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Salem's Cipher by Jess Lourey
Salem Wiley is a young woman with a promising future. Minneapolis Magazine listed her as a twenty-something to watch for ground-breaking work in cryptanalysis completed during her undergraduate studies. Impressive. But dwarfed by the media attention her mother, Vida Wiley, commands as a controversial history professor and expert on women’s history in particular. Salem prefers anonymity and avoids public attention almost as much as she does her mother. Their estrangement followed the untimely and suspicious death of her father. Now, Salem lives quietly, alone, teaching underprivileged children. Until a spate of ghastly deaths tears apart her carefully crafted isolated world. Vida and Grace, the mother of Salem’s best—only—friend, Bel, are missing. This skyrockets them into a cross-country search for their mothers and answers to a century’s old riddle. If you enjoy conspiracies with preternatural supervillains, this book delivers. Lourey’s high-stakes, fast-paced novel keeps readers glued to the pages. The strong first act delivers computational mathematics awash in historical allegories. As a lover of history and admirer of mathematics, I devoured the opening pages. I couldn’t read it fast enough. Then the middle slog rolled in. Salem is not a protagonist I appreciate, intelligent but wishy-washy. She grows throughout the novel, but the vacillation in her character grated on my nerves. Bel is a solid friend with a tough exterior and gooey insides. A novel centered around a cabal of billionaires is timely given current events. History woven into fiction narratives is a technique high on my favorites list. Still, I felt Lourey failed to address the supernatural aspect of the plot. Given the ending, I’m sure this will be addressed in the sequel. Good story. Plot holes which do not detract too much from the narrative flow. I believe it’s worth reading.
Salem Wiley is a young woman with a promising future. Minneapolis Magazine listed her as a twenty-something to watch for ground-breaking work in cryptanalysis completed during her undergraduate studies. Impressive. But dwarfed by the media attention her mother, Vida Wiley, commands as a controversial history professor and expert on women’s history in particular. Salem prefers anonymity and avoids public attention almost as much as she does her mother. Their estrangement followed the untimely and suspicious death of her father. Now, Salem lives quietly, alone, teaching underprivileged children. Until a spate of ghastly deaths tears apart her carefully crafted isolated world. Vida and Grace, the mother of Salem’s best—only—friend, Bel, are missing. This skyrockets them into a cross-country search for their mothers and answers to a century’s old riddle. If you enjoy conspiracies with preternatural supervillains, this book delivers. Lourey’s high-stakes, fast-paced novel keeps readers glued to the pages. The strong first act delivers computational mathematics awash in historical allegories. As a lover of history and admirer of mathematics, I devoured the opening pages. I couldn’t read it fast enough. Then the middle slog rolled in. Salem is not a protagonist I appreciate, intelligent but wishy-washy. She grows throughout the novel, but the vacillation in her character grated on my nerves. Bel is a solid friend with a tough exterior and gooey insides. A novel centered around a cabal of billionaires is timely given current events. History woven into fiction narratives is a technique high on my favorites list. Still, I felt Lourey failed to address the supernatural aspect of the plot. Given the ending, I’m sure this will be addressed in the sequel. Good story. Plot holes which do not detract too much from the narrative flow. I believe it’s worth reading.
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