The Collector (Gabriel Allon Series) by Daniel Silva

About the book: In the electrifying twenty-third thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Daniel Silva, Gabriel Allon undertakes a search for a stolen Vermeer masterpiece and uncovers a conspiracy that could bring the world to the brink of nuclear Armageddon.

On the morning after the Venice Preservation Society’s annual black-tie gala, art restorer and legendary spy Gabriel Allon enters his favourite coffee bar on the island of Murano to find General Cesare Ferrari, the commander of the Art Squad, eagerly awaiting his arrival. The Carabinieri have made a startling discovery in the Amalfi villa of a murdered South African shipping tycoon - a secret vault containing an empty frame and stretcher matching the dimensions of the world’s most valuable missing painting. General Ferrari asks Gabriel to quietly track down the artwork before the trail goes cold.

“Isn’t that your job?”

“Finding stolen paintings? Technically speaking, yes. But you’re much better at it than we are.”

The painting in question is The Concert by Johannes Vermeer, one of thirteen works of art stolen from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990. With the help of a most unlikely ally, a beautiful Danish computer hacker and professional thief, Gabriel soon discovers that the painting has changed hands as part of an illicit billion-dollar business deal involving a man code-named the Collector, an energy executive with close ties to the highest levels of Russian power.

The missing masterpiece is the lynchpin of a conspiracy that if successful, could plunge the world into a conflict of apocalyptic proportions. To foil the plot, Gabriel must carry out a daring heist of his own, with millions of lives hanging in the balance.

Elegant, meticulously plotted, and filled with a cast of unforgettable characters, The Collector moves swiftly from the graceful canals of Venice to the windswept coast of northern Denmark to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia - and, finally, to a heart-pounding climax in Russia as current as tomorrow’s headlines.

This extraordinary novel - wildly entertaining, deeply illuminative, with flashes of wry humor - demonstrates why Daniel Silva is the unrivalled master of international intrigue and suspense, and “quite simply the best” (Kansas City Star).

The Collector (2023) is the twenty-third instalment in the enthralling Gabriel Allon spy thriller series by Daniel Silva.

About the author: Daniel Silva was born in Michigan in 1960 and raised in California where he received his BA from Fresno State. Silva began his writing career as a journalist for United Press International (UPI), traveling in the Middle East and covering the Iran-Iraq war, terrorism and political conflicts. From UPI he moved to CNN, where he eventually became executive producer of its Washington-based public policy programming. In 1994, he began work on his first novel, The Unlikely Spy, a surprise best seller that won critical acclaim. He turned to writing full time in 1997 and all of his books have been New York Times/national best sellers, translated into more than thirty languages and published across Europe and the world. He lives in Florida with his wife, television journalist Jamie Gangel, and their twins, Lily and Nicholas.

Rating: 5/5

Mechthild of Hackeborn: The Book of Special Grace by Mechthild

About the book: Mechthild of Hackeborn: The Book of Special Grace (part of the The Classics of Western Spirituality Series) (2017) by Mechthild of Hackeborn is introduced and translated from the German by Barbara Newman.

"In the last decades of the thirteenth century, the Benedictine/Cistercian nuns of the convent of Helfta in Saxony produced a remarkable body of mystical literature. One of the gems of this collection was The Book of Special Grace of Mechthild of Hackeborn. Barbara Newman has now made the message of 'this ambassador of joy...who awakens longing for heaven' available for the modern reader in this fine new selection, the first English translation in six hundred years." - Bernard McGinn, University of Chicago Divinity School

Mechthild of Hackeborn's (1241-1298) classic work, The Book of Special Grace, was composed at the illustrious Saxon nunnery of Helfta. This remarkable Book consists of visions and revelations about liturgical feasts, saints and the Blessed Virgin, along with many other revelations experienced by the mystical nun, as recounted to her sisters between 1291 and 1298. These visions reveal the deeply communal, optimistic spirituality of the Helfta nuns, which revolved around their sacramental and liturgical life and asserted strong, durable bonds between the living and the dead.

Renowned medieval scholar Barbara Newman has provided a selective translation that focuses especially on passages devoted to the Sacred Heart, the friendship between Mechthild and Gertrude the Great, and the nature of life in community. 

