Matt McAvoy Book Review

Another ARC from my immensely talented namesake, and a particularly exciting instalment to his Vatican mysteries series.  As with all Gary’s books, you know exactly what to expect: a likeable, intelligent and virtuously trustworthy team of amateur sleuths; a powerful and arch-criminal nemesis; and an incredible amount of factual research, mixed with creative licence.  The only thing you don’t know is which ancient artefact or religious doctrine will be the focus.  I have to admit, half a dozen or so books into the series, this group of clerical crime-fighters is really starting to grow on me, and now layers particularly of arguably main character Father Michael Dominic are being peeled back with each outing, I’m liking it.

This time, what is at stake would appear to be the very Apocalypse itself, and the team are not charged with stopping it, so much, as uncovering the potential fraud it obviously is, who is behind it and why.  In doing so, they carry out their usual globetrotting and puzzle-solving, all the while with the Vatican as their home base and primary setting.  Gary is an extraordinary author, absolutely unique in the respect that I have really come across one so meticulous, so well educated in terms of theology, history and geo-politics.  He is the type of professional that the rest of us can only aspire to be, and even helpfully sets out for us in an actually very welcome appendix just what is reality and what is created in his book; it is fair to say that most of us will clearly see just what actual knowledge Gary is sharing with us throughout.  Obviously no-one is born with that level of innate knowledge, and most of us don’t graduate with it either, so I think it is fair to say that he has done a tremendous, jaw dropping amount of research into this book, as with all in this series.  Sometimes, I’ll admit, these books feel like a showcase for this knowledge and research, particularly geographical, but I say if you have it, flaunt it; and if you don’t have it, learn it.  Gary shows us mere mortal writers how fact-based fiction should be done. 

Admittedly, the books in the series all adhere to formula, and this is no different: the first half is usually spent building the intrigue and creating the story; the second half is when all the action happens – and Gary does a good job, as always, of incorporating all of his action-oriented cast.  This is a pretty good instalment to the saga, and definitely one of my favourites.  But, as always with these books, the outstanding, flabbergasting work of the author and his factual-creativity are the real stars.  The way he crafts the copiously abundant facts into fiction is quite simply stunning.