Review: Nobility is a suspenseful and spellbinding tale of love, redemption, miracles, and finding your Christmas
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 6, 2013
On Christmas Eve in 1999, a brutal gang of thieves, a thin, sad, and mysterious man on a mission, and a woman with a lot to hide and running from something all board the Amtrak Crescent. The story is initially told from the POV of the bandits' leader, the dangerous Jove. He plans to have his gang steal anything that isn't nailed down and deboard before anyone is the wiser, but as each character's POV is explored the reader begins to see that things may not go as smoothly old Jove had planned.The bandits' specialty is removing items from a mark's person (i.e. wallet, watch, etc), but calling them pickpockets doesn't do this band of high-tech, lightning-quick bandits justice! These bandits, who answer to aliases: Jove, Cupid, Venus, Mercury, Janus, Mars, and Vulcan, work together to create a scene designed to distract the mark while relieving him of his valuables. They put on a show as they're robbing you blind: tap dancing-- on the ceiling, cartwheels, etc. It's amazing! Each thief brings his or her own special talent and secret agenda to the table setting the stage for some serious fireworks. Oh, and that Merc... he's a scene-stealer! You'd better keep your eyes on him and your hands on your wallet! He's so fast he could steal your wallet while you're holding it and it would still take you the better part of a minute to realize it was gone! Once Jove, then other members of the gang, realize that a quiet, thin man has seen each and every thief for who and what they are the tension and suspense skyrocket. The thieves cannot risk exposure so they must 'deal' with the man...Ray, the only person aboard the train to immediately see through the thieves' dazzling acrobatic thievery, is a revelation. This desperate, sad, and broken man is enthralling. He's no longer comfortable in his own skin... or even on this planet. It's simultaneously funny yet tragic to see his interactions with people. Clearly, socializing is not something at which he excels. We get glimpses of Ray's tortured past and it's heartbreaking. He doesn't care about anything or anyone until he meets the mysterious Misty. A woman traveling alone on the train with secrets of her own. Ray and Misty's early interactions are awkward and tense but they soon find their rhythm and they, quite honestly, broke my heart. I loved these two! There was something painfully vulnerable yet achingly sweet about these two misfits. Their's is a tale of love, redemption, accpetance, and miracles. Loved them!I love how MacRath paces the story. This reader went into this having zero knowledge of how thieves operate but MacRath manages to explain the terminology, hierarchy, how they set up marks, etc and still manage to keep the story interesting, exciting, and compelling. And the ending was absolute PERFECTION! My only complaint about this spellbinding tale is that it ended.