Cold Heaven

An atheist has a vision of the Virgin Mary. That's the promising central premise of this novel, but Brian Moore buries the lead under a hundred initial pages of bizarre events that have a great hook but create a lot of confusion. Marie's husband dies in an accident while they are in France, but his body mysteriously disappears. The mystery leads her back home to New York, then out to California. Until the premise is revealed, there is no way to fully understand her response to events or why she makes the choices and assumptions that she does. This approach might work great on television, but in a novel I found it frustrating.

I was more engaged after I understood the underlying problem Marie is wrestling with. She is forced to walk a show more fine line between reality as she knows it and the possibility that the supernatural event she witnessed may also be real. This splits her between dismissing the incredible or obeying its will, her inclination being the former but events frequently pushing her towards the latter like a course correction. Is there or is there not actually a supernatural element in this story becomes the lingering question in demand of an answer. The most interesting element is the question at the end, of whether Marie will remain satisfied with her choice. The final answer to this latter question stems not only from Marie's degree of belief, but also the reader's. show less

Saw an old email saying I've read this and really liked it, but can't remember a thing about this book. Plan to re-read to see what I was like 13 years ago