Book Review: Thief of Souls

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Thief of Souls     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Ann Benson
Class/Genre:   Mystery
Delacorte, Deck 2002, $23.95, 496 pp.

In 1440 Nantes, the abbess Guillemette le Drappiere, assistant and companion to Bishop of Nantes, learns that a child has gone missing. After talking to the mother of the abducted child, she starts an investigation and discovers that many similar children have vanished over the years. Guillemette and the bishop slowly come to the conclusion that the boy she nursed, the powerful Baron Gilles de Rais, is the guilty party but he is untouchable until he commits a crime of unspeakable horror against a churchman.

Over five and a half centuries later in Los Angles, Lany Dunbar is working on a case study eerily similar to the one that Guillemette investigated. Several young males, almost feminine in looks, have been abducted and their bodies never found. Each victim visited a certain popular exhibit at the La Brea Tar pits, leading Lany to the conclusion that the perpetrator is somebody connected to the exhibit who is very wealthy and has time to play out his or her fantasies. She intends to unearth and arrest this person even though the culprit knows that Lany is on the prowl.

Crime and depravity doesn’t change very much over the centuries as the actions of the villains in THIEF OF SOULS prove. In both cases, a very strong woman in a position of power brings down a seemingly untouchable person. This is a long juicy novel that takes place ten years after Joan of Arc won the battle of Orleans as well as in the present. The crimes show that the more things change the more things remain the same.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner