A review by gilmoreguide
The Shelter Cycle by Peter Rock

4.0

The Shelter Cycle begins in Boise, Idaho with the search for an abducted girl. After a day of helping with the search, Francine Davidson and her husband, Wells, are visited by a friend from her past, Colville. It is a strained visit, with partial reminiscences of their childhood and talk of the missing girl. As children, Francine and Colville lived with their families in Montana as part of a religious group whose beliefs harkened back to ancient times, when man believed the world to be filled with malevolent spirits and unknown entities were waiting to steal one’s soul. Their leader is known as the Messenger and she guides them in their mission, to survive a Soviet nuclear missile attack, which will arrive in the late 1980s. To this end they are building shelters far underground in the Montana mountains. In the meantime, they live in isolation: physically, mentally and emotionally off-the-grid. In order to protect themselves from the evil in the spirit world and to raise their consciousness to the next level, they employ chanting and rituals as well as tenets that detail almost every aspect of life from what colors to wear and what foods are safe to eat.

The day of the apocalypse comes and goes without change and the followers return aboveground and either stay within the group or leave. Both the families of Francine and Colville leave. Present day finds Francine in the real world,—happily married and expecting her first child. After the death of his brother in the Iraq War, Colville returns to the world of their religion, finding solace in the signs, spirits and hidden meaning. His appearance in Francine’s life is not a coincidence but something he believes to be part of a much larger plan.

You can continue reading the rest of this review at The Gilmore Guide to Books: http://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2013/04/the-shelter-cycle/