Cradle and All

by James Patterson

Overview

Two teenage girls claim that they are pregnant virgins. But only one is carrying the child of Christ . . . and the other will deliver the son of Satan.



In Boston, seventeen-year-old Kathleen is pregnant, but she swears she's a virgin. In Ireland, another teenage girl, Colleen, discovers she is in the same impossible condition. Cities all around the world are suddenly overwhelmed by epidemics, droughts, famines, floods, and worse.


As terrifying forces of light and darkness begin to gather, Kathleen and Colleen find themselves at the center of the final battle for the very soul of humanity. Each of the girls must convince a young detective that she is the true mother of God . . . and that the other is carrying the devil.


The stakes couldn't be higher in this page-turning thriller. You won't be able to put it down until the final reveal: which baby is the miracle . . . and which the monster?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316468916
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	10/17/2017
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	15 - 18 Years

About the Author

James Patterson received the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community at the 2015 National Book Awards. He holds the Guinness World Record for the most #1 New York Times bestsellers, including Confessions of a Murder Suspect and the Maximum Ride series, and his books have sold more than 235 million copies worldwide. A tireless champion of the power of books and reading, Patterson has created a new children's book imprint, JIMMY Patterson, whose mission is simple: We want every kid who finishes a JIMMY Book to say, "PLEASE GIVE ME ANOTHER BOOK." He has donated more than one million books to students and soldiers and funds over four hundred Teacher Education Scholarships at twenty-four colleges and universities. He has also donated millions to independent bookstores and school libraries. James will be investing his proceeds from the sales of JIMMY Patterson Books in pro-reading initiatives.

Hometown:

Palm Beach, Florida

Date of Birth:

March 22, 1947

Place of Birth:

Newburgh, New York

Education:

B.A., Manhattan College, 1969; M.A., Vanderbilt University, 1971

Website:

http://www.jamespatterson.com

Read an Excerpt

Chapter 1

BROTHERHOOD

SUNDOWN HAD BLOODIED THE HORIZON over the uneven rooftops of South Boston. Birds were perched on every roof and seemed to be watching the girl walking slowly below.

Kathleen Beavier made her way down a shadowy side street that was as alien to her as the faraway surface of the moon. Actually, she was here in Southie because it was so frozen, so obscure to her. She had on a fatigue jacket, long patterned skirt, and black combat-style boots - the urban streetwear look. The boots rubbed raw circles into her heels, but she welcomed the pain. It was a distraction from the unthinkable thing she had come to do.

This is so spooky, so unreal, so impossible, she thought.

The sixteen-year-old girl paused to catch her breath at the sparsely trafficked intersection of Dorchester and Broadway. She didn't look as if she belonged here. She was too preppy, maybe too pretty. That was her plan, though. She'd never bump into anyone she knew in South Boston.

With badly shaking hands, she pushed her gold wire-rimmed glasses back into her blond hair. She'd washed it earlier with Aveda shampoo and rinsed it with conditioner. It seemed so absurd and ridiculous to have worried about how her damn hair would look.

She squeezed her eyes shut and uttered a long, hopeless cry of confusion and despair.

Kathleen finally forced open her eyes. She blinked into the slashing red rays of the setting sun. Then she scanned her Rolex Lady Datejust wristwatch for the millionth time in the past hour.

God, no. It was already past six. She was late for her doctor's appointment.

She pushed forward into the ruins of Southie. Ahern's funeral parlor loomed in her peripheral vision, then slipped away. She hurried past the crumbling St. Augustine's parish church, past hole-in-the-wall bars, a boarded-up strip of two-storied row houses, a street person peeing against a wall covered with graffiti. She thought of an old rock song, "Aqualung," by Jethro Tull.

She whipped herself forward, as she often did to protect herself against the New England cold. Tears ran from her eyes and dribbled down over her chin.

Hurry, hurry. You have to do this terrible thing. You've come this far.

It was already twenty after the hour when she finally turned the corner onto West Broadway. She instantly recognized the gray brick building wedged in between a twenty-four-hour Laundromat and a pawnshop.

This is the place. This ...hellhole.

The walls were smeared with lipstick-red and black graffiti:

Abortion = Murder. Abortion is the Unforgivable Sin. There was a glass door and beside it a tarnished brass plaque: WOMEN'S MEDICAL CENTER, it read.

