The Rook
A Novel
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4.4 • 42 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Myfanwy Thomas awakens in a London park surrounded by dead bodies. With her memory gone, she must trust the instructions left by her former in order to survive. She quickly learns that she is a Rook, a high-level operative in a secret agency that protects the world from supernatural threats. But there is a mole inside the organization, and this person wants her dead.
Battling to save herself, Myfanwy will encounter a person with four bodies, a woman who can enter her dreams, children transformed into deadly fighters, and terrifyingly vast conspiracy.
Suspenseful and hilarious, The Rook is an outrageously imaginative thriller for readers who like their espionage with a dollop of purple slime.
"Utterly convincing and engrossing -- -totally thought-through and frequently hilarious....Even this aging, jaded, attention-deficit-disordered critic was blown away."-Lev Grossman, Time
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
If you woke up in a London park with no idea who you are, surrounded by dead bodies that are all wearing rubber gloves, you’d probably have some questions. That’s how The Rook’s heroine, Myfanwy Thomas, feels. Thanks to letters from her past self she finds in a jacket pocket, Myfanwy quickly learns that, before losing her memory, she was a high-ranking official in the Checquy Group, a secret organization that protects England from supernatural threats—and now, someone is out to kill her. Daniel O’Malley’s stupendously entertaining and unconventional thriller pulls in paranormal elements sprung from the author’s very fertile imagination.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
At the start of Australian author O'Malley's impressive debut, a supernatural detective thriller distinguished by its adept use of humor, an unknown woman reads a letter that opens "Dear You" and closes "Sincerely, Me." The letter informs the woman that she now inhabits the body of Myfanwy Alice Thomas. A second letter from Thomas gives her body's new mental occupant a choice either flee London to take up a new, carefree life of affluence, or pretend that she is in fact Thomas in order to identify the person responsible for her memory loss. If the situation isn't confusing enough, the "new" Thomas finds herself in the middle of a park in a heavy rain; scattered on the ground are motionless bodies wearing latex gloves. After making the more interesting choice, she learns that Thomas is a "Rook," one of the leaders of a super-secret government organization that protects an unknowing public from a wide variety of paranormal threats. While the "old" Thomas has left detailed explanations about people and things for her successor, the "new" Thomas still must struggle to mask her complete ignorance about some of her major responsibilities. Dry wit, surprising reversals of fortune, and a clever if offbeat plot make this a winner. Dr. Who fans will find a lot to like.
