Brian Moore is the author of more than a dozen novels, but none, perhaps, has had as favorable a reception as Black Robe. For example, James Carrol in The New York Times Book Review called it an “extraordinary novel” with an almost “mythic purity.” Grace Ingoldby in the New Statesman spoke of it as being “remarkable” with an “utterly compelling story.” Even the Jesuit magazine America gave the book a highly favorable review. The one exception to this chorus of praise is the review of M. T. Kelley in Books in Canada. Kelley found “no sense of wonder in the book” and thought that the “compelling mythic material” was “diminished” rather than exalted. Carrol’s remark that “each culture is seen whole, with intelligence and sympathy” is more representative of the reception of Black Robe.