In a slightly alternate near-future, women are forming vigilante groups to wreak vengeance on rapists, child abusers, and murderers of women. In the midst of this turmoil is Averil Parnell, the world’s first female Catholic priest. Averil seeks the quiet life of a scholar, but instead she’s caught up in an obsessive affair with a younger man and an unlikely friendship with a mysterious female assassin. Worse, she finds herself beset by unwanted religious visions: she sees the souls of dead monks, converses with Jesus, and slips into alternate realities. Spanning decades, KINGDOM OF WOMEN explores the spiritual evolution of a reluctant mystic, as well as larger themes like the use of violence against oppression and the tension between justice and mercy. Kirkus Reviews describes it as “a bold, politically minded tale with a spiritual soul.”