Ray O`Hanlon

I think you have to call this a thriller, technically. It doesn't quite move like one, but the cast, geography and tangled plot are complex—gigantic even. There's a lot to recommend here as we follow Nick Bailey, a London reporter, into a story that starts out murky and gets deeper and deeper into a real, pea-soup fog.
The interwoven plots involve an odd, religious order with roots in the 1600s. The present day priests of that order: a wealthy Taiwanese businessman with a grudge and a terminal illness, a famous photographer who has a much darker sideline occupation, a frustrated, Irish freedom fighter and the top political figure in the world. Their conspiracies snowball. Nothing will stop them except, perhaps, Nick, the intrepid and courageous reporter and a few British police officers who stand in the way. Some American counterparts come into play also as we skip from continent to continent and world-wide war looms if the diplomacy isn't handled exactly right.
From the beginning, with dangling suicidal priests, these disparate groups weave a tangled plot whose strands gradually twine together to create a rope of intrigue that may be too strong to be broken. Throw in MI5, MI6 and a few American agencies and you've got a potboiler. A very satisfying read.

Reviewed by Kaye George, Author of “Choke”, for Suspense Magazine… (mehr)