The Bottom Line: Just when you thought the world didn’t need another Vatican thriller, Danial Silva proves otherwise. One of the year’s best thrillers.
It seems that legendary auteur Daniel Silva is only getting better as the decades roll past. How else can we explain that his new Vatican thriller, The Order, succeed wildly even on ground that he himself has trampled over before?
As Silva fans know, longtime Israeli spymaster Gabriel Allon has had a long relationship with the Pope, and his wife is Italian. And yet this trip to Italy is different. Gabriel has slipped quietly into Venice for a much-needed holiday with his wife and two young children. He spends mornings restoring Italian art, which is the only thing outside of his work that truly gives him satisfaction.
But when Pope Paul VII dies suddenly, Gabriel is summoned to Rome by the Holy Father’s loyal private secretary, Archbishop Luigi Donati.
A billion Catholic faithful have been told that the pope died of a heart attack.
Donati, however, has two good reasons to suspect his master was murdered.
The Swiss Guard who was standing watch outside the papal apartments the night of the pope’s death is missing.
So, too, is the letter the Holy Father was writing during the final hours of his life. A letter that was addressed to Gabriel.
To say more would be to spoil the fun, this is a page turner of, ahem, the highest order.