This volume will be a treasure to all who seek to steep themselves in the best that the medieval women mystics have to offer. 

About the translator: Barbara Newman is professor of English, religious studies, and classics and John Evans Professor of Latin at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. The author of many books on medieval spirituality and literature as well as several books and articles on Hildegard of Bingen, she holds a PhD in medieval studies from Yale University. 

The Lasting Harm by Lucia Osborne-Crowley

About the book: In November 2021, Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of five counts of sex-trafficking of minors, and now faces twenty years in prison for the role she played in Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse of four girls. 

The trial was meticulously covered by journalist and legal reporter Lucia Osborne-Crowley, one of the only reporters allowed into the courtroom every day.

The Lasting Harm (2024) is her account of that trial, a gripping true crime drama and a blistering critique of a criminal justice system ill-equipped to deliver justice for abuse survivors, no matter the outcome.

Giving voice to four women and their testimonies, and supplemented by exclusive interviews, The Lasting Harm brings this incendiary trial to life, questions our age-old appetite for crime and punishment and offers a new blueprint for meaningful reparative justice.

About the author: Lucia Osborne-Crowley is a trained lawyer, legal reporter and journalist and the author of two books, I Choose Elena (2019) and My Body Keeps Your Secrets (2021), winner of a Somerset Maugham Award. Her forensic but accessible reporting of the Maxwell trial was described as some of the best and most trauma-informed coverage of the case, and it saw her social media following grow by over 35,000 followers. She has appeared as an expert journalist on the Maxwell and Prince Andrew cases on BBC News, Sky News, LBC News and BBC Radio among others. Her analysis appeared in print in the Independent and ABC News online. Elsewhere, her news reporting has appeared in the Guardian, the Sunday Times and GQ Magazine and her literary writing has been published in Granta and Meanjin.

Mary The Mystical Rose by Reverend A M Weigl

About the book: "These are my times," Our Blessed Mother said to her priests in the Marian Movement of Priests on 3 July 1987. She is especially chosen to play a key role in these latter days of the world. She shows great concern for the salvation of all her children throughout the five continents of the world. She identified herself as the "Woman Clothed With the Sun", chosen to do battle with the "Red Dragon" and his cohorts. The Blessed Virgin Mary once again clarified her role as Co-Redemptrix and Mediatrix of all graces. 

The apparitions of Our Blessed Mother under the title of "Rosa Mystica" (Mystical Rose) at Montichiari in Northern Italy to a humble Italian woman, Pierina Gilli, have great significance for our times. The original purpose of these appearances of Our Blessed Mother was the reform of the clergy and religious houses. By appearing with the two children of Fatima, Francisco and Jacinta, on 7 December 1947 (the sixth apparition) in the parish church, she showed that her appearance under the title of "Rosa Mystica" was a continuation of the message of Fatima. She once again urged us to pray the Rosary and to do penance. 

May this little book help to clarify the role of our Blessed Mother in these modern times and foster true charity and devotion to her Immaculate Heart. Her triumph over atheism and every other evil will be a great blessing to all her devoted children. The last chapter of this book tells of the happenings at St John of God Church in Chicago, Illinois, from 29-31 May 1984.

May this book, Mary The Mystical Rose (1974, 1988), which is based on the apparitions of Montichiari and dedicated to the Mother of the Church, contribute powerfully to a genuine renewal of Christian life and of society. However, renewal must, as throughout the Church's history, start from the shepherd and then spread to the flock. The shepherds must first be renewed, then the flock. Today, it is more necessary than ever.

The book can be purchased new here or used from Amazon and eBay.

A Few Lines Say A Lot

Murder At Lordship: Inside the Hunt For A Detective's Killer by Pat Marry and Robin Schiller

About the book: In January 2013, the nation was horrified when Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe was murdered as he carried out a routine cash-escort duty at the Lordship Credit Union in Dundalk, Co Louth. 

Aaron Brady, the chief suspect, fled to the United States where he built a new life for himself, starting a family. While in some ways he was careful to cover his tracks, his habit of bragging about the murder after a few drinks would eventually see him arrested and charged. 

