Basilica [Paperback]

William Montalbano (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2000

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. One is the new Pope, nicknamed Tredi, the first from Latin America, a young, audacious risk-taker ready to shake up the old guard, even if it means making dangerous enemies. The other is Brother Paul, a former Miami homicide cop, still recovering from the horrific deaths of his family and brought to Rome as an informal investigator for the Pope, a Vatican Mr. Fixit drifting unsteadily in the shadows of the giant church. When the priest dies in the Basilica, it is Paul who is asked to find out what it means, and soon his days are torn between new alliances and old enmities, as the threats multiply, the ghosts of the past stalking the ancient streets of Rome, circling in upon both Paul and Tredi. In a multilayered surprising thriller, filled with mystery both religious and corporeal, they find that it is not so easy to change an institution, just as it is not so easy to change a life. Though a life is easy to lose...

"An action novel wrapped around a murderous intrigue, with a revolutionary Pope, a wayward monk and an insane killer sharing the heart of the story. There's a combination of human warmth and sheer terror that makes Basilica impossible to put down."-- John Sandford

"Sexy...cunningly imagined... shrewdly calculated to enthrall until the final mea culpa."-- Publishers Weekly

"The absolute best...a literally thrilling achievement."-- Pete Hamill

"Going where few thrillers have dared to tread, Basilica has color, action, and smarts to spare."-- Detroit News

"A terrific trip into two very different underworlds."-- Carl Hiaasen

"Superb."-- Newsday

"Chilling."--Los Angeles Times

"Wildly Entertaining."-- Chicago Tribune

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

From a much-celebrated (now deceased) foreign correspondent who coauthored three novels (Powder Burn, etc.) with Carl Hiaasen comes this sexy, cunningly imagined thriller set inside the Vatican in the early years of the next century. Battle-scarred Paul Lorenzo is a hard-nosed ex-Miami cop, now a Roman Catholic friar and chief Vatican troubleshooter, who followed his inseparable pal Pope Tredi (short for "Tredicesimo," as in Pius XIII) to Rome when he became pontiff. Paul is called upon to find out who pushed a Vatican priest to his death from a catwalk high in the dome of St. Peter's Basilica. The trail leads him to an underground conspiracy aimed at subverting Tredi's dogma-shattering reforms. As other figures close to the papal throne are slain, however, the crimes seem somehow wedded to the old days in Miami, when Tredi?then known by the media as the Cocaine Cardinal?was the scourge of the Colombian drug cartel. During a major Caribbean drug bust, Tredi covertly "liberated," for charitable purposes, a bag containing more than a million in ill-gotten cash. Spiced with libidinous women and assorted carnally indulgent clergy, jam-packed with brassy papal antics and hot Latino blood feuds, Montalbano's work is shrewdly calculated to enthrall to the final mea culpa. 75,000 first printing; $75,000 ad/promo. (Jan.) FYI: Montalbano died in March 1998, at age 57.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

The latest of the post-Woltyla Vatican thrillers to come on the market, this one by the late newspaperman and novelist (A Death in China, 1984, etc.). The priest with a shady past is almost as ubiquitous in certain types of thrillers as the prosti tute with a heart of gold was in Westerns of a particular vintage, but in Montalbanos story Paul Lorenzo never actually made it to ordination: Once I was an on- the-edge cop, but now Im a Roman Catholic brother, a kind of not- quite priest kicking around in the back alleys of the worlds largest church. Paul heads the Vatican security office, a long way from the Miami homicide beat he used to walk. In Miami, he first met Pope Pius XIII, his current boss, back when His Holiness was still a Latin American bi shop known as the Cocaine Cardinal for his fearless denunciations of the Caballero drug cartel. Paul foiled an assassination plot and saved the future pontiffs life, only to have his wife and children killed by the Caballeros in retaliation. Now the Pope needs Paul on the job again. A priest has fallen to his death from the dome of St. Peters, and all the evidence points to murder. The victim, Monsignor Caruso, was seen as a leader of the new wave of liberal thinkers welcomed by the Pope into the Vatican, and Pauls investigations lead him to the threshold of the Keys, an outfit bitterly opposed to all modernizing trends and secretly linked to the Caballeros. Is this Pauls last chance for revenge? Thats not supposed to be on his mind, but sometimes a mans got to do what hes got to doeven if he wears a cassock. Formulaic and hackneyed, but written with plenty of action and a good, crisp pace: the sort of book you dont put down until its finishedand then promptly forget it. (First printing of 75,000; $750,00 0 ad/promo) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 355 pages
• Publisher: Jove (January 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 051512723X
• ISBN-13: 978-0515127232
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,644,044 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars POWERFUL!, August 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Basilica (Hardcover)

Basilica is definitely a different look at mystery. Looking through the rather earthly eyes of the a personal friend of the Pope, the reader is introduced to the "private" world of the Pontiff. And the problems of running a city-state. The reader is not mired down in the politics of the Vatican, but is cleanly moved though the private world of the Pope in a way that is at once believable and charming. The mystery is absolute. You will not know who the bad guy is until near the end. And even after that there is a final irresistable twist that will leave you with an intaken breath. The writing is crisp, the pace excellent, the mystery is perfectly crafted. The detail is exquisite. I cannot help but mourn the untimely death of the author, for this is his first work I have read. But you can bet I will read the rest!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mystery in St. Peter's..., March 4, 2000

By 

"boniface" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Basilica (Paperback)

The Roman setting being somewhat familiar to me, I was pleasantly surprised at the detail Montalbano was able to include in his story. He clearly was a careful observer, and likely a studious note-taker, and this book is that much more an enjoyable, and even whimsical read, thanks to his journalistic skills. He has written with a strong sense of reality, just slightly ahead of our time, and with some really nifty twists to the plotline. For readers who enjoy the novels of Father Andrew Greeley, and other church-related mystery stories, I highly recommend this book, possessing as it does a marvelous sense of how things do tend to work in the higher echelons of the Vatican...minus the actual murders, of course! This is a very pleasurable and engaging read. The tragedy is that there will be no more from William Montalbano.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Murder in the Vatican, August 11, 2000

By 

Old Fisherman "Jim" (Orange, California USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Basilica (Paperback)

And Brother Paul, ex-Miami cop is called upon to ferret out the murderer. It helps that the Pope is Brother Paul's best friend but as the case winds on and more church figures close to the Pope are killed, the trial leads further into Brother Paul's past. A past that saw the theft of Colombian drug money and the death of Brother Paul's family. But then Brother Paul discovers that the murder list not only includes him but the Pope himself.

Well written. A different venue for murder but the motivations are as old as the Catholic Church itself. Montalbano gives the reader excellent insights into papal politics. The characters are well drawn and fleshed out. A good thriller, a good plot, a clever ending. What more could you want?