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God's Spy
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Orion (2007-07-11)
ISBN: 0752875698
EAN: 9780752875699
Paperback: 304 pages
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Customer Reviews
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Crisp and taut page-turner - disappointing finale
Rating  (3)
Date: 2008-05-11
0 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
Yes, a crisp and taut page-turner of a crime thriller. Throughout, the author appears to have total control over the various strands of his complex thriller, bringing them together and using as background as and where necessary to propel the plot forward. However, as with so many other crime thrillers, this author too seems to lose his fast-paced momentum towards the end - almost as though he wants to end it all, but doesn't quite know how to do it. When it comes, unfortunately, the final denouement still leaves the reader with a number of unexplained questions and connections, and more or less leaves one hanging in the air. This is a great pity.
One or two technical hitches. On page 95 is written a letter from a Cardinal in Boston, USA, but with the date written as "23/02/1999". True Americans would write that (irritatingly for Europeans) as "02/23/1999", as indeed the author gets it right on page 344 with the date he writes as "04/10/08". Also, on page 331 the author refers to the year "1939" whereas the full context of the novel should actually make that "1959".
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"In administering the sacraments, [Karosky's] no different than the holiest...priest. It may not make any sense, but it's true."
Rating  (4)
Date: 2008-02-29
3 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
A fast-paced thriller in which the action and blood never stop, this strong debut by Spanish author Juan Gomez-Jurado is set in Vatican City during the conclave to elect a new pope following the death of Pope John Paul II in 2005. When two cardinals participating in the conclave die grisly deaths, their bodies tortured and mutilated almost beyond recognition, the authorities recognize the MO as that of a serial killer, Victor Karosky, a fellow priest.
As Rome fills with the cardinals returning for the conclave, pilgrims wishing to view the Pope's body, and heads of state arriving for the funeral, the various security forces are frantic to find the killer and prevent additional killings. The Vatican police force is officially in charge and controls the investigation. Needing the manpower and technical savvy of the Italian police in Rome, however, they accept the help of Paola Dicanti, a psychiatrist/inspector with FBI training, who heads the Italian Police Laboratory for Behavioral Analysis. Her specialty is creating profiles of serial killers to provide clues so they can catch killers before they kill again.
Joining Paola in the investigation is Father Anthony Fowler, a former officer in the U.S. Air Force, sent by John Negroponte, the newly installed Director of U.S. Intelligence. Fowler has worked at the St. Matthew Institute in Maryland, a facility for sexually deviant priests, where he had contact with Father Karosky, who escaped. Fowler is the only one of the investigators who has ever seen Karosky, but Karosky, a master of disguise, continues to strike, forcing more cardinals to die slow, bloody deaths.
The sex abuse scandal of the Catholic church and the policy of reassigning priests to other parishes is a major subplot here, as is the lack of success of the St. Matthew Institute in "retraining" pedophile priests. The conflict between church conservatives and liberals regarding sexual abuse, its treatment, and its penalties has theological implications here, as Karosky believes that he is acting appropriately within his own theology. The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) is monitoring the conclave, believing that certain cardinals being considered for pope have contributed to the abuse.
The explosive conclusion may satisfy many readers, but it also appears to come out of the blue and is not successfully integrated into the plot. In the last fifty pages, information is revealed through static conversations, and the novel becomes "talky," as the author provides information necessary to make his conclusion make sense. Ultimately, the dialogue becomes cliché-ridden and trite. Some of the motivation seems to be a "stretch," and a key "fictional" character, an obvious parallel to a real cardinal, may anger some readers. The novel is exciting and fun to read, however, and it screams to be made into a film, suggesting a long career ahead for this young novelist. Mary Whipple
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Excellent First Novel
Rating  (5)
Date: 2007-07-13
3 out of 4 customers found this reveiw helpful
The author Juan Gomez-Jurado is a journalist who has worked on both radio and television. This is his first novel and it has already been a best seller across Europe. He lives with his wife and daughter in Spain.
Following the death of pope John Paul II Rome and the Vatican City are in turmoil. All of the cardinals have to be called to the Vatican to take part in the Conclave that will ultimately choose a new Pope and Rome itself is bursting at the seams with foreign press, radio and television crews and also the thousands of mourners and pilgrims who feel they need to be as close as possible to the dead Pope. What they did not need in all the turmoil and confusion is a serial killer, but that is exactly what they have got.
Paola Dicanti, a profiler who works with the Italian police has the job of trying to fit a profile to the killer, but all her work has been theoretical, but now she has to hit the ground running. Two cardinals have been found dead within the Vatican state. One has had his eyes destroyed and his hands amputated. The other one was found in similar circumstances. The authorities have not as yet released anything to the media for fear of starting a panic, but if this person is truly a serial killer he or she is bound to strike again . . .
