God's Spy

Juan Gomez-Juardo's debut novel, God's Spy, introduces Rome police inspector Paola Dicanti, who investigating a series of brutal murders in the Vatican. There's a cast of characters that includes a brutal serial killer, and a priest who was an American intelligence officer. This thriller is also packed with impeccable research on a vast swath of church history. This novel is, as well, a fast-paced, lean story featuring one of the most attractive figures in contemporary crime writing: isspettora Paola Dicanti. Her character is the focal point of Gómez-Jurado's spellbinding thriller. Soon Paola realize that the solution to the crimes seemed to be connected to the world of pedophilia, a world further complicated by powerful secular political interests and the unfathomed influence of the Catholic church... I'll tell no more to avoid spoiling the plot. Enough to say is that I look forward to meet her again in upcoming novels by Gómez-Jurado. God's Spy is a remarkable, sinister, at times breathtaking, novel that incorporates an event already shrouded in secrecy (the election of a new pope) into an impressive murder mystery. It is highly recommended, and I look forward to read Gomez-Jurado's next thriller: The Moses Expedition: A Novel

What happens if one takes the DaVinci Code, plus Red Dragon, plus Ted Bundy, plus Ed Gein [and his able successors of Tony Perkins/Psycho and Tony Hopkins/Silence plus Jodie Foster, and put them into a Ham¬ilton Beach to see the tasty pudding which arrives? An¬swer: A rewarding tale of pederasty, incest, tor¬ture/mutilation, of which Mel Gibson would be proud, complete with a classic O. Henry ending. The plot gallops along with the insanity of the Four Horsemen, with a Jody Foster Italian serial killer profiler front and center. JPII has died and a Silas from Silence is moving rapidly to assassinate liberal Cardinals before the resulting Conclave. Much of the action is described at a Dignity/St Matthew]/St. Luke's Institute for wayward priests, where a CIA/priest is on staff following his duties in Nicaragua as chaplain to the Contras under Am¬bassador Negoprante. It answers the question as to whatever happened to Cardinal Law when he was sent to the Vatican for prayer and penance following the unmasking of his geographic escapes for pedophilic pastors: they were sent to St. Luke's, and rewarded with "get Out of Jail Free" cards. The only thing missing is Jesus command to His Church: "Thou art Peter, and upon this "Blockhead" {"Rocky"} I will build My Church." [Disclaimer: A month ago, my own Pastor was removed for sexual abuse of seminarians in the early 1980's. He was a good man in the 2000's. The Superiors who took him into a pastorate in his '60s also cast him to the wolves when his quarter-century old transgres¬sions threatened "Scandal".] Santa Alianza + Paulj-c = "Vexilla regis prodeunt inferni"

"God's Spy" tells the story of a serial killer dispatching Cardinals with bloody glee: as such - as it investigates Catholic arcana, features many chases, and an incipient love story between an American and a European - it will, of course, be blithely compared to the Earth-Shatteringly Popular Novel We Will Not Name. But Juan Gomez-Jurado's work deserves much closer scrutiny, and it deserves, more importantly, to be read. Paola Discanti, his heroine, is both compelling and sympathetic, and Father Fowler is a winning foil. Gomez-Jurado writes with an insider's knowledge of Rome and the Vatican, and more importantly for a crime novelist, an insider's knowledge of a damaged human mind. Definitely a writer to watch.

An intriguing premise: a serial killer stalking the cardinals poised to vote on Pope John Paul II's successor. This book became an instant bestseller in Spain, Germany, Holland, Norway, Mexico and Latin America, selling more than a million copies to date. So, what's behind this astonishing debut? Young, attractive Paola Dicanti, an inspector in an Italian violent crime unit and an FBI-trained profiler, is summoned to a church in Vatican City where a cardinal's mutilated corpse has been discovered. To her outrage, Dicanti learns that the victim is the second in a series, and that the identity of the killer--a [..] priest with a history of violence, Victor Karosky--is known to a new and mysterious ally, Anthony Fowler, a former priest and American intelligence operative. The setting is absolutely amazing, but this novel most important value is his terminal velocity. You absolutely need to read it cover to cover. Don't care about being a translation, you'll not notice it, and that's the best thing you can say about a translation! Having read both English and Spanish versions, I must say that Gómez-Jurado's style is very saxy: short paragraphs, a lot of dialogue, very precise and cristal-clear language, so that helps to feel that you are not reading a book, you're on a fast train, destination Thrillingville.

You get hooked on to the book from the first chapter. The mixture between fiction and reality gives you a clear image of the story and, all the questions that you may encour are revealed with an unexpected and great ending.