The Trinity Game [Kindle Edition]

Sean Chercover (Author)

Book Description

2013 International Thriller Award Nominee

Daniel Byrne is an investigator for the Vatican’s secretive Office of the Devil’s Advocate—the department that scrutinizes miracle claims. Over ten years and 721 cases, not one miracle he tested has proved true. But case #722 is different; Daniel’s estranged uncle, a crooked TV evangelist, has started speaking in tongues—and accurately predicting the future. Daniel knows Reverend Tim Trinity is a con man. Could Trinity also be something more?

The evangelist himself is baffled by his newfound power—and the violent reaction it provokes. After years of scams, he suddenly has the ability to predict everything from natural disasters to sports scores. Now the mob wants him dead for ruining their gambling business, and the Vatican wants him debunked as a false messiah. On the run from assassins, Trinity flees with Daniel’s help through the back roads of the Bible Belt to New Orleans, where Trinity plans to deliver a final prophecy so shattering his enemies will do anything to keep him silent.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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Michael Koryta reviews Sean Chercover’s new thriller The Trinity Game

I'm always intrigued when a writer who has a good thing going suddenly jumps the rails into new territory. I appreciate the courage, or lunacy (or combination thereof), that it takes to make that leap. Sean Chercover had a hell of a good thing going with his series of Ray Dudgeon PI novels including Big City, Bad Blood and Trigger City, but he decided to wander out on the creative ledge. Boy, am I glad he did.

The Trinity Game is the first in a trilogy about an investigator tasked with verifying miracles for the Vatican... Read the rest of this review at www.kindlepost.com.

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From Booklist

Daniel Byrne, an investigator for the Vatican’s Office of the Devil’s Advocate, has examined more than 700 claims of miracles but has never found one that checks out. Then, when he’s instructed to investigate a televangelist who is making accurate predictions about future events, Daniel is faced with the seemingly unavoidable truth that the man is not a faker. Chercover makes Daniel’s journey from skepticism to acceptance powerful and moving, especially since the evangelist, Tim Trinity, is Daniel’s estranged uncle, and Daniel is very familiar with his conman past. Trinity, a long-time fraud frightened by his new and unwelcome gift, is a particularly striking character. There are villains in the story—a Las Vegas bookie who is taking a beating thanks to Trinity’s dead-on predictions of the results of sporting events and a nasty priest, a member of a shadowy organization with a serious stake in the outcome of Daniel’s investigation—but this is no ordinary thriller. Chercover challenges his readers to get their heads around some big ideas, and the novel should appeal to readers looking for action with some metaphysical meat on its bones. — David Pitt

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• File Size: 902 KB
• Print Length: 429 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1612183182
• Publisher: Thomas & Mercer (July 31, 2012)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B006YZ2DFU
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,027 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #72 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Mystery & Thrillers > Thrillers > Legal

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

148 of 157 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars We have a winner.... July 2, 2012

By Quixote010 VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Usually when a fiction book is nearly 450 pages, I expect to discover that the author simply wanted to see himself/herself write and they probably could have left out 50-75 pages without affecting the outcome of the book. My bad.........

Sean Chercover has written an interesting and fast-paced thriller that fills all 450 pages quite well.

Daniel Byrne is a Catholic priest assigned to the Vatican's Office of the Devil's Advocate (ODA), a department designed to debunk or verify so-called miracles which occur worldwide. Obviously the Vatican has a vested interest in ascertaining the integrity of miracles which occur on behalf of, or in violation of, the Church and its doctrine.

Byrne is ultimately assigned to investigate his evangelist uncle, Tim Trinity, at the behest of the ODA. Trinty, a southern tent preacher, has become a true "prophet" in the sense that he suddenly has the ability to accurately predict events ranging from the winner of sporting events to weather conditions to lottery numbers.

Ironically, Byren's skills at uncovering grifters who use religious-connected actions to scam true believers reinforces his concerns regarding his own religious beliefs, and he eagerly takes the assignment with the intention of debunking his uncle. That was the plan...

