Link to Home Page

 





 

 

MassAnswers logo and link to AskaLibrarian page

 

 

Mysteries & Thrillers About the Vatican

Vatican

Unholy Trinity / Paul Adam. 2000  FICT ADAM, PAUL Unholy T
This thriller moves back and forth between 1944 and 1945 and the present to imagine a complex web of modern neo-Fascist Italian extremism entwined with corrupt Vatican politics.
The third secret : a novel / Steve Berry 2005 FICT BERRY STEVE Third
Haunted by the secrets revealed in 1917 in Fatima, Portugal, the obsession of Pope Clement XV leads to behind the scenes intrigue at the Vatican as Alberto Cardinal Valendrea, the Vatican's powerful Secretary of State, plots to bring down the troubled pontiff, while Father Colin Michener, the pope's secretary, investigates the murder of a Romanian priest connected to the secrets.
Q / Luther Blissett ; translated from the Italian by Shaun Whiteside. 2004  FICT BLISSET LUTHER Q
Amidst the chaos of the Reformation Age, a young theology student adopts the cause of heretics and the disinherited and finds himself pursued by those keen to spill the blood of any would-be supporter of Martin Luther.
Angels & demons / Dan Brown. 2000 PBK FICT B
World-renowned Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to a Swiss research facility to analyze a cryptic symbol seared into the chest of a murdered physicist. What he discovers is unimaginable: a deadly vendetta against the Catholic Church by a centuries-old underground organization -- the Illuminati.
Red rabbit / Tom Clancy. 2002  FICT CLANCY TOM Red
In a lethal game of cat-and-mouse that is the Soviet Union versus the United States, the Pope's life is in danger, as is the stability of the Western world. Jack Ryan is at the center of the action, but it may already be too late for a novice CIA analyst to do anything about the conflict.
Cabal / Michael Dibdin. 1993 FP & SA  MYST D536 8
Aurelio Zen, Dibdin's equivocal protagonist, investigates the spectacular “suicide” in St. Peter's of a nobleman tainted by financial corruption.
Day of confession / Allan Folsom. 1998  FICT FOLSOM, ALLAN Day of c  
A heart-thumping whirlwind of action, suspense & murder that reaches deep into the highest levels of Vatican power & uncovers a demonic scheme to massacre hundreds of thousands of Chinese in an attempt to establish a new Holy Roman Empire on the Chinese mainland in the twenty-first century.
The assassini / Thomas Gifford. 1990 FICT GIFFORD, THOMAS Assassin
This thriller takes place as the Catholic Church prepares to elect a new pope and an ancient and deadly secret society, its roots deep in Church history, takes murderous action.
White smoke : a novel about the next Papal conclave / Andrew M. Greeley. 1996  FICT GREELEY, ANDREW M. White sm
Mystery and intrigue and politics engulf the Catholic Church as the cardinals gather in Rome to elect a successor to the recently deceased pope. A Father Blackie Ryan mystery.
Divine blood / Martinez Hewlett. 1998 FP & SA
It is an astonishing discovery: a bloodstained burial shroud, entombed in the crumbling walls of an historic French Monastery. Carbon dating concludes the fabric is from the time of Christ. A molecular biologist conducts a daring experiment: the cloning of genetic material recovered from the cloth. Now two men--father Laurent Carriere and scientist Josh Francis--are plunged into he center of a worldwide religious and political power struggle. But even as Washington and the Vatican vie for control of the relic, members of a secret society take steps to reclaim the holy artifact they have sworn to protect--by any means necessary.
A season for the dead / David Hewson. 2004 MYST HEWSON DAVID Season 
In a hushed Vatican reading room, the scene was shocking: a crazed professor shot dead after brandishing evidence of a grisly crime. Moments later, two bodies are found in a nearby church, each with a gruesome calling card from the killer. And as the media gathers and Vatican officials close ranks, a young detective is sent to the forefront of the case.
A walk in the darkness / Jon Land. 2001 FP & SA PBK FICT L
