Jerome and the Seraph

At a rural friary in Britain, Brother Jerome slips and cracks his head open on the gravestone of Brother Aloysius. Jerome is killed instantly. When he wakes up, he is not in Heaven, but alone in a gray, featureless sort of place. The first person he meets is Brother Aloysius, who apologizes for the circumstances of Jerome’s death. Jerome eventually meets up with all the dead Brothers of the friary. The "leader" or "guide" of the group is Leo, an orange tabby cat who wandered into the friary one day and made himself at home. In the other world, Leo is named Quant, short for Quantum, and can talk. Jerome realizes that Leo/Quant is not your average cat, if he can move between dimensions with no trouble at all.

Meantime, back at the show more friary, Brother Fidelis, the "boss" of the friary, has been spending a lot of time with a middle age woman new to the parish. When men become friars later in life, some are good at keeping their religious vows while others are not so good at it. By this time, Jerome has made a few visits back to the friary. He makes contact with one of the living friars, and is asked if he could possibly find himself inside the woman’s cottage while Fidelis is there; just for a peek, of course. He does, and finds a totally innocent scene of two people at lunch. Whether or not Jerome can be seen by the living friars on his walks around the friary seems to depend on the cat, Leo/Quant. A lot of things seem to depend on that dimension-hopping cat.

This is a very "quiet" novel (set at a friary, there will not be much in the way of action). It has little bits of weirdness here and there that will keep the reader interested. This belongs in that large gray area of Pretty Good or Worth Reading. show less