Joe Carroll isn’t a priest—not yet. After a traumatic period of military service, he’s found comfort in the Catholic Church, but still battles his own demons. And things get even more difficult when he picks up a lost woman on the road. Calling herself “Sweet Jane,” she displays both a genius-level aptitude for mathematics and a troubling degree of untreated psychological troubles. After bonding with the young woman over their respective difficulties, Joe sends Jane home, but doing so has sent her straight back to Dr. Barry Lieberman who specializes in a controversial brand of hypnotherapy that he claims can cure everything from weight gain to schizophrenia. But the things Barry does while his patients are in a medically-aided trance are shocking for a variety of reasons. He also has his eye on Jane, and the convoluted depths of their past relationship grow ever clearer as the novel goes on.
Despite the urgings of everyone from his mentors to the police, Joe is intent on helping Jane in any way he can. Even when the details of her past catch up to him, he knows something isn’t right. Where the rest of the world sees a dangerous escaped mental patient, he sees a lost soul with a brilliant mind. As the pieces fall into place, Joe’s faith will be challenged and Jane will put everything on the line to bring the truth to light. With VIBRATIONS IN THE FIELD—a titled echoed throughout the novel as Jane describes her quantum-fueled view of existence—author Daniel Burke offers a unique thriller. Rich with both science and faith, fraught with deep evil and touched with genuine good, the novel digs deep on questions of belief. How could a benevolent God allow for such evil to exist in the world? Does He truly orchestrate Joe’s journey? These questions are never truly answered; rather, they’re acknowledged for the difficult philosophical puzzles they are. What is explained, however–in a way that is both bittersweet and ultimately satisfying–is the story’s core mystery: the truth behind Jane’s previous struggles.
The characters are engaging from the get-go, with Joe and Jane in particular unfolding as complex personalities. Burke is fearless in narrating from his perspective, which can be jarring; fortunately, he is presented well after the tone of the novel has been set, allowing the reader to view his unsavory and unpleasant inner thoughts as his and his alone. It’s a daring move, but one that pays dividends when the story’s narrators begin to alternate more regularly back and forth. But the story’s message is ultimately one of hope: that truth and goodness will prevail, whether from a higher power or the machinations of the universe.
Daniel Burke’s VIBRATIONS IN THE FIELD is a surprising, scintillating, and hard-hitting blend of intrigue, spirituality, and quantum physics that makes for a truly compelling journey.
~Kara Dennison for IndieReader