Deported back to Ireland where he faced the prospect of a 40 year jail term, Brady coordinated a campaign of witness intimidation from his cell in Mountjoy Prison. 

Pat Marry, former colleague of Adrian Donohoe and the detective inspector in charge of the investigation, and journalist Robin Schiller take us inside the notorious case, describing the gardai's unprecedented collaboration with the FBI, the NYPD and Homeland Security which finally brought Brady to justice, following the lengthiest police inquiry and murder trial in the history of the Irish state. 

Filled with details not previously known to the public, Murder at Lordship (2024) is an inside account of the shocking murder of Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe and the investigation which finally brought his killer to justice. 

About the authors: After being turned away by An Garda Síochána at 17 for being too young, Pat Marry joined the force eight years later. He went on to investigate some of Ireland's most high profile cases, including the killings of Rachel O'Reilly and Garda Adrian Donohue. He retired in 2018 at the rank of Detective Inspector. In 2019 he published a memoir, The Making of a Detectiv: A Garda's Story of Investigating Some of Ireland's Most Notorious Crimes.

Robin Schiller is a journalist for Mediahuis Ireland covering Independent.ie, the Irish Independent and the Sunday Independent.

Suddenly And Unexpectedly: Non-Fiction - The End of Our Times by T Michael Fahy

About the book: Suddenly and Unexpectedly: Non-Fiction - The End of Our Times (2012) is factual and non-speculative. It is based upon the author's 42 years of accumulated research, discovery, personal encounters, writings, lectures, conferences, and a broad variety of other related experiences.

The contents of this book demonstrate with certainty that unprecedented, irreversible events of universal importance are imminent, and some are already in progress. 

These events will bring a definitive, terrible, and destructive end to our present times, which will be followed by a totally new, peaceful and happy era in human history for those who survive.

There are alive today (in late 2012) influential, world leaders, both good and bad, who are already aware of significant aspects of the generally unknown facts described in this book.

About the author: T Michael Fahy was training for nuclear warfare in 1962 as an officer of the United States Air Force during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Some years later, Fahy accepted a position with Standard Oil Company in New York as a financial analyst. While working at the oil company, he had an unusual experience. Soon after his unusual experience, he left Standard Oil and began to follow the lead indicated by that experience. 42 years later (in 2012), having devoted all those years to constant discovery and teaching what has been made known to him, it eventually brought about the publication of the incredible contents of this book. 

Beware

The Discreet Charm Of The Big Bad Wolf (The Detective Varg Series) by Alexander McCall Smith

About the book: The Discreet Charm of the Big Bad Wolf (2023) is the hilarious fourth novel in the best-selling Detective Varg series set in Malmö, Sweden. This time, Ulf Varg will need to resolve both a sensitive crime and his own delicate dilemma in the hopes of preserving the peace.

The Department of Sensitive Crimes is downsizing in light of a recent downturn of sensitive crime, and staff members are wondering who among them will be transferred elsewhere. As the bickering between colleagues intensifies, Ulf tries his best to stay above the fray. 

But when Anna, a longtime friend and coworker, appears to blame him for an old case that went sideways, it seems she may be putting her own job prospects above their friendship.

In the midst of all this, Ulf embarks on an important inquiry: a man’s cabin has mysteriously disappeared and Ulf is tasked with finding out what happened. How exactly does one steal a house? And, more to the point, how does one track down a stolen house? 

Meanwhile, a promising veterinary treatment for deafness in dogs has been announced, and Ulf’s dog, Martin, might be the perfect patient.

This latest novel is another masterful, farcical instalment in the series that defines the genre that Alexander McCall Smith is singlehandedly championing: Scandi blanc.

About the author: Alexander McCall Smith, often referred to as ‘Sandy’, is one of the world’s most prolific and best-loved authors. His various series of books have been translated into forty-six languages and become bestsellers throughout the world. These include the highly successful The No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, the popular 44 Scotland Street novels, the Isabel Dalhousie novels, the von Igelfeld series and the new Detective Varg novels. He also writes stand-alone novels, children's fiction and libretti for short operas.

