|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
I doubt the Pope is a crime fiction addict, which is probably just as well given the way his church is portrayed in the genre. Dan Brown won't be expecting an audience any time soon and neither will Spanish writer Juan Gomez-Jurado! Paola Dicanti is a psychological profiler, the only one in Italy. To date her experience has been purely theoretical until she's called to a church in the Vatican state. A cardinal has been murdered, and the scene isn't for the fait-hearted, as his eyes have been gouged out and his hands cut off. But Paola and her police colleagues are horrified to learn that this isn't the first death. The Vatican powers-that-be had done a cover-up job on that murder, and they're not over-keen to co-operate this time around either after all, Rome is overflowing with thousands of mourners following the death of Pope John Paul II and nothing must get in the way of the big occasion and the appointment of his successor. And then enigmatic American priest Anthony Fowler appears, and the whodunit rapidly turns into a whydunit as the unlikely pair try to track down a serial killer with some frightening personal baggage.. GOD'S SPY is a tremendous debut novel that hurtles and twists through boiling hot Rome and the closed society of the Vatican. Gomez-Jurado is a Spanish journalist, who, on this evidence, has a cracking career as a novelist ahead of him it takes a talented writer to keep the tension going when you know early on who committed the crimes. Paola is a strong character who more than holds her own against the tough-guy priest and colleagues in the male-dominated police (those from Rome and the Vatican's force). She has a rather patronising boss they have past history between the sheets although fortunately not enough to unbalance the story plus a grumpy colleague who secretly dotes on her, and a supportive mother who doesn't try to marry her off every 20 pages. And Paola's a good foil for the energetic tough guy American priest who seems to be the total action man, albeit one with secrets, who's been there, done that and got the tee shirt! Gomez-Jurado doesn't labour the atheist paired with the priest angle and unlike some writers (step forward Kathleen McGowan, author of the truly ghastly THE EXPECTED ONE) doesn't come up with some horrible pat ending. And it's one of those books where you wonder how much fact there might be lurking under the fiction! In fact, Gomez-Jurado resists the temptation to present us with a too-tidy conclusion, although there's one genre clichι that made me sigh loudly and count backwards from ten! But that aside, GOD'S SPY is a fast-moving, highly-proficient novel, with a strong main character who I'd welcome back any time.
Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, August 2007
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
| 
