No Shadow Without Light

In the first book in the series, The Devil’s Prayer, Denise Russo was almost caught copying a page from the Devil’s Bible. She is chased but soon is found hanging from the bell tower in from of thousands of Easter Week spectators.

This book picks up where the first book ends. Her oldest daughter, Sioban, wants to finish what her mother started – find the twelve pages of the Devil’s Prayer. God and the Devil made an agreement that what whichever side had more of the pages will affect the human population. Inspector Luca Reginalli from the Amalfi Coast becomes involved when the Vatican task him with finding the “Nun’s oldest daughter.” With only that much information, it seems likely to fail. He uses resources and finds the Russo family. He meets Jess, the daughter of the Devil, and Grandmother Edith but no Sioban.

The description of Noah being humankind and the Ark being the earth is a reasonable theory. Noah was charged to bring two of each species onto the Ark. The assumption that if he brought four elephants on board, there would not be any room for gazelles is a parallel for what humans are doing to the earth, we are using resources that should be available for other species.

This was an excellent book and made me truly think of the current circumstances of the earth. The story was fast paced, it was written in the third person point of view, and the characters were developed. This was a wonderful sequel to The Devil’s Prayer. If you like action-packed, globe-trotting books with a fight of good versus evil, you will definitely like this one.