Alexander has received numerous awards for his writing and holds thirteen honorary doctorates from universities in Europe and North America.  He is Professor Emeritus of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh. In 2007, he received a CBE for services to literature and in 2011 was honoured by the President of Botswana for services through literature to the country.  In 2015, he received the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction and in 2017, The National Arts Club (of America) Medal of Honour for Achievement in Literature. In 2020, he received the honorary fellowship of the FT Weekend Oxford Literary Festival. In 2021, he received the coveted Edinburgh Awards, chosen by the people and cross-party politicians of Edinburgh. And in 2022 he received the Lifetime Achievement in the Saltire Literary Awards for contribution to the Arts at the Scottish Book Awards.

Rating: 5/5

The Instruments Of Darkness (Charlies Parker Series) by John Connolly

About the book: The Instruments of Darkness (2024) is the twenty-first instalment in the gripping and exceptional Charlie Parker series set in the northeasternmost US state of Maine.

Parker's efforts to help a woman accused of kidnapping and killing her own child draw him deep into the forests of Maine, where a house holds an old evil.

Colleen Clark stands accused of the worst crime a mother can commit: the abduction and possible murder of her child. Everyone - ambitious politicians in an election season, hardened police, ordinary folk - has an opinion on the case, and most believe she is guilty.

But most is not all. 

Defending Colleen is the lawyer Moxie Castin, and working alongside him is the private investigator Charlie Parker, who senses the tale has another twist, one involving a husband too eager to accept his wife’s guilt, a group of fascists arming for war, a disgraced psychic seeking redemption, and an old, twisted house deep in the Maine woods, a house that should never have been built.

A house, and what dwells beneath...

About the author: John Connolly was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1968 and has, at various points in his life, worked as a journalist, a barman, a local government official, a waiter and a dogsbody at Harrods department store in London. (A dogsbody, for our North American friends, is a 'go-fer'.) He studied English in Trinity College, Dublin and journalism at Dublin City University, subsequently spending five years working as a freelance journalist for The Irish Times newspaper. He divides his time between Dublin and Portland, Maine; makes regular donations to the wine industry; and keeps a number of dogs in a remarkable degree of comfort.

Rating: 5/5

The Perfect Passion Company (Perfect Passion Company Series) by Alexander McCall Smith

About the book: The Perfect Passion Company (2024) is Alexander McCall Smith's brand new series which started out with two short stories, Cook For Me (2023) and A Labourer in the Vineyard of Love (2023) in e-book format, but are now both appearing in the full-length novel The Perfect Passion Company!

The Perfect Passion Dating Company at No 24 Mouse Lane in Edinburgh’s New Town is run by Katie Donald who has an innate instinct for bringing people together. She is ‘standing in’ while the owner goes travelling and quickly develops a skill for finding out what it is that people really want. 

Along the way, Katie learns profound lessons about her own desires as she works at better understanding those of others. Although Katie has little in the way of direct experience, with the help of her amiable and handsome office neighbour William Kidd, she soon finds herself making matches for the lonely hearts tired of meeting online - and who want a more personal touch.

Stop swiping left and right and find the heart of the one you are looking for.

For fans of Alexander McCall Smith’s many beloved series and romantic standalone novels, The Perfect Passion Company shows him at his most perceptive, playful, and generous. In the way that only McCall Smith can, this novel offers a glimpse inside the psychology of matchmaking, the search for love and companionship, and the mysterious spark of attraction that can, at times, catch hold of us all.

About the author: Alexander McCall Smith, often referred to as ‘Sandy’, is one of the world’s most prolific and best-loved authors. His various series of books have been translated into forty-six languages and become bestsellers throughout the world. These include the highly successful The No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, the popular 44 Scotland Street novels, the Isabel Dalhousie novels, the von Igelfeld series and the new Detective Varg novels. He also writes stand-alone novels, children's fiction and libretti for short operas.

Alexander has received numerous awards for his writing and holds thirteen honorary doctorates from universities in Europe and North America.  He is Professor Emeritus of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh. In 2007, he received a CBE for services to literature and in 2011 was honoured by the President of Botswana for services through literature to the country.  In 2015, he received the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction and in 2017, The National Arts Club (of America) Medal of Honour for Achievement in Literature. In 2020, he received the honorary fellowship of the FT Weekend Oxford Literary Festival. In 2021, he received the coveted Edinburgh Awards, chosen by the people and cross-party politicians of Edinburgh. And in 2022 he received the Lifetime Achievement in the Saltire Literary Awards for contribution to the Arts at the Scottish Book Awards.

