whom are wearing latex gloves, an amnesiac woman discovers two letters in her coat pocket along with an epi-pen. One of the strange letters explains how the body she currently inhabits was once owned by the letter’s author, Myfanwy Thomas. Following instructions, Myfanwy finds a carefully created safe house and is given a choice between relocating far from London where she can begin a new, comfortably well-off life or stay in the city, attempt to pass herself off as the “real” Thomas and find out what happened to her that night in the park.

Myfanwy learns she once worked for the clandestine Chequy organization that seeks out and employs those possessing supernatural abilities as crime fighters. As her life is repeatedly threatened, Myfanwy discovers she shares Thomas’s ability to kill simply by touch but that ability has now morphed into something more. Pitted against an assortment of powerful opponents including lethal children is one thing, figuring out how to cope with dream figures is quite another. As Myfanwy navigates the dangerous world inside and out of the Chequy organization, she begins to see the makings of a complex and sinister conspiracy. What she failed to appreciate was just how far some were prepared to go in order to create the prefect human weapons and what those weapons were capable of.

Fast moving and refreshingly different, this outstanding debut delivers wit along with plenty of surprising twists that keep the reader slightly off balance in an enjoyable, Dr. Who sort of way. The character development and plot draws readers in from the first page and holds interest to the last page. Let’s hope for more from this new author.