Simon Toyne is the author of the bestselling Sanctus trilogy, which has been translated into 27 languages and published in 50 countries. He now begins a new series with The Searcher, an eerie epic of good and evil, retribution and redemption.
The story starts in a small town in Arizona called Redemption, where the townspeople have gathered at the cemetery to bury a local man and are suddenly disrupted by a plane crash in the distance. As the local sheriff speeds towards the scene, he almost runs into a man in the street—a man with no memory of who he is or why he’s there, with only a book inscription and a tag in his jacket that names him Solomon Creed. When the sheriff tells him he’s in Redemption, Solomon is convinced he’s there for a reason—to save a man he’s never met, the man the town had buried that very morning. To uncover his identity and the truth behind the death of the man he believes he was there to save, Solomon dives into the secrets of the town of Redemption, but this small town has dark secrets, and there are those who don’t want him to succeed.
The author does an excellent job making Solomon as intriguing and mysterious a character as possible. Solomon has all this in-depth knowledge of all kinds of topics, ranging from scientific, to medical, to historical, to martial, and he has no memory of where it all came from. You have no idea who Solomon is, but you absolutely know he was never a normal person. We don't get to learn many of his secrets by the end of this novel, but be assured the rest of the series will parcel out his past bit by bit, and a small clue at the end of The Searcher promises it will be astounding. I think readers will also enjoy the religious and supernatural undertones that add complex and otherworldly layers that make it perfect for fans of high concept thrillers. Think Terry Hayes’s I Am Pilgrim and the beloved books by Steve Berry and James Rollins.
The egalley is available for download on Edelweiss, so don't wait to check it out for yourself!
-Amanda