Ann Stilwell arrives in New York City, hoping to spend her summer working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Instead, she is assigned to The Cloisters, a gothic museum and garden renowned for its medieval and Renaissance collections.
There she is drawn into a small circle of charismatic but enigmatic researchers, each with their own secrets and desires, including the museum's curator, Patrick Roland, who is convinced that the history of Tarot holds the key to unlocking contemporary fortune telling.
Relieved to have left her troubled past behind and eager for the approval of her new colleagues, Ann is only too happy to indulge some of Patrick's more outlandish theories. But when Ann discovers a mysterious, once-thought lost deck of 15th-century Italian tarot cards she suddenly finds herself at the centre of a dangerous game of power, toxic friendship and ambition.
And as the game being played within the Cloisters spirals out of control, Ann must decide whether she is truly able to defy the cards and shape her own future . . .
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I would arrive in New York at the beginning of June.CHAPTER ONE
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(Bantam Press, 19 January 2023, e-book, 320 pages, #ARC from the publisher via NetGalley)
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I really enjoyed The Cloisters. This is a different than books I normally read but the premise intrigued me and I thought why not? Ann is a great character and I enjoyed watching her develop. The book lulls you into a false sense of security at first and you think you're reading a simple book about friendship, a sort of coming-of-age tale. Gradually, the book gets darker as Patrick's obsession with proving tarot cards were used in the middle ages becomes a little out of control and she learns more about her colleagues. I thought the descriptions were spot on.
