When Myfanwy Thomas wakes in a London park, she is surrounded by dead bodies and no memory of how they, or she, got there. There is a letter in her pocked, supposedly written by her former self and containing a set of instructions. Myfanwy’s only chance of survival is to trust the note and follow its directions.

Quickly, she learns she is a Rook – a high-level operative in a secret agency whose purpose is to protect England from supernatural threats. She also learns there is a mole inside the agency and they want her dead.

But who among the agency would want Myfanwy dead? The person with four bodies? A woman who can enter dreams? It seems nearly everyone has an agenda and Myfawny has to untangle the knot to save not only herself, but possibly England and the world as well.

The Rook was again one of those books recommended to me by Goodreads. I hadn’t really paid much attention to it since I only read the first paragraph of the review and wasn’t really drawn to it. However, as a good reviewer, I know I should read and review as much as I can. So I found the book at my local library and decided to give it a shot.

I am quite glad I did.

Another reviewer over on Goodreads said The Rook is something like The Bourne Identity meets Johnny English and I couldn’t agree more. Reading almost like something by Pratchett or Douglas Adams, O’Malley manages to combine humor and suspense in a way that keeps the reader entertained. The tense, edge of one’s seat moments are tempered (but in no way lessened) by the humorous ones. And while O’Malley himself is an American, he captures the dry wit of English humor quite well.

Readers who enjoy authors like Terry Pratchett might do well to give O’Malley’s The Rook a try. At times nail bitingly tense and at others laugh out loud funny, I found it to be an enjoyable page turner and well worth the read.