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Excellent Debut Novel
Rating (5)
Date: 2007-07-13
6 out of 8 customers found this reveiw helpful
The author Juan Gomez-Jurado is a journalist who has worked on both radio and television. This is his first novel and it has already been a best seller across Europe. He lives with his wife and daughter in Spain.
Following the death of pope John Paul II Rome and the Vatican City are in turmoil. All of the cardinals have to be called to the Vatican to take part in the Conclave that will ultimately choose a new Pope and Rome itself is bursting at the seams with foreign press, radio and television crews and also the thousands of mourners and pilgrims who feel they need to be as close as possible to the dead Pope. What they did not need in all the turmoil and confusion is a serial killer, but that is exactly what they have got.
Paola Dicanti, a profiler who works with the Italian police has the job of trying to fit a profile to the killer, but all her work has been theoretical, but now she has to hit the ground running. Two cardinals have been found dead within the Vatican state. One has had his eyes destroyed and his hands amputated. The other one was found in similar circumstances. The authorities have not as yet released anything to the media for fear of starting a panic, but if this person is truly a serial killer he or she is bound to strike again . . .
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A bold, ambitious, and thrillingly successful debut
Rating (5)
Date: 2007-04-08
5 out of 10 customers found this reveiw helpful
It takes literary guts for a first-time novelist to set his tale of bloody murder against the backdrop of the death of as beloved a pope as John Paul II, but that is exactly what young Juan Gomez-Jurado has done. You certainly can't argue with the book's success, either, as it has already attained bestseller status in Europe and Latin America. I believe something has been lost in James Graham's English translation of the original Spanish novel, but God's Spy is still a riveting, unorthodox thriller that holds nothing back in its account of a maniacal priest targeting prominent cardinals for obscene torture and murder - and one Italian investigator's torturous, continually restricted mission to stop him.
Murder just doesn't happen in Vatican City, yet Detective Paola Dicanti can't deny the obvious as she gazes down on what is left of a body found murdered upon the altar of the Church of Santa Maria. I won't go into details, but I will tell you they are grisly, enough to make Jack the Ripper glance away. Things only get worse when she discovers the dead man is a prominent cardinal, one of the men who would soon be choosing a new pope to replace the just-deceased John Paul II. In one way, it's just the kind of case Paola has been longing for, one that finally gives her a chance to put her FBI profiling training to use. In every other way, though, it's a nightmare. While nominally in charge, she is compelled to work with Vatican authorities whose determination to keep everything secret makes them a hindrance as much of a help. As the best example of this, Paola is furious to discover that another murder preceded this one - with all evidence, including the body of the dead cardinal, destroyed by the Vatican. On top of all this, the investigative team grows a third head with the arrival of an American priest and former Army intelligence officer. Father Fowler does come with critical information, at least - namely, the identity of the killer. Already, you can see how God's Spy differs from your conventional murder mystery thriller. Paola doesn't have the resources or stature to go Dirty Harry on anybody, the murderer's identity is established early on, and the investigative process consists of a great deal of internal bickering between parties with their own separate interests.
With the killer targeting important cardinals of the impending papal conclave, he must be stopped at all costs - but without the knowledge of the cardinals or, heaven forbid, the tens of thousands of mourners descending upon the city to pay their respects to John Paul II. Those kinds of conditions put Paola in an extremely difficult position. As for the killer, he is one wily devil, that's for sure, as he manages to kill and kill again before slipping away into thin air. On numerous occasions, though, the working relationships of the investigators take on even more interest than the investigation itself, especially when it comes to the uncomfortable working dynamics between the Vatican ecclesiastical authorities, the Vatican police, the Italian police, and whoever Father Fowler actually works for. The murderer isn't the only character keeping secrets over the course of this grisly saga.
God's Spy remains at all times an intriguing, surprisingly in-your-face mystery thriller, featuring a steady dose of adrenaline-packed action and a surprising amount of gore courtesy of the sadistic killer. Knowing the identity of the killer takes nothing away from the mystery, as unanswered questions dot the landscape of the investigation and Gomez-Jurado delivers a number of fairly significant surprises in the book's final pages. As I mentioned earlier, though, I do feel something was lost in the translation from Spanish to English. Some of the sentences read rather awkwardly, and I can't help but wonder if some of the language used by certain characters is accurate or just a product of the translation. If you are fluent in Spanish, I would definitely recommend you pick up a copy of the book in its original form. I also had some trouble telling some of the minor characters apart, largely because their Italian names made it difficult for me to tie names and characters together. Clearly, that little problem is entirely on me, but I would be remiss not to mention it.
Certainly, however, I would recommend this novel to all mystery lovers. In terms of authorial audacity alone, it's worth a look, but the amazing thing is that the author totally delivers the goods. God's Spy is an extremely impressive debut from an author poised to completely skip the ranks of the up-and-coming to claim a seat among the well-established writers of the genre.
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Retail Price: £9.99
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