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TOtimes Books: Prophet by Helen Macdonald and Sin Blanché

If you’re a fan of The X Files, spy novels and the Odd Couple, Prophet is a dark but mandatory page turner, and you’ll love it.

Helen Macdonald and Sin Blanché put this together over Twitter during the pandemic. This tour-de-force combined effort creates an unlikely spy duo on a dangerous and otherworldly mission. Macdonald is the New York Times bestselling author of H is for Hawk, while Sin Blanché adds a new voice to this tantalizing combination of sci-fi, detective noir, fast-paced adventure.

The novel is based on an imaginative, twisty, Sci-Fi plot and the growing relationship between the two main characters – which turns out to be a main theme. U.S. Colonel Adam Rubinstein is calm, conservative and committed American Intelligence officer. Sunil Rao is a jailed addict who once tried to kill himself – a washed up ex-M16 contractor with a unique ability to determine the truth about anyone and anything–except Adam. The unlikely duo, who’ve worked together before, are called back together when a full-sized 1950’s American diner shows up in an English farmer’s field—along with a body!

The investigation takes them to Aspen, Colorado and the Nevada desert. Developed by the military, “Prophet”, when ingested, puts subjects in a nostalgic trance and brings to life objects that they loved back in the day. Then it kills them. Something has gone wrong. Add to this the billionaire who thinks that nostalgia might be the ticket to the good old days in America.

You get to know Rubinstein and Rao very quickly, thanks to a few flashbacks. And you get to know that something bad is coming – you just don’t know exactly what it is, when it will happen and how things will be resolved. It makes Prophet hard to put down. The only problem with the book is banter that is too detailed. When you’ve got a plot that’s as compelling as Prophet, you don’t need to go over the top with descriptive head turns or raised eyebrows. 8 out of 10.

Prophet is written by Helen Macdonald and Sin Blanché. Copyright 2023 by Helen Macdonald and Sin Blanche. Published by Viking, an imprint of Penguin Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited.