This is not a highbrow book with lyric prose and finely drawn characters. It is, however, a fast, fun mystery full of twist and turns that keeps you guessing. The primary focus is Ava, a young woman who was found in a church and adopted and raised by an inexplicably cold mother. Ava has always felt there was more to her story, and is on a quest to find the truth of her origin. Throw in old friends from parochial school that keep turning up dead (one of whom is Ava's grandfather), her adoptive mother's strange death, polaroid pictures that predict the next victim, a handsome cop, an unlikely nun, and a trusty sidekick, and you have all the ingredients for a fine mystery. This was a fast paced and plot-driven and kept calling me back every time I set it down. Unfortunately, the ending falls a bit flat and doesn't surprise as much as you hoped it would. Overall though, a fun way to spend a few hours. Thanks Netgalley and publishers for providing an electronic copy of this book!

Hmmm. This reminded me of this book a read a few years ago about a sister searching for her sister's murderer.

Our 'protagonist' is Ava, who was abandoned as a child. Her search for her birth mother is the premise of this book. Green is a good writer, who places doubt in the mind of the reader. Is Ava a good person? Is what she is doing 'right"? There's misdirection and mystery and then end.....THE END. It's just...kind of happens. I don't know how else to say it without spoiling the end.

All in all, it's not a light hearted thriller. A reader has to be paying close attention and ...be okay with a weird ending.

Twist of Faith by Ellen J. Green captured my attention from page 1. It starts off with a young woman named Ava, visiting the house featured in an old photograph. She has questions about her past, especially after the death of the woman who adopted her. At the same time, Ava is being followed by an older man, who is he? What is the significance of the house in the photo, is Ava connected to the people who were murdered there?

Synopsis:

After the death of her adoptive mother, Ava Saunders comes upon a peculiar photograph, sealed and hidden away in a crawl space. The photo shows a shuttered, ramshackle house on top of a steep hill. On the back, a puzzling inscription: Destiny calls us.

Ava is certain that it’s a clue to her elusive past. Twenty-three years ago, she’d been found wrapped in a yellow blanket in the narthex of the Holy Saviour Catholic Church—and rescued—or so she’d been told. Her mother claimed there was no more to the story, so the questions of her abandonment were left unanswered. For Ava, now is the time to find the roots of her mother’s lies. It begins with the house itself—once the scene of a brutal double murder.

When Ava enlists the help of the two people closest to her, a police detective and her best friend, she fears that investigating her past could be a fatal mistake. Someone is following them there. And what’s been buried in Ava’s nightmares isn’t just a crime. It’s a holy conspiracy.