When Washington, DC homicide detective Marko Zorn is called to the city’s Cathedral, he finds a gothic scene: A bloodied corpse lies below the balcony, clutching a tarot card in its right hand.

It’s not just any corpse but that of the Cardinal Archbishop of Washington. And that card? A clue to the dead prelate’s mysterious past in the mountains of Mexico, where he witnessed the appearance of the cult of Holy Death.

No stranger to underworlds, Marko is swiftly drawn into a secret society—a world of incense and stained glass, stretching from that mountainous Mexican village all the way to the Vatican. The Archbishop’s murder, he learns, is part of a vast plot to infiltrate the Catholic Church and then extend Holy Death’s influence over secular society. The closer he gets to the cult’s heart of darkness, the more the bodies pile up.

Can Marko find the Archbishop’s killer and pull back the curtain on the cult before it is too late?

A spellbinding tale in the tradition of Dan Brown and David Baldacci, Day of Wrath is the most atmospheric novel of Eskin’s acclaimed Marko Zorn series.

My Review

Day of Wrath is going straight to the top of my favourite books of 2026 Part Three. Maybe even make my favourite books of the year. I adored it. I read it in two days. I love that it’s fast-paced, hard-hitting, filled with dark humour in Zorn’s musings and conversations, and entertaining. The relationship between homicide detective Marko Zorn and potty-mouthed partner Saoirse, who no-one wants to work with, is brilliant.

While Day of Wrath may not win any prizes for its poetic beauty, it packs the kind of punch that could knock you off your feet. First of all we have Cardinal Archbishop of Washington, Vincent Holmes, lying dead in the Cathedral, a Tarot card in his hand. There were two witnesses, a soppy nun-novitiate and a homeless man with a facial scar. What did they see?

It wasn’t an accident according to Zorn. Vincent Holmes was murdered. Who would have wanted him dead? Everyone loved him. So is it part of a plot by a murderous secret society known as the Holy Death cult, or Santa Muerte, who are trying to infiltrate the Catholic Church via the Vatican conclave? Once achieved, they can take over the world. Good old-fashioned stuff.

The plot is quite complicated, but having been partly brought up Catholic and having studied Catholicism as part of my degree, not to mention all the religious cult-based novels I’ve read over time, I probably know quite a lot about the Jesuits, and many unorthodox religious practices. Not that I’m suggesting the Jesuits are unorthodox. Or political. Heaven forbid.

Day of Wrath would make a great film or Netflix series. I’d certainly watch either.

Many thanks to @lovebookstours for inviting me to be part of the #DayofWrath blog tour.

About the Author

Otho Eskin burst onto the thriller scene in 2020 with his acclaimed debut novel, The Reflecting Pool, introducing readers to the unforgettable Marko Zorn—a Washington, D.C. homicide detective who plays by his own rules, never carries a gun, and is guided by a strong moral compass.

The Reflecting Pool was followed by Head Shot, Firetrap, Black Sun Rising, and most recently Day of Wrath, published on 14th July 2026. Each novel in the Marko Zorn series has received widespread critical acclaim, with several being named Amazon Editors’ Picks for Best Mystery, Thriller or Suspense.

Before becoming a novelist, Otho enjoyed a distinguished career as an attorney, serving in both the U.S. Army and the United States Foreign Service. His diplomatic postings took him to Washington, Syria, Yugoslavia, Iceland and East Berlin during the Cold War.

Throughout his career, he served as Vice-Chairman of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, participated in negotiations for the International Space Station, led negotiations on international seabed mining agreements, and represented the United States on the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. A fluent speaker of French, German and Serbo-Croatian, he also regularly addressed international conferences and testified before the U.S. Congress and government commissions.

His years in the Foreign Service provided a wealth of inspiration for his fiction. While stationed in East Berlin during the Cold War, the East German intelligence service (Stasi) included him in a propaganda publication titled Who’s Who in CIA, falsely identifying him as an American spy. The publication formed part of a wider Soviet-backed disinformation campaign aimed at undermining U.S. Foreign Service officers working overseas.

Alongside his novels, Otho is also an accomplished playwright. His works include Act of God, Murder as a Fine Art, Duet, Julie, Final Analysis, and Season in Hell, among others, and have been professionally produced around the world. Duet received its UK premiere at the Theatre at the Tabard in April 2024.

Otho Eskin lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with his wife, writer Therese Keane, and continues to draw on his remarkable life experiences to create intelligent, compelling thrillers that combine authentic political intrigue with gripping suspense.

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