very lush and juicy novel
Rating:
5 / 5
The Catholic Church assigns Father David Proust to minister to the congregation of St. Margaret's in La Rochelle, France. The parishioners, the other clergy, and almost everyone the priest comes in contact with adore the selfless giving man. All is right in the priest's world until he starts dreaming about stimulating young teenage girls and getting her pregnant. After the dream, the girls commit suicide convinced they're possessed.David also believes he's possessed but the Church sends him to the insane asylum, the Institut in Poland near the Carpathian Mountains to live out his years. His friend, a fellow priest, his doctor and a police man on the case all travel to the Institut, not realizing once they enter they can never leave. Two young women arrive at the Institut and David once again dreams of getting one of them pregnant. To every one's shock she becomes pregnant leaving people to wonder if she is carrying a messiah, an anti-Christ or something not of this world. This is a very lush and juicy novel that is fascinating to read but not easy to classify. The INSTITUT calls in to question the basis for the formation of the Catholic Church leaving the reader wondering if any part of the author's theory could be true. The men who willing stayed at The Institut with David are the true heroes of the book and shows that the bond of friendship, when true, run very deep. Harriet Klausner
Intense and unnerving.
Rating:
5 / 5
Intense and unnerving. John Warmus??? The Institut is the kind of novel that once you start reading, you can???t stop until the book is done. It is an almost supernatural thriller, written with amazing detail and insight.
The mystery takes place in 1938. Edmond Defont is a police investigator looking into a rash of suicides by female teenagers in a town where death is something of a rarity.
David Proust is a priest plagued by vivid nightmares. The nightmares appear graphic enough that the priest falls ill from the episodes. He is no longer sure if he is sane and fears that he might be possessed. His haunted dreams reveal what happened to the girls before their untimely demise. Proust is certain that somehow he is responsible for the deaths. Are they premonitions? Or is Proust acting out on animal instinct, in a blackout stage, and then struggling with his subconscious to avoid facing the truth, that he might be a rapist and murderer?
The deaths trouble Defont, and is evidence leads toward a suspect ??? The suspense is turned up a notch when two people disappear and Defont must track them all the way to Poland to solve the mysteries he is involved in.
A rocket of a ride, fast and unrelenting. Warmus convinces me that he knows a lot about priests, a lot about the ways they live and plenty about the thoughts that must fill their minds. The Institut is full of dramatic and tension-filled scenes, crisp narrative and real-talk dialogue. Warmus???s novel is all any reader could want in a page-turning thriller...
Thrilling, engaging mystery
Rating:
5 / 5
In The Institut, John Warmus successfully brings a sense of suspense, religion, and creepiness into a riveting mystery.This novel pulls you in with its superb integration of setting, then carries you along with the tension of knowing a greater truth will be revealed. Warmus writes with an unobtrusive pen, never overtelling the story, never letting one of its elements outweigh the other. This is a page turner if there ever was one. Secrets of the Catholic Church are revealed, along with some well-detailed characterization. I enjoyed The Institut from the start right up until the end. Many times, when reading such a book, I am taken off course by either heavy-handed preaching or a plot that cannot carry the book. This novel is balanced, in a way that allows each element to be present, but not overwhelm another. If you like mysteries, or you are interested in religion and the church, The Institut offers some great insight, and a great story as well.
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