The Virgin of The Wind Rose, by Glen Craney, A Review

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Don’t Miss This Adventure Thriller from Glen Craney

The Virgin of the Wind Rose is an excellent novel that crosses time and continents,  If you enjoy a good adventure, you will enjoy this engrossing tale filled with clues that may lead to secrets and a treasure without price.

Jaqueline Quartermane is a newly hired lawyer with the State Department. A respected position that comes with some power. Will that status be enough to keep her alive?

When Jaqueline first learns that her fiance has been killed, she is heartbroken but determined to retrieve his body, to bring him home.  What she learns on that trip will set her world spinning.  It will also set her on her own mission to find the truth, a truth that began centuries ago.

In a story that combines the distant past with present day, Virgin of the Wind Rose will take the reader to the mid 1400’s, to a young boy who dreams of being on the sea, captain of a ship, perhaps even a fleet. Only he has never seen the ocean.  Then, to the present where our heroine searching desperately for answers.  The two seem very disconnected. How could that past and the present connect?

Read on!

The journey takes us to…

  • An ancient palindrome carved into a secret pillar.
  • Underground tunnels beneath ancient cathedrals, hiding more than the past.
  • Secret maps.
  • The Knights of Templar.
  • And perhaps the most valuable prize that could be found.

All with someone following close behind her or one step ahead, to profit or to kill?

Clues based on a wheel, each requiring decryption. Will they all lead to the same thing?  Complex, when you begin to put together appropriate meaning to each word. Will they lead to what the seek or are they already too late?

What does it all mean?  How much of what Jaqueline is told is truth?  Jaq’s investigation might assure her she is on the right path, but few others believe her.  Only one man will help her, Elymas, an antiquities thief, but can she trust him? Will the clues lead to an answer or only to more questions?

The book is a well written mystery thriller, maintaining the flow of the story between past and present.  It keeps you drawn into the pages as you wonder at the numerous connections, the relationships, the past and the puzzles. There are many of each to keep the reader guessing. It’s a story that requires your attention so you don’t miss anything, all the way to the surprising ending.

Mr. Craney has clearly done thorough research to include the history encompassing many different continents.

The fast paced, entertaining premise demands you keep reading.  The Virgin of the Wind Rose is a terrific example of where the simple question of “what if ?” might take an imaginative author.  I’ll be reading many more from this fine author.

You will enjoy it!

Author’s Bio:

Glen Craney holds graduate degrees from Indiana University School of Law and Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He practiced trial law before joining the Washington, D.C. press corps to cover national politics and the Iran-contra trial for Congressional Quarterly magazine.

The Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences awarded him the Nicholl Fellowship prize for best new screenwriting, and he is a three-time finalist for Foreword Reviews Book-of-the-Year Award. His debut historical novel, The Fire and the Light, was honored as Best New Fiction by the National Indie Excellence Awards.

His books have taken readers to Occitania during the Albigensian Crusade, to the Scotland of Robert Bruce, to Portugal during the Age of Discovery, to the trenches of France during World War I, and to the American Hoovervilles of the Great Depression.

Awards:

AMPAS Nicholl Fellowship Winner
indieBRAG Medallion Honoree
Chaucer Award Double Finalist
Nautilus Silver Award Winner
IPPY Silver Award Winner
NIEA Award Winner for Best New Fiction
Eric Hoffer Finalist/Honorable Mention Winner
Three-time Foreword Reviews Book-of-the-Year Finalist
Da Vinci Eye Award Finalist


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Merry Citarella, often writing as Merrci, writes on a wide range of topics. Recently relocated to the Oregon Coast in the northwest United States, she frequently writes travel features on the beautiful Pacific Northwest. She specializes in health and aging, Alzheimer’s Disease, food, lifestyle, and book reviews. For more information you can see her on The Writers’Door. You can read more articles here or at her websites Alzheimers HQ and Simple Living Ideas

Author: Merry Citarella

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