The Vatican Knights [Paperback]

Richard Jones (Author)

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Richard L. Jones received his BA in English from UNLV. He currently lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, and divides his time between working in law enforcement and writing.

Product Details

• Paperback: 210 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse, Inc. (June 6, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595386687
• ISBN-13: 978-0595386680
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,867,433 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Fine, Engrossing, Timely and Fascinating First Novel!, August 29, 2006

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Vatican Knights (Paperback)

Richard L. Jones may be a first-time writer but his experience in having a degree in English coupled with his career in law enforcement (more particularly with Homeland Security) serves him well in this spellbinding journey through the possibilities of terrorism from clandestine sources. Yes, there are areas in this first novel where more polish is needed, but there are few first novelists who escape those pitfalls: it usually takes an audience response to uncover what perhaps an editor missed.

THE VATICAN KNIGHTS is a tightly woven, non-linear, multi-location, varied viewpoints version of a tale of intrigue, and Jones wraps these sundry aspects of his story that takes place in a few days in September in such a way that it feels like reading current events, so well described and informed is he on the logistics of the background of his story. There are various groups - the Soldiers of Islam, the Omega Team or Force Elite, and the Vatican Knights - each sponsored by different factions surrounding the successful plot to kidnap the Pope for the purpose of starting an illegal war against the Arab nations in which the United States, Russia, Israel, and Venezuela can benefit from the power that oil renders. But it is not only a plot in which the White House is threatened by the kidnapping of the Pope (leader of the Christian world) on US soil, but the stance of the Islamic nations and the Israeli commandos and the demands placed on his release, and the involvement of the Vatican in the protection of the Pope. Three major groups of terrorists, one of which happens to be sanctioned by the White House, each with members with code names that make the reader dizzy trying to remember which person goes with which name - until the discovery by the reader that the driving point of this enigma is what makes the suspense work so well! There is, of course, an agent from the US government, one Shari Cohen, who is a powerful riddle solver in terrorist activities and there is also another humanistic approach in the presence of one Kimball Hayden, a powerful superhero type with a dark past for which he is seeking redemption by affiliating with the Vatican. Mix all this together with some rather grueling murders and assasinations and grisly details of hostage treatment and night-shadowed intrigue and the result is a novel that defies being a fast read.

Jones has the storytelling gift and the rich background in Security work to embellish his tale in a way that it feels terse and correct. The way he manages to place character development with plot development shows fine skill: one can easily see this rather controversial look at the White House derring-do could make a terrific movie. But for now it is a very good book for anyone who loves fast-paced writing and intrigue. Hats off to a new talent! Grady Harp, August 06

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The premise makes it hard to suspend your disbelief, September 11, 2006

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Vatican Knights (Paperback)

This story involves the actions of terrorists; the Pope is kidnapped in an attempt to foment global religious strife between Christians and Muslims. What is different is that the terrorist team that captures him is lead by an Israeli commando and consists of Americans. The story begins with the Israeli-led team capturing a group of known Islamic terrorist and killing all but two of them. With the help of a traitor known as Judas, this team is able to penetrate the security surrounding the Governor's mansion where the Pope is residing. They capture the Pope, several Cardinals and the Governor. They kill everyone else, including the two known Arab terrorists. Their bodies are left and the area carefully modified so it appears that a member of the security detail killed them with his dying breath.
The kidnapping of the Pope activates a super-secret commando team under the control of the Vatican. It is led by Kimball Hayden, who was previously a super-assassin employed by the U. S. government. This story is truly a thriller; it involves high officials of the U. S. and Israeli governments, Russian and Venezuelan power brokers and inter-departmental intrigue amidst a constant "Who do you trust?" backdrop. Shari Cohen is an FBI specialist who is called in to track down the terrorists and in an attempt to do her job; she quickly runs afoul of the government officials who are involved in the plot. An attempt is made on her life and the lives of her family, but is foiled by Hayden and his team. This begins a subplot where she and Hayden start to develop feelings for each other.
If you can suspend your disbelief, then the action is intense and the book is exciting. However, that can be difficult. It is truly hard to believe that such high-ranking officials of the U. S. government would be so foolish as to be active participants in a plot involving the Israelis to kidnap and kill the Pope. They are totally ruthless, showing no qualms about killing the governor, his wife and a Cardinal. The highest ranking member of the conspiracy watches the videos of the murders over and over again. So many people are involved in the conspiracy that it fails from the weight of them all.
Another problem is that Kimball Hayden is portrayed as being too powerful, capable of vanquishing all foes, independent of numbers or comparable training. This raises the "existence of Kryptonite" issue. If Kryptonite did not exist, then Superman would be invulnerable and there would be no possibility that he could ever lose. This made it difficult to believe that the Hayden team would ever lose.
Finally, it is specifically stated that the Muslim terrorists killed in the beginning of the book are Arabs. Yet, the Israeli leader of the evil commando team speaks to them in Farsi. Farsi is the language of the Persians (Iranians) and is understood by only a few Arabs. Their language is Arabic, so they would not have understood what the Israeli was saying.
While I enjoyed this book, there was always the gnawing presence in my mind that the premises were a bit too extensive to be completely believable. I suspended my disbelief, but it took more effort than I cared for. There was also no closure at the end, while the Pope is rescued, the Israeli commando manages to carry out a miraculous escape and so there is ample premise for a sequel.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Exceptional Thriller, September 11, 2006

By 

DNICK "Morgueman1973" (Las Vegas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Vatican Knights (Paperback)

I met this guy at a book signing, and to be honest I bought the book because I thought the cover was enticing. However, after breaking into the first few chapters I found the storyline compelling and the writing well done. It does have a few typos, which annoys me to no end, and I wish the book was longer, but despite these flaws this guy's potential is so high and the story is so good, that this book easily rises above these quirks and succeeds.

I won't write a synopsis since others have, but I will agree with one reviewer's assessment that if Jones had a better editor and a decent marketing program, there's no doubt in my mind that this surprisingly good novel would be lining the bestseller shelves.

Because it does suffer from minor flaws, I can only give The Vatican Knights a four-star rating instead of five. But it is still the best thriller that I have read all year long--even more so than Vince Flynn's Consent to Kill and Steve Berry's The Third Secret.

This book is highly recommended.