Product Review

The Vatican Trilogy that began with The Shoes of the Fisherman (1963) and The Clowns of God (1981) reaches a dramatic conclusion in West's bold limning of a modern pontiff presiding in a time of terrorism and violence. Leo XIV, a pope physically at risk as well as spiritually troubled, is unlike his warmly remembered predecessor, John XXIII. Amid political intrigue and counterespionage, both pope and physician become prime targets of Islamic terrorists. Timely and absorbing.