A woman risks courting the anger of a powerful organization and discovers a shocking secret in Saturnalia, the fast-paced, near-future thriller from Stephanie Feldman (The Angel of Losses). The world teeters on the brink of ecological collapse. Mutual-aid organizations have morphed into the centers of social power. Nina cut her ties with the Saturn Club, consisting of Philadelphia's elite, three years ago and has scraped by since then, making a living with her tarot deck: "It's not the life I planned for, telling fortunes during the end of days," the novel opens, "but clients are plentiful." Just before the Saturnalia festival, which has become a wild, annual masquerade, Nina hears from a friend with influence in the club, who asks her to run an errand. Retrieving an item from the Saturn Club, she discovers that these secret societies have dabbled in forces beyond anything she had imagined, and one of them now hunts her.
In an action-packed and relatively brief narrative, Saturnalia expertly and vividly portrays a world both recognizable and alien. After she returns to the club, Nina is propelled from one revelation to the next. Readers learn the painful history that led her to cut ties with the shadowy organization she has abandoned, a club that could have been her ticket to success. She must confront her past, escape with her life and decide what else is worth protecting--and at what cost. Should Feldman want to revisit this world in subsequent novels, readers will be happy to return. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library