Sorrow washed over her and she felt faint. She didn't want to go through with it. She wasn't sure that she could. It was all terribly, horribly unfair.

Kathleen pressed her hand to the doorplate. The door opened into a reassuring reception room. Pastel-colored plastic chairs ringed the perimeter. Posters of sweet-faced mothers and chubby babies hung on the walls. Best of all, no one was here at this late hour.

Kathleen took a clipboard left out on a countertop. A sign instructed her to fill out the form as best she could.

Ensconced in a baby blue chair, she printed her medical history in block letters. Her hands were shaking harder now. Her foot, trapped in her trendy combat boot, wouldn't stop tapping.

Kathleen probed her memory for something, anything, that would make sense of this. Nothing did! This can't be happening to me! I shouldn't be in the Women's Medical Center.

She had made out with boys, but damn it, damn it, damn it, she knew the difference between kissing and . . . fucking.

She'd never gone all the way with anyone. Never even wanted to. She was too old-fashioned about sex - or maybe just a prude, or maybe just a good girl - but she hadn't done anything wrong. She'd never been touched down there by a boy.

Wouldn't she know it if she had? Of course she would.

So how could she be pregnant?

She couldn't. It wasn't physically possible. She was a good kid, the best. Everybody's friend at school.

Kathleen Beavier was a virgin. She'd never had sexual intercourse.

But she was pregnant.

Copyright (c) 2000 by James Patterson"

Editorial Reviews

A #1 New York Times Bestseller!

From the Publisher

Our Review
The Cradle Will Fall
James Patterson, bestselling author of Pop Goes the Weasel, Along Came A Spider, and Kiss the Girls, returns with Cradle and All, a re-edited version of an older book, Virgin. Somewhere between the gritty psychological works of John Sandford and Thomas Harris, Patterson has firmly wedged himself among the world's bestselling thriller writers and has mined an area of suspense that is all his own. In Cradle and All, Patterson leaves the world of serial killers behind once more and enters into the realm of dark fantasy and outright horror, bringing his own masterful touch to an allegorical story pitting good against the darkest evil.

In 1917, at the French shrine of Lourdes, three children witness a vision of the Virgin Mary and are given a divine message. Two girls are destined to become pregnant though immaculate conception, one bearing the Messiah and the other giving birth to the Antichrist. Former nun and ex-cop-turned-Boston P.I. Anne Fitzgerald is hired by the Archdiocese to investigate the apparent virgin pregnancies of two teenage girls. Kathleen Beavier is a rich, spoiled Boston brat who hears voices and feels herself constantly being watched. After attempting to get an abortion at a seedy clinic, Kathleen discovers the mutilated corpse of her doctor -- but was he killed by malignant forces or by so-called good ones to keep from harming the Messiah? Her counterpart is 14-year-old Colleen Deirdre Galagher, a chaste and charming girl who attends a Catholic boarding school in rural Ireland and who must suffer the sneers of her fellow students as well as those of her pious teachers.

As the pope lies dying from a mysterious virus, Father Nicholas Rosetti, an "expert on miracles," suffers from a mysterious attack in Rome before being sent by the Vatican to keep an eye on Colleen. Fitzgerald's own murky past comes to light when she is reunited with Father Justin O'Carroll, the priest she fell in love with and eventually left the order over. Soon the fulfillment of various biblical apocalyptic prophecies begins to take place, including famine, floods, and plagues that sweep across the planet. As occult forces gather to stop them, Fitzgerald and Fathers O'Carroll and Rosetti race to discover which child is the savior and which one may very well doom all of humanity.

The Catholic flavoring of Cradle and All adds another level of intrigue to the novel, giving us a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the Vatican's active attempt to save the world. Patterson knows how to stretch out his suspense factor with incredibly short chapters and increasingly taut plot elements. The author's writing is clear and controlled, distinct without being so stylish that his voice impedes or hampers the narrative. His attention to the smallest details of characterization add credibility both to our protagonists and to our villains despite the supernatural events swirling around them throughout the novel.

The plot flies by with such speed that you'll suffer from friction burns from turning the pages so quickly. Once again, Patterson proves that he's more than capable of turning in a highly readable, cunningly crafted novel that transcends both the mystery and horror genres. Cradle and All is an intense, action-packed, and thought-provoking meditation on the clash between light and dark that will leave the reader moved, disturbed, and delightfully thrilled.

