Customer Reviews

The Vatican Knights

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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

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.

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.

When the Pope is kidnapped on a U.S. visit, FBI negotiator Shari Cohen is put in charge of the investigation. It seems obvious that Arab terrorists are involved--two of their bodies are found on the site of the kidnapping--but where could they have taken the Pope and what are their intentions. With precious little to go on, Shari is under pressure from the President himself and the whole world teeters toward a destructive war between religions.

The Vatican does not take the kidnapping of its Pope sitting down. It sends its elite squad, The Vatican Knights, into action. The Knights are the best of the best, assassins, soldiers, code-breakers, men who live by the motto of "Loyalty above all else, except Honor." Somehow, the Knights, led by former US assassin Kimball Hayden, must persuade Shari to trust them, to share her information with them, to allow them to take the lead in the rescue of the Pope.

Although the kidnappers have hidden their identities well, they are not actually Arab terrorists. Instead, they are using the pretense of being Arab terrorists to push the world into a war that would destroy the Arabic people. The tentacles of this conspiracy reach high into the US Government--and into the governments and oil ministries of powerful nations around the world. When Shari determines that there is information on an Israeli CD-ROM that might be related to the plot, she becomes a danger to the conspiracy--and is targetted for death. Meanwhile, with every ticking hour, the Pope's own death becomes more inevitable.

Author Richard L. Jones writes a fast-paced thriller. With elite teams of assassins, crack FBI agents, foreign conspiracies, plots within the US government, the Pope himself, and a looming war that threatens to send much of the world into flames, Jones puts together all of the ingredients needed to deliver a compelling story.

I found myself torn from the story, however, by errors and clunky writing which should have been corrected in editing stages. When speaking to the Arab terrorists, for example, and when pretending to be terrorists taping their demands, the kidnappers speak Farsi--Persian. Arabic, the language spoken by Arabs, is completely different from Farsi--and it is unlikely that the Arab terrorist would have understood them. It is even more unlikely that FBI agents wouldn't have guessed that something was wrong.

THE VATICAN KNIGHTS is a mostly-enjoyable thriller and author Jones has a lot of potential. With more careful editing, he should be able to step up toward best-selling status.

Two Stars

As I write this, Muslims all over the world are calling for Pope Benedict's head on a pike for simply quoting from an historical text, a fact which suddenly makes the premise of Richard L. Jones' debut novel, The Vatican Knights, much less far-fetched than it would have seemed even a couple of months ago. In the story, a group calling itself the Soldiers of Islam kidnaps the pope and several members of the Holy See on American soil, holding the pontiff ransom for a set of geopolitical demands that the United States government could not possibly agree to. With the powers that be in Washington concentrating predominantly on the public relations disaster the incident most certainly is, the pope's very life comes to fall in the hands of a committed FBI agent and a super-secret force of Vatican commandoes charged with bringing the pope home safely. But, and this is a very big but, things are not truly as they seem here, as the truth itself is well hidden behind a shroud of deception, subterfuge, and evil intrigue.

I really liked the concept of the Vatican Knights. We're not talking about the Swiss Guards ostensibly charged with security at the Vatican. The Knights are a super-secret group of hardcore commandos completely unknown to all but the pontiff and less than a handful of Vatican officials - which makes perfect sense, since the Knights are sometimes called upon to kill in situations where violence cannot be avoided. Most of the Knights were groomed from childhood for this role, but their leader, Kimball Hayden, is different. A former commander in the US's own covert Force Elite, his service to the forces of good is borne of the guilt he feels over the things he did as an assassin. He's just the man to lead the Knights, especially now as they are called upon to find the pope and bring him home safe and sound.

While top American government leaders concentrate on escaping the noose of the fall guy should the pope be killed, the FBI's Shari Cohen, renowned for her hostage negotiation skills, takes charge of the investigation. From the start, she is puzzled by the evidence, as some of the terrorist group's actions don't quite add up. Still, she makes enough headway to find herself targeted for elimination by the cabal behind the plot. When she eventually joins forces with the Vatican Knights, all of her questions and doubts start adding up, revealing an enemy far more insidious and dangerous than she ever deemed possible. Not only the pope, but the entire world is in grave danger, for the death of the pope would almost surely spark a devastating war between Christianity and Islam- a war that certain parties would profit from immensely.

I found The Vatican Knights to be quite an interesting, entertaining read, but it is not without some problems, which are only to be expected with a debut novel. How the crucial evidence came to be where it was still makes little sense to me, and some of the covert ties between different parties to the conspiracy also strike me as geopolitically implausible. Still, though, the whole premise of this novel is rather deliciously clever and not outside the bounds of possibility. The story also offers up a rather poignant lesson about the dangers of presumption and a rush to judgment (and action) based on perception rather than fact. Both fascinating and provocative, The Vatican Knights is well worth the read.

Written by law enforcement worker Richard L. Jones, The Vatican Knights is a suspenseful novel about the kidnapping of a pope by a terrorist cell calling itself the Soldiers of Islam. The terrorists threaten the Pope's execution if their demands are not met; an elite op group of commandos known as the Vatican Knights is dispatched to bring him back alive. Caught in the middle is FBI Specialist Shari Cohen, who begins her duty seeking to track down the terrorist cell but quickly becomes embroiled in a greater conspiracy. A fast-paced, exciting read.

First of all, who edited this book? The phrase "little did he know" was used so often, I have to wonder whether the editor was awake at all... There were so many "copses of trees", too - the author needs a Thesaurus!

I read the book yesterday, and it started off quite well, an interesting premise, believable characters... but halfway through the book it just turned into a far fetched story that just made me roll my eyes.

The plot: a group of trained assassins led by an Israeli ambassador in disguise, kidnap the Pope together with 4 bishops and the Maryland governor. They make it look as if it was an act of a terrorist group called "Soldiers of Islam". Their goal is to whip the Christians into a frenzy, stir up hatred against Muslims/Arabs, and take over the rule in the Middle East while simultaneously stripping the OPEC countries of their power and replacing them with non-OPEC countries such as Venezuela.

No humble goal, eh?

The female heroine is totally believable until we're 2/3 through the story and she joins the Vatican Knights squad right into action to save the kidnapped pope. Puhlease!!!

Vatican Knights kept me guessing through an interesting set of plot turns that led many places. However, it seemed a bit contrived.