Summary and Reviews of The 6th Lamentation by William Brodrick

Media Reviews

USA Today - Maureen Pao Rich with medieval and biblical allusion, The 6th Lamentation is an intricate mystery of both the mind and soul.... [Brodrick] has written an engrossing novel in which appearances are disastrously deceptive and the sins of the father painfully come to bear on the sons (and daughters).

Booklist - Keir Graff Starred Review. This first-time novelist was an Augustinian friar before becoming a barrister; his chief protagonist, Father Anselm, was a barrister before becoming a monk. Though Brodrick builds tension slowly (he's better at foreshadowing than planting clues), he's mapped his plot masterfully, and his approach to the thorny issues of justice and punishment is thoughtful and complex.

Library Journal - Angela Graven Broderick's engrossing first novel is a detailed and compelling mystery about how the past can shape the future.

Publishers Weekly [A] masterful first novel ...The complex nature of the plot demands concentration, but the effort pays off handsomely as one is swept into this heartrending story.

Kirkus Reviews The storyline is intricate enough to make one squint at times, but it's never contrived for the sake of cleverness or cheapened merely to lead the reader astray. A slo-mo thriller. Literary, too.

 Jeffrey Deaver It's indeed rare to find such a masterful blending of sharp suspense and literary resonance as we see in The Sixth Lamentation. Author Brodrick has produced a truly compelling novel.

 Martha Grimes The Sixth Lamentation is a meticulously-plotted, cat's cradle of a mystery with the interwoven stories pulled as taut as a piano-wire. The setting of Paris during the war is invoked to chilling effect. William Brodrick has written the first of what I hope will be a series of especially literate thrillers.