Rating: 5/5

Its

A Shepherd Solicitous For The Whole Church: Bishop Athanasius Schneider In Conversation With Dániel Fülep & Others edited by Peter Kwasniewski

About the book: The title of this book alludes to Lumen Gentium number 23: “Each [individual bishop], as a member of the episcopal college and legitimate successor of the apostles, is obliged by Christ’s institution and command to be solicitous for the whole Church, and this solicitude, though it is not exercised by an act of jurisdiction, contributes greatly to the advantage of the universal Church.” No more perfect words can be found to describe the life and work of Bishop Athanasius Schneider, whose mind is held captive by Christ and whose heart goes out to “all the churches” (cf. 2 Cor 10:5, 11:28). The original book was called Catholic Church, Where Are You Heading?; the title has been changed for the American edition with an allusion to the important passage quoted above.

Over the years, Bishop Schneider has granted many illuminating interviews that serve as beacons for the storm-tossed faithful. This present volume collects seven of them: the substantial interview conducted with His Excellency by the Hungarian theologian Dániel Fülep in Kazakhstan in July 2018, plus six others dating from between 2015 and 2023. 

In wide-ranging exchanges, we hear Bishop Schneider reflecting on versus populum, the validity of the new sacramental rites, celibacy, patriarchy, women’s ordination, papal elections, papolatry, Amoris Laetitia, La Salette, the conversion of Russia, the European Union, migration, Islam, the conversion of the Jews, Freemasonry, modernism, aggiornamento, the SSPX, the Neocatechumenal Way, praying the Rosary during Mass, Pius X’s reform of the breviary, episcopal conferences, and much else besides. 

We stumble across delightful revelations: how the bishop’s little book Dominus Est changed the Vatican’s liturgical policy; how, after a lapse of 27 years, he was able to visit the priest, then 86 years old, who had given him his First Communion - and who then humbly served his Mass like an altar boy; the Soviet propaganda songs he had to learn as a child; why he chose “Kyrie eleison” as his episcopal motto.

In these edifying pages - A Shepherd Solicitous For The Whole Church: Bishop Athanasius Schneider In Conversation With Dániel Fülep & Others (2024) - we hear, again and again, the voice of a good shepherd who is truly and ardently solicitous for the whole Church.

About Athanasius Schneider: Athanasius Schneider ORC was born in Tokmok, Kirghiz SSR, in the Soviet Union. He is a Catholic prelate serving as the Auxiliary Bishop of Astana in Kazakhstan. He is a member of the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross of Coimbra. He is known for championing the pre-Vatican II liturgical traditions and practices of the Church and for protesting certain current policies, including some associated with Pope Francis. (Source: Wikipedia)

About Dániel Fülep: Dániel Fülep is a Roman Catholic theologian, biologist MSc and biology teacher. Born in Miskolc (Hungary), he completed his university studies at the University of Debrecen TTK and the Pázmány Péter Catholic University HTK. As a high school teacher and faith teacher catechist, he has a decade and a half of experience. He is the author and publisher of many theological and spiritual articles, studies. His field of research is the relationship between tradition and modernity.

About Peter Kwasniewski: Peter Kwasniewski is is an American traditionalist Catholic writer and composer. Over the past twenty years, Kwasniewski has published over 1,300 articles, both academic and popular, on sacramental and liturgical theology, the aesthetics of music, Thomistic thought, and the social doctrine of the Church. His articles have been translated into at least 18 languages. Dr Kwasniewski writes regularly for New Liturgical Movement, OnePeterFive, LifeSiteNews, Rorate Caeli, The Remnant, Catholic Family News, and The Latin Mass magazine. Many of his approximately 150 musical works have been performed in liturgical settings and in concert. He is a Fellow of the Albertus Magnus Center for Scholastic Studies and a Senior Fellow of the St Paul Center in Steubenville. 

2024 United Kingdom Elections