Cradle and All - Hardcover

Patterson, James

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316690619 ISBN 13: 9780316690614

Publisher: Little Brown and Company, 2000

Synopsis

Two teenage girls claim that they are pregnant virgins. But only one is carrying the child of Christ . . . and the other will deliver the son of Satan.
In Boston, seventeen-year-old Kathleen is pregnant, but she swears she's a virgin. In Ireland, another teenage girl, Colleen, discovers she is in the same impossible condition. Cities all around the world are suddenly overwhelmed by epidemics, droughts, famines, floods, and worse.
As terrifying forces of light and darkness begin to gather, Kathleen and Colleen find themselves at the center of the final battle for the very soul of humanity. Each of the girls must convince a young detective that she is the true mother of God . . . and that the other is carrying the devil.
The stakes couldn't be higher in this page-turning thriller. You won't be able to put it down until the final reveal: which baby is the miracle . . . and which the monster?

About this title

Review:

With the expert craftsmanship that his fans have come to expect, James Patterson's latest is an apocalyptic thriller that brilliantly melds intrigue with religious hysteria. Boasting a genuinely unnerving premise and hugely amplified with Patterson's fast-paced, uncluttered prose, Cradle and All pits the intensity of Faith against the certainties of Science within an arena of Millennial tensions. In the midst of a series of unexplained plagues and famines, two teenage girls are heavily pregnant, despite being virgins. According to the sacred prophecies of Fatima, one will bear the child of Christ and the other, the spawn of Satan. Both Anne Fitzgerald, a former nun turned private detective, and the Vatican's Father Rossetti are sent to investigate. But which girl carries which child? The possibility of miracle will be tainted with great suffering before the awful, unexpected truth is revealed. As the action speedily moves from the hallowed halls of the Vatican to the media frenzy of America to the small-town hysteria of Ireland, Patterson divines considerable suspense from the novel's central premise, tackling issues of Faith with admirable aplomb: "All over the world...so many people still believed. Everywhere, people talked of the Apocalypse, perhaps the end of the world...Which perhaps explained why so many people were suddenly going to church." A relentless, captivating pace culminating in a superbly twisted ending makes this a hard one to put down. Fans of The Excorcist's brand of religious horror will find this highly compelling. --Danny Graydon

Review:

A #1 New York Times Bestseller!

About this edition

• Publisher: Little Brown and Company
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0316690619
• ISBN 13: 9780316690614
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336