Deb’s Dozen: 12-Word Summaries – Tragedy, treachery, twins, twists, and turns. Mother, siblings, spouses, suitors. Living water.

Seldom have I been drawn into a book so quickly. She had me at the first sentences, The ringing phone interrupted my first good night’s sleep in two weeks. My heart raced, and the Sixth Commandment echoed through my groggy brain. I am archaeologist Grace Madison, and I do not typically kill people. I could immediately identify as my favorite Proverb is 27:14, which paraphrased says, Whoever greets his friend early in the morning with a loud voice shall be cursed.

I was one with Grace at that moment. I read the next sentence, The shot shattered the window inches from her head. Okay, now I’m really hooked. Two paragraphs and one sentence into the book and I know that I’m in for a raucous ride with twists and turns and trauma and tragedy. Little did I know how true that snap assessment would prove.

From Belgium and Colorado and Paris and the Swiss Alps, the family Madison convenes to find their missing member, Maggie, the hydrologist, kidnapped once before. Enter the Mossad, the MOSES team (a group of geriatric academicians who’d helped in the last Madison family fiasco), a renegade priest, and a beautiful red-headed scoundrel who loves son, Jeffrrrrey, now married to MI6 agent, Becca.

All the players in place, the chase can now begin. With a multiplicity of backgrounds in play: Jeff, the son and linguist knowledgeable in archaic languages; Grace, the archaeologist with decades of experience; Maggie, the hydrologist and missing daughter; Mark, Grace’s husband, and ex-CIA; and Becca, Jeff’s wife, the aforementioned MI6 agent, the story quickly becomes convoluted. Water and Luther and Israel and Rome and Venice are all involved in a mystery the group must solve by following a four-thousand-year-old artifact trail .

I loved the way NLB Horton keeps all the players straight and always progresses toward the culmination of the story even with all the convolutions resident in the plot. We know that the assembled team will be victorious in the end – how could they not be? Still, with the stumbling blocks and villains in their path, we can’t help but keep turning pages to find out how they will succeed.

I was disappointed in the ending, but as there is a third book underway (the first was When Camels Fly), I surmise that NLB Horton wanted to keep the suspense at a high level. Even as a standalone novel, you won’t be disappointed in the read. I give the book 4 stars.

I was given a copy of The Brothers’ Keeper by RidgeRoute Press for my unbiased review.