David Skibbins High Priestess

High Priestess

Almost four decades ago, radical Warren Ritter escaped the Greenwich Village explosion that killed many of his colleagues. He literally went underground leaving behind the Weather Underground and made a fortune in the seventies with Microsoft stock. Now for fun, Ritter reads tarot cards from an outdoor table in Berkeley.

Edward Hightower founder of the Fellowship of the Arising Night satanic worshippers tries to hire Warren to uncover who is killing his followers. Ritter says no so Hightower reveals that he knows the fortune teller's Manhattan past as he is the twin brother to Ritter's girlfriend from back then Veronique. Unable to refuse and not wanting to go into hiding, which is a young man's game, plus the bribe of meeting the daughter he never knew he conceived prove too much. Ritter, enlisting help from his girlfriend wheelchair-bound Sally McLaughlin and his friend Police Officer James McNally, investigates even as he turns to the Tarot Cards to guide him, but his inquiries make him a person of interest.

HIGH PRIESTESS is an entertaining amateur sleuth tale starring a fascinating individual whose past has returned to haunt him. The storyline is action-packed from the moment that Edward visits Ritter at his table and never slows down through several intriguing twists. The thriller reads at times much like its excellent predecessor (see EIGHT OF SWORDS) with the anti-hero struggling with manic-depression especially when he thinks back to his radical days. There is a final climatic spin that will stun the audience. No one reads the cards quite as well as Ritter does.

Harriet Klausner

David Skibbins

Dunne, Apr 2006, $23.95

ISBN 0312352336