THE CLOISTERS by Katy Hays


GOTHIC MEETS NEW YORK CITY-
*The Cloisters (an atmospheric medieval art museum …
*and part of the world famous Metropolitan Museum of Art) with its verdant gardens of lethal medieval plants and non-toxic plants…
*researchers of the Romanesque and Gothic periods with all the mystery and ambience of those eras…
*ambitious, dark academics doing the research…(including Ann)
*and, exploration in the field of divination, the widely used practices in medieval times to predict the future…
…these elements all worked together to create a winning combination for Katy Hays’ debut novel, “THE CLOISTERS.” It also became a winning combination for the grieving and troubled Ann Stilwell from Walla Walla, (having just lost her father,) who landed at the Cloisters for a summer internship. She found her colleagues’ focus on proving a breakthrough theory that tarot cards were not only used as playing cards but were also employed for far more mystical purposes, challenging, exciting and sometimes dangerous…especially when they uncovered a mysterious deck of ancient cards. What seemed like an innocent piece of history quickly became a dangerous game of power, ambition and seduction. With a tangled web of relationships at its heart, “THE CLOISTERS” is also a kind of coming-of-age-in-the-big-city” story.
Katy Hays has certainly woven a creative tale that ended in unexpected ways… I loved the book. Perhaps you will, too!