Jess Lourey

The Publisher Says: A troubled codebreaker faces an epic plot reaching back through centuries of America's secret history

Salem Wiley is a genius cryptanalyst, courted by the world's top security agencies ever since making a breakthrough discovery in her field of quantum computing. She's also an agoraphobe, shackled to a narrow routine by her fear of public places. When her mother's disappearance is linked to a plot to assassinate the country's first viable female presidential candidate, show more Salem finds herself both target and detective in a modern-day witch hunt.

Drawn into a labyrinth of messages encrypted by Emily Dickinson and centuries-old codes tucked inside the Beale Cipher, Salem begins to uncover the truth: an ancient and ruthless group is hell-bent on ruling the world, and only a select group of women stands in its way.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Secret history novels are always fun for me...they put a spin on the facts that usually makes very little sense, but has the lovely quality of being off-the-wall...and this outing into that garden of fantasy is no disappointment.

If James Rollins had written a woman-centered story, this is what it would feel like. Since I like James Rollins, I think of that as a compliment. Salem and Bel, with their matrilineal cultish secret society, The Underground, are in opposition to the male-dominated world-spanning cult, The Order...don't you love the harkening back to the antique world's division of authority into women/Earth::men/land?...each side ready to lie, cheat, and kill to accomplish their goals. The two (so far) stories in Salems world make it clear that the nightmare of christian nationalism and fascistic order/totalitarianism are only going to be effectively opposed by women organizing and taking their power back into their own hands.

This being a message I am totally on board with, I say go get you a copy and learn what one intelligent, observant woman thinks is worth fighting for, and how to do it. I won't say it's a roadmap since we live in mundane reality not Conspiracytopia, but I will say I agree that the stakes are existential.

When the next woman is nominated to run for president I will not be surprised if she faces some sort of threat very similar to this story's plot. There is no reason to think that the incels and MAGAts will change in the next four years. I hope that somewhere there is an actual real-life cabal of powerful women ready to blast the patriarchy that will come gunning for her. If they had the quasi-mystical powers that the Underground...do you not just love the echoes of Persephone in that name?...and if they could just use Emily Dickinsons poetry a a cipher, too....

The idea of power in the hands of women scares some men so badly that they will stoop to anything to stop it from occurring. This being amply demonstrated by the events of 2016, when the first version of this book came out, the anxiety that propeled this story reads as relevant today as it ever has. Absent some Great Dismantling of the patriarchy, the plot of this story will remain evergreen.

An excellent investment of a minimal amount of money, for very solid return of pleasure in the read. show less

Lourey, a successful murder-mystery author, has begun a promising foray into magical realism with this tale. While maybe a bit too reminiscent of Alice Hoffman, particularly Practical Magic, the story is strong, the characters are engaging, and the premise is promising.

Katrine Catalain returns to the small Minnesota town in which she grew up, reeling from her husband's betrayal, to find comfort with her family (who happen to be witches). She's been away for 15 years, and a lot has changed. show more For one thing, her sister Jasmine doesn't seem to want to do magic anymore and although Katrine believes it was Jasmine who called her home, Jasmine doesn't seem to want anything to do with her. While Katrine comes to terms with her heartbreak; gets to know her young niece, Tara; and tries to repair relationships; she is unaware that the family curse is stalking both her and Tara, and that Jasmine's secrets might be the key to breaking it.

Being a sucker for both magical realism and Minnesota authors, I just had to request this book when I saw it come available on NetGalley. I was really not at all disappointed! I hope to read more from this author, and wouldn't mind another book set in the world of the Catalains. show less

When you need to read something that takes your mind off the fact that you're lying in an emergency room bed waiting for test results, pick up a copy of Jess Lourey's The Quarry Girls. In reading the history of "Pantown", Minnesota, I learned that a factory owner built his factory as well as a town for his workers to live in. To prevent any work stoppages during the often brutal winter weather, he also built a series of tunnels between the factory and the housing development. I don't like show more being underground, so that was the first time my mental "red alert" siren went off. Then I learned that an "underground maze connected everybody's basements." With the addition of a few more little tidbits, my imagination went to town, and I read the rest of the novel feeling-- for the lack of a better term-- creeped out.

The Quarry Girls is told from the point of view of teenage Heather, who has a twelve-year-old sister, Junie, a manic-depressive mother who's zoned out more than she's zoned in, and a father who's the district attorney and spends most of his time at work. Heather has been the real caregiver of the family. She makes sure meals are on the table, the laundry is done, and Junie is doing what she should be, as well as keeping an eye on her mother. This young girl is not only the caregiver of her family but she also feels the need to protect her friends. That's an awful lot of responsibility for such young shoulders.

When her friends go missing, Heather waits for the police to do their job, but when they don't, she starts searching for answers. She must save her friends. The truth that she finds isn't very palatable. The people she thought she knew and could trust aren't who they seem to be. She learns that Pantown is the type of place where "If we didn't like something, we simply didn't see it." The more she learns, the more she realizes that "You can't live in the dark and feel good about yourself." The moment she weighs everything she learns and decides enough is enough almost made me cheer. Heather is that kind of character.

However, The Quarry Girls isn't only about Heather. Throughout the story, readers catch glimpses of a young woman named Beth, who's been kidnapped and knows her time is running out. With the underground layout of Pantown, Heather's search for the truth, and Beth's desperate situation, there were times that I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. Lourey did an excellent job of keeping me guessing-- and I didn't always guess correctly.

If you're in the mood for a thrill ride of a novel, The Quarry Girls just may be the answer for you. show less

It is the summer of '77, and a teen waitress, Beth, goes missing. Teens Heather, Brenda, and Maureen are best friends and in a band. Heather notices that Brenda and Maureen seem to be growing up without her, and their interest in sketchy boys concerns her. Her 12 y.o. sister, Junie, also is becoming interested. Heather is taking on a lot of responsibility at home, with her mother very depressed. Her dad, is the district attorney, but when Heather and Brenda witness their friend Maureen doing show more something questionable, Heather and Brenda don't mention it to her dad. Then Maureen goes missing at the quarry.
What follows is a tense thriller about town secrets, family secrets, growing up and losing your innocence in the saddest way. Enjoyed this novel, and will read more by Lourey. show less