Thursday, August 7, 2025

Book Review: The Cardinal’s Curse by LynDee Walker and Bruce Robert Coffin (Turner and Mosley Files #2)

Stars: 3 out of 5
Pros: Some great action scenes; the setting
Cons: Pacing is off
The Bottom Line:
Treasure in the cold
The book has some thrilling scenes
But pacing issues




Slow First Half Means the Thrills Are Rushed

When I read the first of the Turner and Mosley Files last year, I enjoyed it once we got past the set up. I was hoping that was just because it was the first book, as it was setting up the series. Sadly, the uneven pacing continued with the second book, The Cardinal’s Curse

These are not traditional mysteries but treasure hunt thrillers. Avery Turner has made billions off a tech program, and has already retired. Meanwhile, Carter Mosley has built his career around his social media scuba diving videos. The two have found a profitable collaboration treasure hunting already and are looking for a second treasure to track down. 

That comes when they are approached about going to Antarctica to join an expedition already in progress. While the group is officially working on a way to rebuild the ice shelves to combat global warming, they are hoping to find a treasure that was rumored to be on board a ship that sank in the waters a century ago. Not only is the ship in freezing waters, but it’s likely deeper than either have dove before. Will they find the ship and recover the treasure?

As I said earlier, this book still has a long setup. Yes, we meet Avery and Carter already in action. But it’s not for the main storyline, and it takes longer for them to get to Antarctica and for them to start encountering obstacles than it should have. The flashbacks to the history of this treasure didn’t help. That info could have been slipped into the exposition as the characters were uncovering it. Because, honestly, I had a little bit of a hard time remembering the various characters from the flashbacks since those passages were so short. 

Once the plot really kicks off, we get some great action scenes. There is one in particular that had me reading as quickly as I could. 

But there are so many setbacks that it became hard to keep up. We were rushing from place to place as well. Ironically enough, a little breathing room for us and the characters would have been nice. Not to mention some of the plot points introduced early on that are wrapped up in a sentence or two in the last few pages. They could have been left out and we would have been fine. 

While I wouldn’t call the characters fully fleshed out, they are real enough for us to care about them. This is more action movie than anything else, and they fit into that mold. 

And I have to give the writers credit for creating the cold and claustrophobic world of the Antarctica research station well. I was almost shivering with cold as I read it in July in Southern California. 

While I don’t have the next in the series yet, I’m interested in continuing. So The Cardinal’s Curse didn’t turn me off to the series. But I do hope the next book is better paced. 

Here are the rest of the Turner and Mosley Files.

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