Might as well say it up front. If you’re a fan of Dan Brown and Steve Berry, you do not want to miss this new series. Father Marco Venetti is as unlikely a hero as Robert Langdon. But where Langdon uses his smarts, Father Marco has a different set of skills.
He’s still plenty smart and wily, but he’s also a former member of the Italian Navy (having been rewarded its highest award for valor. His military skills aren’t much needed in his small coastal parish.
But when his former lover shows up with tales of kidnapping and human trafficking, he cannot resist helping her. And it’s a good thing he does. From the very opening scenes aboard her boat this book kept me hooked; the action never completely let up. Even in between the heavy action scenes, there was still tension.
Kobo: http://ow.ly/fXEb50ACRTG Google: http://ow.ly/hAEU50ACS2Y
I thought that the choice of main character was interesting because he was fighting an internal war between his vows/faith, his dedication to Elena, and the task at hand. And boy, is that a good one. The title of the book pretty much tells you what it is.
In light of current world situations, and with what happened at Notre-Dame last year, this was a very timely topic. It was well-researched and detailed with enough information to make it plausible and not just “Hollywood” thriller.
Honestly, I don’t want to give anything away. I enjoyed this book because I didn’t read anything about it before – I went from the description and the title. Sometimes I think it’s better that way.
As I said at the outset, if you are a fan of Dan Brown, you definitely want to get in on the ground floor of this exciting new series.
TWITTER: phogenkampVT
FACEBOOK: peterhogenkampbooks
Author Bio:
Peter Hogenkamp was born in upstate New York and attended the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. (Go Crusaders!) He graduated in 1986 and was exiled to Europe for three years by his premedical adviser, for which he will be grateful the rest of his days. Spending the next three years – supposedly – teaching chemistry and algebra in Salzburg, Austria, he traveled extensively, drank a lot of beer and made many a lifelong friend. In his travels, he found dozens of great places for scenes in a thriller: castles perched on cliffs; monasteries tucked away in alpine valleys; villages built above rocky coastlines; cities soaked in history. When he isn’t writing or hiking with his strong-willed Cairn Terrier, Hermione, Peter practices medicine with his lovely wife, Lisa (who does most of the heavy lifting), hosts Your Health Matters, which airs on cable television, streams on YouTube and sounds off on podcast, and tends to the needs of his four children.
