Why do I love Vatican Intrigue? Well, here’s just one example. When the cardinal electors vote for a new pope, they process through a locked Sistine Chapel toward Michelangelo’s fresco of the Last Judgment and drop their twice folded paper ballots into a large golden chalice, a process that hasn’t changed for centuries. The faster the world turns and evolves, the more I am drawn to the Vatican’s many ancient traditions and protocols. And, the funny part is, I am not a particularly conservative person; it’s just that I appreciate the Vatican as a huge counterweight to the rapid changes taking place in the rest of the world.
I love to learn interesting things when I read. The Third Secret is loaded with Vatican history and lore.
I am also a sucker for ancient prophecies and closely guarded secrets, and man does The Third Secret have these! Combine this with a very relatable main character and a villain you will love to hate, and you have a page turner that will keep you up at night.
What is the Third Secret? It is rumoured to be a prediction so shocking that it has been locked away for over eighty years. Could this be what is drawing Pope Clement XV to the Vatican archive, night after sleepless night? When Father Colin Michener is sent on a secret mission to the highlands of Romania, he is pitched into a vortex of suspicion, deceit, murder and forbidden passion. Suddenly, he is forced to face the very thing that has so distressed the Pope - and to unravel a mystery that will shake the world.
To say that I loved this book is an understatement.
I have actually read it three times because it is that good. Daniel Silva has the best prose in thrillerdom, and his characters, especially the pope, are brilliant. Gabriel Allon, the art restorer turned spy, is also my favorite character from any thriller series, and the insertion of Gabriel into Vatican City still makes my heart beat faster. Read it!
Across America, a wave of brutal, inexplicable killings leaves hardened detectives and desperate federal agents grasping for answers.
But what appears to be vigilante terror is something far more ancient - an invisible war between the forces of light and the agents of darkness, playing out on the streets of…
This book has everything: great characters, interesting history, and a plot that will keep you turning the pages.
But the thing that really impressed me was the details. If you, like me, are big on the little things that give a book true authenticity, you will love The Vivaldi Cipher. And it is just the beginning: with eleven more books in the series, you can get your fill of Vatican intrigue.
During the election of a new Pope in the mid-18th century, famed violinist Antonio Vivaldi learns of a ring of art forgers who are replacing the Vatican's priceless treasures with expertly-painted fakes. Desperate, the composer hides a message in a special melody, hoping someone, someday, will take down the culprits . . .
Nearly three hundred years later, the confession of a dying Mafia Don alerts a Venetian priest to a wealth of forged paintings in the Vatican Museum, and the key to their identities lies hidden in a puzzling piece of music. Father Michael Dominic, prefect of the Secret…
I love Vatican intrigue, and Conclave has it in spades.
The characters, especially the various Cardinals vying to be pope, are the strength of the book. I recommend it highly, even if, as I did, you watched the movie first. And as far as "I didn’t see the end coming" is concerned, Conclave wins that competition hands down.
SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE DIRECTED BY EDWARD BERGER AND STARRING RALPH FIENNES, STANLEY TUCCI, JOHN LITHGOW, AND ISABELLA ROSSELLINI • The page-turning thriller set in the Vatican's secretive halls of power by the best-selling author of Enigma and Fatherland
"Pulsates with intrigue. . . . Ambition, sex scandals, financial corruption and terrorism all rear their ugly heads. And Harris saves one whopper of a surprise for the final pages." —USA Today
The pope is dead. Behind the locked doors of the Sistine Chapel, one hundred and eighteen cardinals from all over the globe will gather to cast…
Separating the true stories from the myths, The Duty of Memory provides a deeper understanding of the diverse motivations that drove ordinary people to join an underground network of French Resistants despite terrible odds and horrifying consequences.
This book takes the reader inside the true story of men and women…
If you are one of those people (you know, the sort that read The DaVinci Code but didn’t read any of Dan Brown’s other—much better—books) stop what you are doing and upload Angels & Demons into your Nook or Kindle right now.
Dan Brown has his shortcomings, yes, but nobody does Vatican Intrigue better. Nobody. And his plotting and background research are truly exceptional. Read it.
CERN Institute, Switzerland: a world-renowned scientist is found brutally murdered with a mysterious symbol seared onto his chest.
The Vatican, Rome: the College of Cardinals assembles to elect a new pope. Somewhere beneath them, an unstoppable bomb of terrifying power relentlessly counts down to oblivion.
In a breathtaking race against time, Harvard professor Robert Langdon must decipher a labyrinthine trail of ancient symbols if he is to defeat those responsible - the Illuminati, a secret brotherhood presumed extinct for nearly four hundred years, reborn to continue their deadly vendetta against their most hated enemy, the Catholic Church.
I love Vatican intrigue, and so, after reading dozens of Vatican thrillers, I decided to write one myself. My motivation: Although I felt many authors did a good job with several aspects of Vatican City—its history, grandeur and romantic allure in particular—they didn’t do as well creating the characters that live inside the world’s smallest country.
This is especially true of the clerics, from the Holy Father to the Curial cardinals to the priests, who are all generally portrayed two-dimensionally, as being either wholly good or wholly bad (but usually bad). I think it makes for more interesting characters when they are a complex mixture of both good and bad—very similar to everybody else.
Joth Proctor is an under-employed, criminal defense lawyer based in Arlington, Virginia, where a mix of southern charm, shady business dealings, and Washington, D.C. intrigue pervade the story. Upon the suspicious death of the wife of a close friend, Proctor enters a tangled web of drug and alcohol abuse, real…
Winner Literary Titan Gold Book Award-Case and Trish Teal PI seek justice—fast-paced action and surprises everywhere. Takes place in Houston, Vegas, and rural Texas. He hunts the murders and unrelated tangles with the mob.
There is a book in a book on killing bad guys. Loved it! Top-Notch Thriller! Thought-provoking!…
