It is 1983. In Rome, Cardinal Siri, the most powerful Cardinal in the Vatican, summons a young Jesuit priest and assigns him a grave and urgent task. The Vatican has been keeping secret an epidemic of deaths among priests in the northeastern United States. Father Javier Barraza must determine how and why they are dying-and whether a suspected international conspiracy against the Holy Roman Church is coming to fruition. Barraza is an Argentinean who has risen swiftly through the ranks to the post of Devil's Advocate-an investigator of candidates for sainthood. In his new assignment, his path immediately intersects with Lillian Davis-Lodge, a special agent with the FBI, and a compelling figure from Barraza's past. The reappearance of Lillian is more than mere coincidence; she is far from the "special agent" she claims to be. She occupies the highest echelons of power in the United States, with full access to information and influence. Secrets and spies inhabit the subterranean world of the Church just as they do the government of the United States, and a disturbing trail of evidence strongly indicates to Barraza that his Church may be complicit in what he has been assigned to investigate. Set in the arcane, yet alluring world of the Vatican, The Mosaic Virus will grip you in its terrifyingly-true-to-life tale of secrets, sex and violence. At the end, you'll pray that it's only fiction. Carlos Mock's maiden voyage proves he is already a master storyteller. Laura S. Washington Ida B. Wells-Barnett University Professor, DePaul University Columnist, Chicago Sun-Times A virus, man-made and swiftly lethal, has killed the priests, and a Cardinal in the United States is involved. As Barraza uncovers more about the role of his Church and the true origin of its laws about celibacy and its gay priests, he begins to fundamentally question his allegiance to Rome and to the doctrines of his faith. When he and Lillian find the creators of the virus, they find themselves in a desperate game of wits with faceless, mysterious, all-powerful institutions looking to protect their public image at all costs. Javier and Lillian are expendable, and even Lillian cannot protect them.
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Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico to a middle class family. Grew up in the San Francisco/Santa María suburb of San Juan and attended Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola prep school where upon graduation escaped to The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD. Then proceeded to attend the University of Puerto Rico in San Juan where he obtained a Doctor in Medicine degree in 1980.
After an internship in New Orleans and a four-year obstetrics and Gynecology residency at Cook County Hospital in Chicago he went to work in the private practice in the Chicago suburbs until 1996.Currently shares life in Chicago with his life partner, Bill Rattan, and their dog Tiffany. Very active in the GLBT community by having served on the board of two organizations; Equality Illinois and Orgullo en Acción.
He contributes columns regularly to Windy City Times in Chicago, Ambiente Magazine in Miami, Camp Newspaper in Kansas City. He's had several OP-Ed published at the Chicago Tribune.
Inducted in the Chicago Gay & Lesbian Hall of Fame in October 18th, 2007.
After an internship in New Orleans and a four-year obstetrics and Gynecology residency at Cook County Hospital in Chicago he went to work in the private practice in the Chicago suburbs until 1996.Currently shares life in Chicago with his life partner, Bill Rattan, and their dog Tiffany. Very active in the GLBT community by having served on the board of two organizations; Equality Illinois and Orgullo en Acción.
He contributes columns regularly to Windy City Times in Chicago, Ambiente Magazine in Miami, Camp Newspaper in Kansas City. He's had several OP-Ed published at the Chicago Tribune.
Inducted in the Chicago Gay & Lesbian Hall of Fame in October 18th, 2007.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Medical Thriller a new genre for author,
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This review is from: The Mosaic Virus (Paperback)
Unlike Mock's excellent, first, and much more personal book, Borrowing Time: A Latino Sexual Odyssey, The Mosaic Virus is a well researched , tightly plotted, and fast paced medical-political thriller that wears its learning lightly and plausibly. Mock swiftly introduces us to a series of religious figures -- mostly at the Vatican -- in the 1970's. Among them are the power behind the throne Cardinal Siri, the more mysterious Cardinal Matta, and, just called to the Papal See -- a younger and far more innocent Argentine Priest whose main function so far has been to confirm or debunk candidates for sainthood. The novel takes on more serious complications with the unexplained deaths of younger Catholic priests in the U.S. Is the Soviet Union behind it, the C.I.A. or another secret organization trying to destabilize the Catholic Church? Young Father Javier's journey to enlightenment takes him around the world and into increasing peril, and not merely to his life either, but potentially to his spiritual health. What he stumbles into is a secret cabal involved in biological warfare with medical implications for his time with frightening results right up to our own era. While I missed the lovely, warm, autobiographical touches that made Mock's first book such a favorite, there's no question that this novel moves quickly and succinctly to it's surprising ending. Not all of the characters are equally well drawn -- several remain mere sketches. And a few of the plot twists arent' as well worked out as they could be. Still, Mosaic Virus is a good, thoughtful, at times paranoia-inducing, winter's day read.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Mosaic Virus,
This review is from: The Mosaic Virus (Paperback)
BOOK REVIEW: The Mosaic VirusREVIEW BY TRACY BAIM Copyright by The Windy City Times 2007-01-10 Chicagoan Carlos T. Mock is a doctor and his new novel, The Mosaic Virus ( Floricanto Press, paperback, edited by Katherine V. Forrest ) , makes full use of his medical background to create a tale of murder and intrigue during the early 1980s. Mock, who is well-known as a supporter of GLBT, AIDS and Latino causes in Chicago, has set his newest book in the Vatican, the U.S., and Cape Town, South Africa, as he sends readers around the world in search of the cause of a mysterious virus killing priests--a virus that is strikingly similar to the new plague just being discovered among gay men in the U.S. Jesuit Priest Javier Barraza is our hero, trying to fight against repressive Catholic ideas as well as his own longing for a childhood sweetheart--a woman now working for the FBI. The two met as teenagers in Argentina, and Special Agent Lillian Davis-Lodge has made sure she meets up with her friend again years later as they both search for the truth. The book is full of intricate medical details, but it is not too intense for someone who does not understand the inner workings of a virus. We follow Barraza and Davis-Lodge as they try to unravel an onion of power and deceit that goes all the way to the White House and the Pope--starting with World War II and ending in 1983. Mock has used actual history as a backdrop, adjusting timelines and some facts to fit his fictional story, but that does not take away from the mystery and suspense. The Mosaic Virus works by presenting intriguing ideas that work precisely because they could be true. The best science fiction works when it is just one layer away from the reality we all think we know. And, in fact, there have been theories professed by activists that the HIV virus itself could have been a man-made virus that simply moved beyond its initial intended targets and use. Mock even involves former Nazi scientists living in Cape Town, experimenting with a new group of subjects, Blacks in Apartheid South Africa. In the "real world" just this past weekend, the Vatican's pick for archbishop of Warsaw, Stanislaw Wielgus, resigned after admitting he had worked with the Polish Communist-era secret police, according to The New York Times. There are many empires of power Mock tackles in The Mosaic Virus, but despite so many conspiracy theories, Mock has managed to write an accessible story of a parallel universe that just might not be parallel after all.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Kudos for "The Mosaic Virus",
By
This review is from: The Mosaic Virus (Paperback)
Carlos Mock has crafted an extraordinary tale of international intrigue in the Tom Clancy tradition. Through a dark labyrinth of government, religion and medical research gone mad, he threads the powerful love story of a Latino Catholic priest and a woman intelligence operative. And Mock keeps you guessing and gasping right to the last paragraph. This book should definitely be a movie.-- Patricia Nell Warren is author of THE FRONT RUNNER and other bestsellers
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