Chercover uses Byrne's personal struggles with reconciling with his uncle, his past, his religious convictions, and his personal feelings towards a former girlfriend to weave an easy-to-read book that frankly was hard to put down.

To provide further details would be unfair to the author. However, I found the book enjoyable and fair. I think it likely that Daniel Byrne is just getting started in uncovering the truth behind miracles and we will see him in futher adventures. I hope so.

150 of 163 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars An Entertaining Thriller July 22, 2012

By Richard Gazala VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Tragically orphaned at childbirth and raised by his tent-show revivalist grifter uncle Tim Trinity, as a very young man Daniel Byrne forgoes a promising boxing career and an alluring woman for the priesthood. Eventually Byrne earns a senior position in the Vatican's Office of the Devil's Advocate, the Church's bureau tasked with investigating and debunking claims of divinely-inspired miracles around the world. Years after turning his back on Trinity and his religious scams, the Vatican dispatches Byrne to America to assess, and disprove, Trinity's newfound abilities to accurately predict future events while speaking in bizarre tongues during his internationally televised sermons. Trinity's ardent followers are convinced God has selected the old grifter as His latest earthly loudspeaker. Elements both official and clandestine in the Vatican believe otherwise, as does Byrne. Byrne travels to Atlanta to confront his uncle, only to find that perhaps Trinity's recent gift might indeed have supernatural, if not heavenly, origins. Organized crime bosses in Las Vegas don't care where Trinity's predictive prowess comes from -- they want him stopped at all costs, because his prescience includes not only foreseeing tragic oil rig explosions and horrific traffic wrecks, but also calling final scores in sporting events yet to be played. Pursued by countless fans and foes across the American South, including federal agents and professional assassins, Byrne enlists help from of his old lover, now a CNN journalist, and from a mercenary friend who owes his life to the priest after a violent episode in Central America years back, to slip Trinity out of Atlanta. Trinity demands Byrne get him in one piece to New Orleans, where Trinity must deliver to the world from the steps of the St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square a message only he can give.

Author Sean Chercover has written an engaging modern thriller. His prose is crisp. Byrne and Trinity are interesting characters, though the rest of the novel's cast are fairly flat stock good guys or bad guys. The novel reflects that the author knows the places where his story takes place very well, and this is particularly so regarding New Orleans. All considered, "The Trinity Game" is an entertaining book that will leave thriller readers satisfied.

65 of 70 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A delerious page-turner July 20, 2012

By Ludix VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Looking for an fun beach book? Can't get enough of Vatican conspiracy thrillers? Sean Chercover has you ... Chercovered! (Sorry.)

THE TRINITY GAME is like Dan Brown meets IT'S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD. By the time the first few chapters are past, the whirlwind plot manages to drag in the Vatican, the FBI, TWO worldwide secret societies, the Vegas mob, Third World politics, Hurricane Katrina, a hot long-lost journalist girlfriend, private hired assassins ... you get the idea.

Everything moves at breakneck speed. The characters are sketched with brevity and effectiveness, and the occasional silly bits flash by so fast they barely register.

I actually had a hard time putting this down, despite its 400+ page length.

If you want a brisk summer read, it's hard to go wrong here.

The last chapter strongly hints at further novels with these characters. Sounds like fun to me.

More About the Author

Sean Chercover is a former private detective turned novelist and screenwriter. A native of Toronto, he has held a motley assortment of jobs over the years, including video editor, scuba diver, nightclub magician, encyclopedia salesman, and truck driver. He is the author of two award-winning novels featuring Chicago private investigator Ray Dudgeon: Big City, Bad Blood and Trigger City. After living in Chicago; New Orleans; and Columbia, South Carolina, Sean has returned to Toronto where he lives with his wife and son. His fiction has won the Anthony, Shamus, CWA Dagger, Dilys, and Crimespree awards, and been shortlisted for the Edgar, Barry, Macavity, Arthur Ellis and ITW Thriller awards.