This is a bad book with a fairly simple story line. There are two young girls, both pregnant and both claiming to be virgins. One, Kathleen, rich and privileged, lives in the United States. The other, Colleen, lives in a small country village in Ireland. According to a secret missive from Our Lady of Fatima, one virgin will give birth to Satan's child, the Anti-Christ, while the other will give birth to the child of God, a new Messiah.
Meanwhile, all over the world apocalyptic manifestations are sprouting up. Pestilence, drought, famine, and other evil portents seem to dominate the global landscape. Something strange is going on, and it appears as if the forces of good and evil are gathering about, girding themselves for one final battle.
Father Rosetti, an emissary from the Vatican, has been entrusted with a secret mission by the Pope relative to these two young virgins, and it is one that will sorely try his faith. Meanwhile, former nun turned private investigator, Anne Fitzgerald, has been retained by the Archdiocese of Boston to look into the phenomena of a possible immaculate conception with regards to these two young women who inhabit disparate worlds. Anne must not only confront the unknown in order to assist these two young women; she must also confront her own powerful emotions and a destiny she could not have imagined.
The book is riddled with ridiculous cliches from the horror genre and lacks any real tension. First released in 1980 under the title "Virgin", this book has been updated by the author to make it appear as if it were a more contemporary work. It has now resurfaced under the title "Cradle and All" in order to capitalize on the author's success with his Alex Cross series of thrillers. Unfortunately, it is not cut from the same bolt of cloth and lacks the quality of both writing and plot that earmarks his Alex Cross novels.
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