Tag: Action

I really enjoyed the first book (The Vatican Conspiracy) and was looking forward to this one.

I was not disappointed. In fact, I think this one was even better than the first.

I liked how the author jumped right into the action. It felt more like a continuation of the previous book rather than the same characters in a different plot.

That continuity allowed for a direct start. The first chapter sets the groundwork for all the events to come. There’s no need to have long, drawn out descriptions or tedious backstory.

If you read the first book, you pretty much know the players and why things are happening.

Now, that’s not to say that you can’t read this as a standalone as well. Because I know someone who read this one without having read the first one.

She really enjoyed this (said it reminded her of Dan Brown, but better) and didn’t feel lost at all. The only thing she mentioned was that she could tell that previous incidents had occurred by the way the characters referenced them. But that didn’t take away or distract from the plot at hand.

And what a plot it is. Once again, the Vatican is at the center of a global power move by internal and external forces.

That’s not a spoiler. It’s essentially in the title.

I continue to be intrigued by Marco. To me, he is both a conundrum and a Renaissance Man, a little bit good at a lot of things and a lot good at other things. That makes for interesting reading because I’m never quite sure how he will react to a situation.

I don’t want to give any plot points away, but it is a quintessential thriller with secrets, betrayals, and lots of page-turning action.

As I mentioned, I think this could be read alone, but you will definitely enjoy it more if you read the first book in the series. You’ll have a better feeling for Marco, and you’ll understand the motivations of the characters that carry into this book.

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.