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My passion for history, science, and human behavior drives everything I write. Whether crafting thrillers that plunge readers into worlds where ancient mysteries collide with modern power, exploring the intersection of fasting and fitness, or creating imaginative stories for children, I'm committed to telling stories that entertain, challenge, and inspire.
Reviewed by Ruffina Oserio for Readers' Favorite
Rich Petrelli’s The Black Chalice explodes from the very first page. Dr. Konstantin Volkov releases a bioweapon into a subway in Manhattan, creating a Piston Effect: each arriving train becomes a piston, driving the aerosolized mist through crowded platforms and into the lungs of thousands. Elena Voss watches a strange haze rise from the grates above Central Park. Elena, Liam, and Antoine race across the globe, from the interchange in Tokyo's Shinjuku to Chapultepec Park in Mexico City, the cooling towers of Singapore, and Moscow's deep metro. They are after a plague sequence that is just a rehearsal for an extinction-level agent built for the open sky. There is a painting holding encoded coordinates, a stolen notebook, a murdered archivist, and the magnetic Gideon with a license plate that reads ARCANVM. Add a kidnapping to the mayhem, and you have a thriller you can’t put down.
The Black Chalice is intricately plotted, propulsive, and twisty, following a trail that leads to a seven-hundred-year-old secret beneath Antioch. The characters are stunningly created. Elena is not just brilliant; she is stubborn, and her sixty-second rule for grief, the seconds in which she has to absorb and feel whatever she has to feel, becomes an extension of her personality. Despite the nonstop action, the heroes enjoy the banter. The plot is stocked with surprises, and you have no clue where it will take you. Rich Petrelli’s prose is exquisite, with clipped sentences, a chillingly clinical villain POV, and encrypted texts woven into the story. This smart, cinematic novel is surprisingly moving; it does not just build huge stakes; it weaponizes the sky.
