ericwelch's review
4.0
Montalbano collaborated with Carl Hiassen on several books in addition to writing several on his own. He was a prominent correspondent for several prestigious newspapers in Latin America and at the Vatican, accompanying the Pope on many trips abroad. Obviously, he knows the background that sets the scene for this ecclesiastical mystery.
Pope Pius XIII, or “Tredi” as he is known by his intiimates, is the first Latin American pope. He had achieved prominence as the Cocaine Cardinal working hard against drug dealers, subverting their actions whenever he could. It was in this role that he encountered Paul Lorenzo, captain of the Miami Homicide squad. Paul — later Brother Paul, but more later — saves the Cardinal’s life from an assassination attempt by the Caballero family. During the attempt, Paul shoots a Caballero, and, more significantly, takes a suitcase filled with drug cartel money, thinking it will not be missed. Wrong.
The cartel wants its money back and kidnaps the detective’s family for an exchange. The exchange results in the spectacular killing of Paul’s family and those sent to pick up the money. Paul swears revenge and goes undercover in Latin American to assassinate the rest of the family. He also descends into a psychological hell from which Tredi rescues him spiritually, psychologically and physically in a harrowing scene on a mountainside that Montalbano uses to attribute miraculous powers to Tredi. (Montalbano clearly does not like Pope Paul, referring to him sarcastically on numerous occasions as the “Pole.”)
Paul seeks sanctuary from his past by becoming a “brother.” In that role he becomes the Pope’s troubleshooter and investigator. The Pope asks him to investigate the spectacular death of a priest who fell, or was pushed, from the top of the basilica. As the investigation proceeds, bodies begin to pop up in several places and Paul himself becomes a target. Evidence soon points to a relationship between the old drug cartel and the Sacred Keys, a Catholic traditionalist organization that is dismayed by the new pope’s revisionist and modernist thinking.
It’s a good story. Clearly Montalbano intimately knew his way around Rome and the Vatican so the book has a real sense of local color.
Pope Pius XIII, or “Tredi” as he is known by his intiimates, is the first Latin American pope. He had achieved prominence as the Cocaine Cardinal working hard against drug dealers, subverting their actions whenever he could. It was in this role that he encountered Paul Lorenzo, captain of the Miami Homicide squad. Paul — later Brother Paul, but more later — saves the Cardinal’s life from an assassination attempt by the Caballero family. During the attempt, Paul shoots a Caballero, and, more significantly, takes a suitcase filled with drug cartel money, thinking it will not be missed. Wrong.
The cartel wants its money back and kidnaps the detective’s family for an exchange. The exchange results in the spectacular killing of Paul’s family and those sent to pick up the money. Paul swears revenge and goes undercover in Latin American to assassinate the rest of the family. He also descends into a psychological hell from which Tredi rescues him spiritually, psychologically and physically in a harrowing scene on a mountainside that Montalbano uses to attribute miraculous powers to Tredi. (Montalbano clearly does not like Pope Paul, referring to him sarcastically on numerous occasions as the “Pole.”)
Paul seeks sanctuary from his past by becoming a “brother.” In that role he becomes the Pope’s troubleshooter and investigator. The Pope asks him to investigate the spectacular death of a priest who fell, or was pushed, from the top of the basilica. As the investigation proceeds, bodies begin to pop up in several places and Paul himself becomes a target. Evidence soon points to a relationship between the old drug cartel and the Sacred Keys, a Catholic traditionalist organization that is dismayed by the new pope’s revisionist and modernist thinking.
It’s a good story. Clearly Montalbano intimately knew his way around Rome and the Vatican so the book has a real sense of local color.
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