‘The Vatican Conspiracy’ by Peter Hogenkamp is the start of the Marco Venetti Thriller series. It is a fast-paced, action-packed, adrenaline-inducing book. Peter Hogenkamp has written a book that is a cross-genre one. He has included, action, romance, religion and even a political conspiracy in this book. He has intricately weaved everything together and created almost a masterpiece within his work.
Marco Venetti is a priest in a sleepy seaside town, what we learn is that Marco is no normal priest, he was an officer in the Italian Navy and the day we meet him is no ordinary confession day. Elena, a who is very aware of Marco’s military past and his ex-lover, arrives at confession and tells him her daughter and sister are being held hostage while she is forced to bring some ruthless and violent Arab men into the country. She knows either one is not the answer so turns to Marco.
Marco goes on a killing spree and releases Elena’s family but also discovers a plot pinpointing The Vatican City for a terrorist attack that is planned within the next two hours. The Saudi Prince that seemingly is behind the attack is also planning to get his hands on two nuclear weapons, but it seems that there is someone higher than the Prince in the pecking order and he is also following orders.
This thriller is set within the of the higher echelons of the Catholic Church and that of international Diplomacy where, all the dodgy deals take place and assassinations are agreed too. The ultimate power is quite clearly shown to be with the Catholic Church with its influence it may be used to fulfil any objective it wishes even if it isn’t conducive to the church’s official objective. Peter Hogenkamp uses some real organisations and issues as well as fictitious alongside, I liked this touch in the book, examples are Boko Haram, Russian spies, CIA, Saudi princes and more. I could imagine the fictitious ones sitting side by side with the real problems of today.
Father Marco is now working outside of his Priesthood, how will he face these decisions he has to make with a clear conscience? Is he able to actually do what he needs to in order to get rid of the ruthless enemy he has found himself facing?
A gripping book with a main character who is outside the norm for a hero, and still comes across as relatable and I found I had empathy for him in his capacity as a priest being faced with an impossible choice. The ending of the book was open-ended in readiness for the next book to come along and just smoothly carry on.
Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for the copy of this book for me to write this review today.
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