REVIEW: REPROBATION by Catherine Fearns

 

REPROBATION

Are you one of the elect?

Dr Helen Hope is a a lecturer in eschatology - the study of death, judgement, and the destiny of humankind. She is also a Calvinist nun, her life devoted to atoning for a secret crime.

When a body is found crucified on a Liverpool street, she forms an unlikely alliance with suspect Mikko Kristensen, lead guitarist in death metal band Total depravity. Together they go on the trail of a rogue geneticist who they believe holds the key - not just to the murder but to something much darker.

Aldo on the trail is cynical Scouse detective Darren Swift. In hids first murder case, he must confront his own lack of faith as a series of horrific crimes drag the city of two cathedrals to the gates of hell.

Science meets religious belief in this gripping murder mystery.

Purchase Link: REPROBATION 

 

 MY REVIEW:

Evocations of the city of Liverpool seem particularly apt at the moment. As the city struggles under the rigours of the Covid epidemic, here is a vision of it in Reprobation as a city where people live on many planes of existence: religious, criminal, medical, and the pursuit of law - not just in the police procedural sense of it but also the ethical and moral side of life that drives so much of human behaviour. What is apparent too is the desire confounded by doubt that drives so much of our understanding of the world. 

Thus we have a Nun beset with spiritual doubt, as are the police officers investigating crimes in which she has specialist knowledge. We have a death metal band, ostensibly on the side of Satan, or are they? Above all Reprobation is packed with characters whose real lives are played out below the surface. Some are harmless, though others are evil in a more profound sense because they believe that they do the Lord's work and that God speaks through them. It certainly inspired me to learn more about Calvinism. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel (the first of three). I think it was the unusual combination of the characters and their entirely believable foibles that made them, if not likable sometimes, then certainly relatable. The author has resisted playing into clichés. There is a pleasing sense of the immanent and an exploration of science versus religion that drew me in. Plus, I grew up in Birmingham and if I'm honest it was the death metal band that first attracted me to the story. It's well-paced and (I don't say this often) a real page-turner. It would make a great series so I hope it gets picked up that way. Looking forward to books 2 and 3.

About the author:

Catherine Fearns is a writer from Liverpool. Her novels Reprobation (2018) and Consuming Fire (2019) are published by Crooked Cat and are both Amazon bestsellers. As a music journalist Catherine has written for Pure Grain Audio, Broken Amp and Noisey. Her short fiction and non-fiction has appeared in Toasted Cheese, Succubus, Here Comes Everyone, Offshoots and Metal Music Studies. She lives in Geneva with her husband and four children, and when she’s not writing or parenting, she plays guitar in a heavy metal band. 

 

 

 

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS:

TWITTER - @metalmamawrites

WEBSITE - Catherine Fearns