Genre: Thriller
Description:
Here is some of what is
posted on Amazon about this book: “Pope Gregoire XVII was last seen
waving to the crowd at Saint Peter's square from the famous Apostolic Palace
window. Despite several layers of tight security, neither the Gendarmerie nor
The Entity (the Vatican's secret service) or the Swiss Guards claimed to know
anything about his sudden mysterious disappearance… Ayden Tanner, a former
British SAS commando officer -- who is officially dead -- is dispatched with
two other crew members to find the Supreme Pontiff by The League of Invisible
Knights, a covert division of Anonymous that aims to bring about the triumph of
good over evil.” Great premise! (BTW: other readers may be puzzled, as I was, by
references to the ‘Gendarmerie’. This is the Vatican’s police force.)
Author:
Khaled Talib has worked in journalism and
in public relations. He has written three novels since 2014 – Smokescreen, Incognito and Gun Kiss. He
is a member of the Crime Writers Association and International Thriller
Writers. He lives in Singapore.
Appraisal:
The puffs for this book claim kinship with the likes of Dan Brown and
Robert Harris. That’s a broad church. And a big claim. Talib knows (as all good
writers need to) a little bit about a lot of things. I enjoyed much of the
material about the Vatican, the information about Turkey and Egypt, and about
recent European politics (although I was puzzled to find reference to Italian
‘lire’ since Italy has been using the Euro since 1999). There is a definite
‘Mission Impossible’ vibe, as well as a substantial nod to our old friends the
Knights Templar.
This is, at bottom, a story about fake news. Very topical. The
Prologue sets the scene beautifully. The prose in it is taut and lyrical. The
necessary backstory is laid before the reader. Now the story can hit the ground
running …
There is plenty of action in the book. Fights abound. It is a teeny
spoiler to let on that our protagonist and his ‘crew’ are ambushed so many times
that one begins to wonder just how good they are at what they do.
I found it peculiar that, despite all the action, no progress seemed
to be made with finding the kidnapped Pope for the first third of the book.
I also found the swathes of description and backstory (what does Maria
have to do with anything?) slowed pace and made it difficult to follow the machinations
of the large cast of characters as they whizzed about Europe from Geneva to
Rome to Istanbul to the Sinai Desert.
Format/Typo
Issues:
No significant issues
Rating: ***
Three Stars
Reviewed
by: Judi Moore
Approximate
word count: 70-75,000 words
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