[.ca] Rabid: A Novel (ISBN 1601640021)

It's Robin Cook on Steroids:
Rabid is one of those reads that hit the ground at full speed and pick up momentum from there. Either T.K. Kenyon doesn't care where the brake pedal is or decided not to use it and frankly, I think she's got it just about right. This is a full blown, balls-to-the-wall scorcher. Dual themes - out-of-control scientific research and pedophilia - make hot-as-the-devil premises and great platforms for the author's fascinating and often thought-provoking philosophical tirades. Whether science or religion, Rabid gives no quarter. These people are flawed, even hateful. Yet, you feel their pain, their doubt, their fear. They sear their way into your subconscious and in the end you love them and root for them because they are you. If the American priesthood is infested with pedophiles, the underlying causes have never been explained better, made more exciting, or presented in a way that offers so much hope for the future. Get yourself a copy, strap yourself into your favorite chair, and find out what's really been going on behind closed doors. Also recommended: 'Bang BANG' by Lynn Hoffman, an inspiring read, and 'The Game' by Derek Armstrong, a gory page-turner thriller

"A crucible of characters and themes":
I love finding a new, brilliant, genius writer. Where has TK Kenyon been hiding? This is her first novel, but it's brilliant. I'm a physician, and two of the characters in this book are MDs, and Kenyon hits the notes about being a doctor perfectly. The science, and there is a scientific metaphor that runs through the book, is true. The stuff that happens in a lab is spot on. To summarize, Dante, a gorgeous Italian Jesuit priest, arrives to investigate claims of pedophilia by another priest and to counsel the victims. Bev discovers that her husband, Conroy, is having an affair and drags him to counseling with Dante. Conroy is having an affair with Leila, his student, and Kenyon gets the tone of the university lab just right. Dante tries to counsel them, but Conroy doesn't want counseling, and the four characters spin out of control. One of the characters kills one of the others about a third of the way through the book, and then the book gets more complicated and scary and involved and crazy and fantastic. There are also parts that made me laugh so hard I had to put the book down. The dialogue, especially in the lab and during the trial, is so damn funny. When I started reading it, there were such strong, separate plot threads and round, perfect, thinking, smart characters, each with their own agenda, that I thought there was no way to adhere to E.M. Forrester's advice, "Only connect." By a third of the way through, I knew this was something really special, as the plot threads braided together and the characters struggled against each other and themselves. The end, with a trial, an exorcism, and a confrontation, is too shocking to ruin for you. I cried at the end. It was so sad and beautiful at the same time, and yet perfect. Any other end would have been wrong.

This is no chick lit! It's great lit!:
I thought this was written by a chick, but maybe I'm wrong. Of the four characters, two are dudes, and they are some of the most raving dudes around, especially the priest who tomcats around like he's the baddest dude since James Dean. Leila is so hot that she makes me want to dive into this book and \o...\c This book has so many hot scenes, including some that I shouldn't have enjoyed but turned me on in a sick way, that I'm going to read it again. And then maybe just the dirty parts again after that.