Customer Reviews

Unholy Trinity

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Excellent knowledge of The Eternal City, so good you can visit the places named, with a wiew of the Second World War that is not shown in "Band of Brothers" etc.
The book (un)intentionally gives clues to the problems in the 90's Balkans while still engrossing the reader in a superb plot with excellent characterisation.
For those who enjoy action/mystery/historical novels, with a regard for the Vatican as a political organisation with its encumbent machinations, this is an engrossing novel.

Adam has given us a tense, exciting thriller. It's fast paced but also interesting as I learned things about WWII, events in Ustashe, Yugoslavia and Ante Pavelic, leader of the Croatian Fascist movement, I had not known. The history doesn't bog down the action of the story. The relationship between Andy and Elena adds to the dimension. I did feel the ending was very abrupt and left a lot of loose threads, hence my lower rating. But it was still and enjoyable read and would make a great airplane book.

Two thumbs up for this compelling novel! It is a very good crime thriller that is totally addictive from page one. A mystery encompassing the murder of a maverick Roman Catholic priest, a shadowy group of neo-Fascists and corruption at the highest levels of the Vatican, Unholy Trinity brings these events to life, and then documents the efforts of a journalist and a committed public prosecutor to get to the bottom of the mystery. Paul Adam brings modern day Rome to life and demonstrates good knowledge of the somewhat arcane Italian legal system. I highly recommend Unholy Trinity, and trust other thriller fans will enjoy it as much as I did!

"Unholy Trinity" opens in 1945, where the Fascist puppet state in northern Italy is collapsing, and one of Mussolini's lieunenants going into hiding. Then, in present-day Rome, a journalist and a magistrate invesigate the murder of a popular, left-leaning priest. They soon find themselves in the midst of a conspiracy to find Fascist gold from fifty years ago, and soon, they discover the Vatican itself is involved. Good storytelling about one of the darkest periods in Church history, and of the atrocities done to Serbs at Croatian camps. The action is believable, and the villains dispicable (one purs castor oil down our heroine's throat). It'll keep you guessing to the final page.

The anti-Catholic and anti-clerical overtones get in the way of an interesting plot and a delightful tour of Rome and Italian lifestyle. The Vatican's role at the end of WWII could have be covered in a less prejudicial way. It would have also been helpful if the author sited some of the sources he used for his historical references.

The Unholy Trinity is a page turner.

This mystery begins with the murder of a Priest who was independent enough from the Catholic Church to make the church leaders a little uneasy about him. His murder leads to several other murders, the search for unknown identities and the source of vatican gold. A romance between a journalist and a magistrate could have been left out but I guess some people just have to have it:)

Two of my friends also read the book and loved it.

The book is a love affair come mystery involving a English Journalist and an Italian Magistrate. They look into the mysterious death of a left wing police and find a vast conspiracy involving a new fascist movement and the Vatican.

The book has an English Character who is a hero. The Italian Characters are the sorts who cheat on their wives drive badly and still use hair grease. The characters when they go out to eat Minestrone soup, and Gnocci and drink Chianti. They don't have soup eat pasta and drink wine as Italians no doubt see themselves doing. The English character is the hero and the Italians are the comedy relief.

The action takes place not in a city but in a first century travelogue. Thus as characters wander around being shot at by evil right wingers and evil priests they do so against an author describing the places in which the action happens as one of the seven hills of Rome in which the wealthy lived in the time of Caesar or a building was one that an emperor used as a storehouse. One would imagine that the author has never been to Rome but has written the book from a travel book after watching some 1950's American movies set in the city.

The plot is pedestrian and would no doubt infuriate Catholics as it recycles the sorts of things mentioned in the recent book "Hitlers Pope". All in all a rather sub fabulous sort of book.