—Tom Piccirilli

bn.com

From #1 best-selling author Patterson, this "surprisingly good," "heart-pounding and fast-paced" suspense story (lacking his beloved Alex Ross character) tells of the clash between good and evil at the end of the millennium with "an unforgettable ending." "No serial killers anywhere!" Dissenting reviewers said, "I was transported to a better book on my nightstand." "Patterson struck out with this one - a disappointment for his followers."

Barnes & Noble Guide to New Fiction

His Alex Cross series (Pop Goes the Weasel, etc.) has made Patterson a top-selling author, but his most interesting work lies elsewhere: in his debut mystery, The Thomas Berryman Number; in last year's SF thriller, When the Wind Blows--and in this exciting and moving religious thriller about two pregnant virgins, one of whom may carry the Son of God and the other the Son of the Devil. If that plot line sounds familiar, it should. The novel is a reworking of Virgin, Patterson's second novel, published in 1980 by McGraw-Hill and long out of print. The narrative features the first-person/third-person narrative mix that's Patterson's trademark. The "I" belongs to ex-nun Anne Fitzgerald, now a PI. Her latest case for the Church involves investigating--and guarding--Newport, R.I. (i.e., rich), teenager Kathleen Beavier, who's eight months pregnant but, by expert medical testimony, a virgin. The Church is particularly anxious about Kathleen's condition because the Third Secret of Fatima (a real-life secret guarded by the Church since the Virgin Mary allegedly revealed it in 1917) prophesied two pregnant virgins: one bearing the Savior, the other the Devil's child. Anne eventually learns that indeed there's a poor girl in Ireland who's also pregnant, yet a virgin. Which girl carries which child? For texture, Patterson throws in some romance between Anne and a priest, but the novel's considerable suspense arises from his treatment of the central question as he speeds the action from America to Ireland to the Vatican, complicates it with a media frenzy over Kathleen, sharpens it as supernatural forces come into play and spins it with a wicked twist. While not subtle, this novel tackles issues of faith with admirable gusto. It could be a massive bestseller, appealing not only to Patterson's fans but also to those of the apocalyptic thrillers of LaHaye and Jenkins. 1 million first printing; $1 million ad/promo; Literary Guild main selection; author tour. (May) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

A pregnant 16-year-old from a wealthy Newport, RI, family and a pregnant 14-year-old head of a household in a small Irish village are about to fulfill the 1917 prophecy of the Virgin Mary, which was delivered to three small children in Fatima, Portugal, and has been kept secret by the Vatican ever since. A virgin will deliver a "savior," who will rid the world of famine, plague, drought, and other disasters occurring in epic proportions around the globe. Another virgin will produce "the Beast," who will unleash the legions of evil, increasing human suffering infinitely. But which girl is which? Which baby is which? Who will be able to tell? The Catholic church sends Father Justin O'Carroll and private investigator (and former nun) Anne Fitzgerald to figure it out. The Vatican sends Father Nicholas Rosetti, the church's chief investigator of miracles. This threesome must battle the works of the devil--illness, disaster, hallucination, and disguise notwithstanding. Patterson's story is disappointingly thin, assuming the general public has a great deal of knowledge about the Catholic Church and its theology regarding the Virgin Mary, the investigation of miracles, and the proofs of good and evil. There are inaccuracies and inconsistencies throughout. Even the unabridged version, well read by Barbara Caruso, fails to provide explanations for the bizarre actions of some characters. Ally Sheedy provides a "valley girl" inflection to her female voices, even for Fitzgerald; Len Cariou gives a shiver-producing voice to "the devil" and a passable Irish brogue to O'Carroll. The abridgments, like most, omit details, causing the tale to be flat and making it proceed in fits and starts without satisfactory explanation. The gist of the story is there--it's just not very interesting.--Joanna Burkhardt, Univ. of Rhode Island Coll. of Continuing Education Lib., Providence Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Immaculate conception is a bizarre occurrence. When two young women, both virgins, turn up pregnant, the Vatican is doubly concerned. Half of Patterson’s novel is written from the point of view of Anne Fitzgerald, an ex-nun turned private eye hired by the Archdiocese of Boston to determine if either of the virgins is bearing the child of Satan. Ally Sheedy’s pleasant voice comes across a bit too sassy to make a believable ex-nun. However, the other half of the story is narrated by Len Cariou in a smooth and compelling reading. S.E.S. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine

APR/MAY 01 - AudioFile