Espia De Dios / God's Spy (Spanish Edition) [Hardcover]

Juan Gomez-jurado (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 318 pages
• Publisher: Roca Editorial (December 30, 2005)
• Language: Spanish
• ISBN-10: 849654415X
• ISBN-13: 978-8496544154
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,429,510 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Juan Gómez-Jurado (Dec 1977 Madrid, Spain) is an award winning journalist and bestselling author. He is one of the three most successful contemporary Spanish authors along with New York Times bestselling authors Javier Sierra and Carlos Ruiz Zafón. In 2010, Juan celebrated the mark of 3 million readers worldwide.

Juan is the author of three international bestselling novels: GOD'S SPY, THE MOSES EXPEDITION, and THE TRAITOR'S EMBLEM. They have been translated into 40+ languages.

Juan is a family man and an avid reader and traveller. He lives in Spain with his wife and two children. They are commited to humanitarian causes such as Heifer and Save the Children. After his wife being diagnosed with cancer, Gomez-Jurado became an activist to fighting colon cancer.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A dark, twisty, gnarled, compelling thriller set in Ratzinger's Conclave, February 2, 2007

By 

Michael S. (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Espia De Dios / God's Spy (Spanish Edition) (Hardcover)

An intriguing premise: a serial killer stalking the cardinals poised to vote on Pope John Paul II's successor.

This book became an instant bestseller in Spain, Germany, Holland, Norway, Mexico and Latin America, selling more than a million copies to date. So, what's behind this astonishing debut?

Young, attractive Paola Dicanti, an inspector in an Italian violent crime unit and an FBI-trained profiler, is summoned to a church in Vatican City where a cardinal's mutilated corpse has been discovered. To her outrage, Dicanti learns that the victim is the second in a series, and that the identity of the killer--a [..] priest with a history of violence, Victor Karosky--is known to a new and mysterious ally, Anthony Fowler, a former priest and American intelligence operative.

The setting is absolutely amazing, but this novel most important value is his terminal velocity. You absolutely need to read it cover to cover. Don't care about being a translation, you'll not notice it, and that's the best thing you can say about a translation! Having read both English and Spanish versions, I must say that Gómez-Jurado's style is very saxy: short paragraphs, a lot of dialogue, very precise and cristal-clear language, so that helps to feel that you are not reading a book, you're on a fast train, destination Thrillingville.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Brilliantly Written Novel That Sets a New Gold Standard for Thrillers, March 17, 2007

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Espia De Dios / God's Spy (Spanish Edition) (Hardcover)

Juan Gómez-Jurado is a young writer form Spain who jumps into the circle of fine international novelists with this his first book, GOD'S SPY. Previously published in Spanish as ESPIA DE DIOS in 2005 and a best seller in thirty five countries, it now is introduced to the American audiences in a translation by James Graham. GOD'S SPY is a fascinating, intellectually challenging, informative dark gothic work about the inner workings of the Vatican: it also is one of the finest suspense mystery thrillers to be published in the last decade.

Setting the story in Rome in April of 2005 at the time of the death of Pope John Paul II, a time when the entire world focused on the mourning of a the passing of the enormously popular Polish pope, Gómez-Jurado sets the stage for the gathering of the 115 cardinals from around the globe on whose shoulders rests the selection of the next pope in an insidiously terrifying manner: there seems to be a brutally necrophiliac serial killer at large whose apparent role is to kill the candidates for the papacy. Assigned to investigate the initial brutal torture and loathsome dismemberment of the first cardinal is a cadre of investigators: Paola Dicanti is an inspector and psychiatrist with Italian police accompanied by detectives Troi and Pontiero and a forensic sculptor Biffi; the Vatican police force `Corpo Vigilanza' represented by Cirin and Dante; and Anthony Fowler, a priest with a background as a former officer in the US Air Force Intelligence who has a mysterious past.

Gómez-Jurado wisely allows the reader to know the identity of the serial killer practically from the first page and it is this technique that serves to make the interplay of the cardinals, priests, Vatican forces, police and journalists more engrossing. The manner in which the characters - with heavy emphasis on Fowler and Dicanti - unravel the clues found at the site of each gruesome murder, each incident unveiling personal backgrounds and demons of each of the people involved, makes for suspenseful reading of the highest order. In the short span between the death of Pope John Paul II and the election of Pope Benedict XVI we are taken on a series of events from April 2 - 20, 2005 that make for intoxicating reading!

Though many will draw the inevitable comparison with `The Da Vinci Code' there is far more information contained in this novel, far superior writing, and the secret workings of the Vatican are both illuminating and fascinating to read. Gómez-Jurado is a powerful writer not only in developing an irresistibly engrossing storyline, but also in creating a large cast of characters each of whom is carefully constructed so that we can see and feel them: the proof of the pudding lies in the fact that there are no extraneous characters created - each person we meet is integral to the story.

This is a novel that is satisfying on every level and one that pleads to be transformed into cinematic form. With GOD'S SPY Juan Gómez-Jurado leaps onto the stage as a fully develop and very gifted writer. He is an artist to watch. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, March 07

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great!!!, August 10, 2010

By 

Bruno Jose Nievas Soriano "Brunin73" (Almeria, Spain) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Espia De Dios / God's Spy (Spanish Edition) (Hardcover)

Simply one of the best thrillers you can actually buy.

Juan os one of the best spanish writers and probably he will be one of the bests in the world soon.

You really can see how he grows bigger and bigger as you read his books. The first one, God's Spy, is really good. The second, The Moses Expedition, is brilliant. The third, "El Emblema del Traidor", is really a masterpiece.

Really, Gomez-Jurado is your (and my) choice.

Bruno Nievas

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