The Third Secret [Hardcover]

Michael Parker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2010

The Third Secret of our Lady of Fatima is removed illegally from the Vatican vaults and replaced with a bible scripture in 1941. That scripture is then shipped out with a fortune in Vatican gold, which goes missing in the war-torn Sahara desert. Twenty years after the war, the whereabouts of the gold comes to light. The Vatican want their gold returned but know nothing of the document. Now there is set in motion a chain of violent events that involve the Italian Mafia, an ex-British Army captain, and the French Foreign Legion. Can the Roman Catholic Church avoid being brought into disrepute?

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Michael Parker is the author of The Devil's Trinity, North Slope, Shadow of the Wolf, Hell's Gate, and The Eagle's Covenant.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Robert Hale (June 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0709087640
• ISBN-13: 978-0709087649
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,290,893 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Quite an entertaining, action-packed thriller, August 17, 2011

By 

Daniel Jolley "darkgenius" (Shelby, North Carolina USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Third Secret (Hardcover)

The Third Secret referred to in the title is the third secret of Fatima, the contents of which were locked away in the Vatican vaults shortly after being presented to the pope. It's not the kind of thing you want to lose, really. That's why a well-meaning cardinal took the document and secretly replaced it in 1941, after learning that the pope planned to ship it out along with a wealth of Vatican gold to WWII-neutral Portugal by way of the Sahara. As it happened, the cardinal's fears were more than justified, as the shipment disappeared somewhere in the desert. In the wake of this misfortune, the cardinal put the original prophecy back in the Secret Archives, claiming that a member of the Galliano Mafia family had returned it to him. That's all well and good, of course, but there's still a problem - the fake Third Secret is still out there somewhere, and its discovery would bring a world of discredit on the Vatican if it were ever to be found.

Two decades later, one of the gold bars turns up, setting off a race to find the rest of the treasure by a myriad of groups who have no idea that something even more valuable than a truckload of gold is involved. On the one hand, there's the Vatican, which naturally wants all of its gold back. Then there's the ex-British Army captain who led the attack on the convoy in the desert and stashed the gold away inside a mountain. Apart from Captain Miles Roselli, only one other person knows where the treasure is hidden - and he doesn't know that he knows, having lost all memory of his life before he was rescued from imminent death by native Tuaregs crossing the desert. Then you have the Galliano family getting involved because neither Roselli nor the Vatican has the resources to sneak a fortune in gold out of the nation of Chad. Throw in Roselli's daughter and a half-brother she never knew, as well as the French Foreign Legion, and you've got yourself quite a story.

Parker works all of these individuals and groups together beautifully as they all converge on the lost shipment. While they are all pursuing the same object, their goals are vastly different. Even supposed allies work at cross-purposes to one another in the pursuit of greed and - should the fake Third Prophecy note fall into the wrong hands - the ultimate bargaining chip to use against the vast power of the Vatican itself. From the horrors of war to the cloistered inner sanctum of the Vatican to a claustrophobic journey underneath the sands of the unforgiving Sahara desert, Michael Parker deftly guides this action-packed story to a conclusion that doesn't disappoint. With strong characters and plenty of intrigue along the way, The Third Secret makes for very entertaining reading.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining with a number of twists..., May 30, 2009

By 

Thomas Duff "Duffbert" (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Third Secret (Hardcover)

I received a pretty good recreational read the other day in the mail... The Third Secret by Michael Parker. It had a bit of everything... intrigue, conspiracy, buried treasure, and a number of people all after a single item, but most all for different reasons.

There are two driving forces in the story. One is the third secret of Fatima from the Catholic Church. During World War II, it was thought that perhaps the German soldiers might overrun the Vatican and loot a number of treasures. A priest, acting on his own, decided to take the unrevealed third secret document, substitute a fake document, and send the real document out of country for safekeeping. The other force is a shipment of Vatican gold being sent out for the same reason. It just so happens that the document is also with the gold. While the Italians are transporting the gold shipment, it's attacked by an Allied patrol in the middle of the desert. They decide to hide the shipment in an unmarked cave until they can figure out how to divvy up the spoils. Of course, human greed takes over, a gun fight ensues, and only one(?) person is left alive that knows about the hiding spot. The rest of the story revolves around his plans to head back, recover the gold for himself, and potentially figure out exactly what that strange piece of paper was that was also with the gold. The main problem is that he's not the only one who gets wind of the recovery, and there are some very powerful people who are willing to do just about anything to make sure they are the winners in the search.

I've grown a bit tired of the Catholic conspiracy genre, as it's been done over and over. But in this case, the story line didn't seem to go overboard on the topic. There were enough competing interests so that the story stayed fresh. And even when I thought most everything was settled and I knew who was on what side, I found out I didn't. The Third Secret was an entertaining novel, and one that I'm glad I had the chance to read.

4.0 out of 5 stars Should appeal to fans of Frederick Forsyth., July 3, 2009

By 

Nik Morton (Alicante, Spain) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Third Secret (Hardcover)

This sixth book by Parker is a relentless page-turning adventure that should appeal to fans of Frederick Forsyth.

It opens in the Vatican in 1941 and a Cardinal is substituting an important document in the Secret Archives. He is fearful for the original's safety, as it, together with Vatican gold, was being shipped abroad before either the Nazis or the Russians might plunder Rome. In North Africa, the secret Italian convoy transporting the Vatican gold is attacked by British troops led by Captain Miles Roselli. The transport truck is hidden away...

Some 22 years later, one of the Vatican gold ingots is located and the hunt is on to find the hiding place; the document is more valuable than the gold, as if it is revealed to the world as a fake it could discredit the Roman Catholic Church. Those involved in the search are Roselli, the Vatican's special agent Cellini, the Mafia family Galliano, a French Foreign Legion commandant and Roselli's children Angelina and Bruno.

Parker has peppered the story with telling description, notably of the inhospitable mountains, and nuggets of information whether about bullion dealing or the Vatican Institute for Religious Works. Also, there are plenty of great phrases, for example: `... once he stopped trying, he would start dying.' Another: `... began to think of other things rather than the footprints of a memory that he didn't know he possessed.'

If you like your adventure tales with pace, intriguing characters, believable heroes and exotic locations, then this is definitely for you.