Goodreads Summary:

Ann Stilwell arrives in New York City, hoping to spend her summer working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Instead, she is assigned to The Cloisters, a gothic museum and garden renowned for its collection of medieval and Renaissance art.

There she is drawn into a small circle of charismatic but enigmatic researchers, each with their own secrets and desires, including the museum’s curator, Patrick Roland, who is convinced that the history of Tarot holds the key to unlocking contemporary fortune telling.

Relieved to have left her troubled past behind and eager for the approval of her new colleagues, Ann is only too happy to indulge some of Patrick’s more outlandish theories. But when Ann discovers a mysterious, once-thought lost deck of 15th-century Italian tarot cards she suddenly finds herself at the centre of a dangerous game of power, toxic friendship and ambition.

And as the game being played within the Cloisters spirals out of control, Ann must decide whether she is truly able to defy the cards and shape her own future . . .

Bringing together the modern and the arcane, The Cloisters is a rich, thrillingly told tale of obsession and the ruthless pursuit of power.

My Thoughts:

The Cloisters have always been the one place I want to visit in New York City. The architecture, the gardens, the seeming remoteness in a city that is so bustling and chaotic – it just seems like it would be a respite for New Yorkers and tourists alike. It’s been on my bucket for a very long time, since I was at least 18 years old and read a book where a character would escape there to read.

For Ann Stillwell, The Cloisters became that place as well, a place of calm and beauty, where she can do research and walk the gardens and be exposed to a life that she had not previously experienced. An academic, with a gift for languages especially old, dead ones, Ann escapes her small town in Washington to New York for her summer position at the MET, renting a stuffy, one room studio but feeling like she is where she belongs now, and doesn’t have plans to go back home. Ever. When she arrives for orientation, she learns that her position has been eliminated suddenly – but then in swoops suave, sophisticatedly casual Patrick and his assistant Rachel, and they scoop her up and bring her with them for a summer position at The Cloisters instead.

She is enchanted by the Cloisters, so different from her home. By her coworkers, by the work they do. She forms a friendship with the gardener Leo, and with her direct coworker Rachel, and starts to form a little life of her own. Ann learns though that there is much there that is happening that is unseen, that there are so many secrets.

I don’t really want to give anything away because things become twisty and complicated. I will say that this book kept my attention, surprised me, and was ultimately unsettling. It was very well written and I didn’t quite know what was ever going to happen next. It did feel very dark and heavy, and packs a wallop.

If you are into dark thrillers, then definitely read this one!