The narrative of this thriller pivots on three mysterious elements: two mass murders of archaeologists occurring over a half-century apart and a long-forgotten scroll that allegedly questions Christ's resurrection. A Ben Kamal and Danielle Barnea novel.
The road to Gandolfo / Robert Ludlum. 1975 SA PBK FICT L 
Here Robert Ludlum combines a motley cast -- characters all -- with the U.S. Army's latest fall guy in a mad plot to kidnap the most beloved pontiff since John XXIII. The ransom: one American dollar for every Catholic in the world. The problem: Pope Francesco I says: "Gentle Souls, why not?"
Vatican : a novel / Malachi Martin. 1986 FICT MARTIN MALACHI Vatican
The subject of this long and intriguing novel is the Vatican's elaborate bureaucracy, in particular its powerful financial network, headed by a mysterious figure known as the Keeper.
Windswept house : a Vatican novel / Malachi Martin. 1996 FICT MARTIN MALACHI Windswep
A gripping, provocative novel of faith and betrayal, power and conspiracy, within and without the walls of the Vatican.
Basilica / William D. Montalbano. 1998 FICT MONTALBANO, WILLIAM D. Basilica
 Vatican City, the dawn of a new century: a lone priest trudges up the winding stairs to the top of St. Peter's Basilica, only to be helped to a sudden and permanent route down.With this death, an ever-more complex chain of events is set in motion in a new kind of thriller: a story of Vatican politics and obsessional revenge, of violence both spiritual and physical, of two men shaped and scarred by a common stormy past.
The blood of the lamb / Thomas F. Monteleone. 1993 PBK HORROR M
A Jesuit priest begins to manifest supernatural powers of healing and destruction, becoming the target of a Vatican investigation as he uncovers the secret of his true identity. Horror fantasy.
Daughter of God / Lewis Perdue. 2000  FICT PERDUE, LEWIS Daughter
When Zoe Ridgeway, a prominent art broker, visits Switzerland with her husband Seth, she expects to purchase the rich estate of a secretive art collector. But before Zoe can complete the transaction, she and Seth are drawn into a thousand-year-old web of conspiracy, murder and intrigue that begins and ends with the mystery of a female Messiah, a young girl whose existence, if proven, would explode the very foundation of Western culture.
In the name of the father / A.J. Quinnell. 1987 FP & SA FICT Q157 35
The KGB plans to assassinate the Pope, but in the Vatican City, three men plot an alternative pre-emptive strike. The Russian President would normally be safe in the fortress that is the Kremlin, but this President has a potentially fatal weakness. Who will get to their target first?
The book of Q : a novel / Jonathan Rabb. 2001 MYST RABB, JONATHAN Book of
Thriller about a conflicted priest and his race to prevent a secret brotherhood from destroying the Catholic Church. See also Rabb's The Overseer (1998) about a desperate search for a fabled manuscript, one with frightening modern-day implications.
The confessor / Daniel Silva. 2003 FICT SILVA DANIEL Confesso
Gabriel Allon, Daniel Silva's protagonist in an interesting series about a Mossad spy who doubles as an art restorer, returns in a fascinating tale of Vatican complicity in the Holocaust.
St. Agatha's breast / T.C. Van Adler. 1999  FICT VAN ADLER, T.C. St Agath
For the monks of San Redempto, a decaying monastery in Rome, the rewards of embezzlement and the indulgence of their carnal appetites are distraction enough to prevent them from noticing that someone has been plundering the monastery of its treasure. But when archivist Brocard Curtis identifies the artist of the one remaining painting as 17th-century master Nicolas Poussin, they find themselves under close and unwelcome scrutiny. Ambitiously offbeat and graphically startling, St. Agatha's Breast is a brilliant mystery of corruption, sexuality, and murder.

 

Call the Reference Desk at 413-263-6828 ext. 213, your branch library, or use our Askalibrarian service to reserve a book today!


Home | Catalog | Databases | Branches | Kids | Teens | Calendar | Site Index