Here is the publisher’s synopsis:

A man climbs a cliff face in the oldest inhabited place on earth, a mountain known as the Citadel, a Vatican-like city-state that towers above the city of Ruin in modern-day Turkey. But this is no ordinary ascent. It is a dangerous, symbolic act. And thanks to the media, it is an event witnessed by the entire world.

Few people understand its consequence. But for foundation worker Kathryn Mann and a handful of others, it’s evidence that a revolution is at hand. For the Sancti, the cowled and secretive monks who live inside the Citadel, it could mean the end of everything they have built. They will stop at nothing to keep what is theirs, and they will break every law in every country and even kill to hold it fast. For American reporter Liv Adamsen, it spurs the memory of the beloved brother she lost years before, setting her on a journey across the world and into the heart of her own identity.

There, she will make a discovery so shocking that it will change everything. . . .

It turned out to be an fast paced and entertaining read. One that overcame some of the weaknesses of the genre by doing a few things well.

The first thing that the book does well is drop you into the story. Instead of trying to start with the back story, Toyne gets right to the heart of the matter; he starts with the mystery but in action form (see video above) and so hooks the reader at the start.

In fact this hook, the man who jumps from the Citadel and the mystery involved, fuels the rest of the story. From the very beginning you are pushed forward trying to figure out what exactly happened to drive this man to jump (what did he see in that ceremony, what is the message he left on that piece of leather and those seeds, etc.).

As it happens there is a video teaser to illustrate this:

Which brings us to the second positive, the pace. With short chapters and plenty of action the book is a quick and suspenseful read. The story never gets bogged down trying to explain the history involved or fill in the details of the characters. Everything is done “on the fly” and so the pace is fast and steady; and the tension builds.

While none of the characters are particularly deep, there are enough angles and side stories to keep the action interesting and the plot moving forward.  This is classic good versus evil with both sides seeing themselves as the good guys (although it is pretty clear who Toyne thinks are the true good guys).  This also pushes the plot forward as both race against time (also a classic device).

Lastly, the exotic setting and backdrop make for an interesting story. The mountain gives the story a center and the monks in the mountain give it a unique flavor. Granted, everybody speaks English and the town of Ruin is presented as rather vanilla but the mountain and its history are what animates the story.

The weaknesses of the story are common to the genre, IMO anyways. The plausibility level is pretty low.  Toyne doesn’t really even try to make much of it plausible. You just have to suspend your disbelief and enjoy the ride. Liv Adamsen, her back story and her interaction with Gabriel is particularly implausible. And the connection between the ancient sect in the citadel and the faith of Christians around the world is never really explained; is left generic and unexplored except for a few references to a heretics bible and the creation story in Genesis.

I also think this work succeeds despite its mythology or underlying worldview if you will. The secret behind the sacrament struck me as silly – a sort pagan feminism attractive to certain types of post-modern westerners; or an idealized version of creation myth.  But I didn’t keep reading because I thought the secrets being discussed had some connection to real history and belief but because I enjoyed seeing the action play out and wanted to find out what happens to the characters. I wanted to find out the secret at the heart of the mountain but I didn’t find it insightful or religiously significant. Your mileage may vary, of course.

Sanctus is an entertaining and intriguing thriller but, like many, requires you to suspend your disbelief and just enjoy the fast paced action and interesting twists and turns. The first of a planned trilogy, it will be interesting to see how the secret finally revealed at the end plays out moving forward.

If you like your thrillers fast paced with a taste for conspiracy theories and religious mythology be sure to check this one out.

I kid, I kid. It is actually a book trailer for the forthcoming The Devil Colony from James Rollins.  Is the book worth the hype? Does this kind of video make you want to read the book?

If anyone has read an ARC or has a opinion please leave a comment.

Publishers Weekly

At the start of Christopher’s cartoonish fourth Templar suspense novel (after The Templar Throne), a sniper assassinates the pope while the Holy Father is giving the Christmas blessing on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica. Before easily escaping, the killer also fatally shoots a cardinal, two bishops, and the Vatican’s official photographer. This outrage is merely the prologue to an even greater intended act of political violence, the murder of the U.S. president, who’s sure to attend the pontiff’s funeral. The president’s death will pave the way for the rise to power of right-wing Sen. Richard Sinclair, a story line used far more effectively by Richard Condon in The Manchurian Candidate. Standing in the way of the bad guys is the clichéd pairing of an older ex-soldier, John “Doc” Holliday, and his attractive younger female protégé, Peggy Blackstock, who respond to traumatic situations with banter out of one of the weaker James Bond movies.

Kirkus Reviews

Deputy Charlie Hood (The Renegades, 2009, etc.) copes with love, war and a baffling being who might be an angel, a demon, conceivably both, or none of the above. Detached from the L.A. Sheriff’s Department, Deputy Hood is sent south to join Operation Blowdown, assembled to war against the much-too-successful Mexican drug cartels. It’s an overwhelmingly difficult job, never-ending and ever-perilous. As evidence of this, Jimmy Holdstock, one of Charlie’s young colleagues, is suddenly snatched by a particularly ruthless cartel-object: torture, mutilation and the kind of prolonged, very public death wickedly calculated to dampen law-enforcement enthusiasm. In the immediate aftermath of the kidnapping, an envelope arrives at Blowdown headquarters, containing a pair of Polaroids. Pictured in one is a dramatically ill-treated Jimmy; in the other, a still-life formed by “a pair of pliers, an electric circular saw, and a long-nozzled barbecue lighter.” Clearly, Jimmy needs to be rescued fast.

Meanwhile, Mike Finnegan, a strange little man who might furnish some helpful answers resides, severely injured, in the ICU of Buenavista Hospital. He sends for Charlie. The two have never met, but Charlie can’t ignore the existence of a peculiar sort of connection between them. They talk. Finnegan wants Charlie to find his missing daughter and offers a quid pro quo that may or may not pertain to the beset Jimmy. The little man-nothing if not mysterious-knows things he can’t possibly: about Blowdown, about Charlie’s private life. Moreover, he really should have died as the result of his injuries, and not even lovely, smart Dr. Beth Petty can explain his survival. So who or what is Mike Finnegan? It’sanybody’s guess. Lacks the seamlessness of Parker’s best plotting, but indomitable Charlie is, as always, irresistible. Hard not to warm to a man who-no matter the adversity-insists that “Hope counts.”

Publishers Weekly

Disgraced former CIA agent Court “The Gray Man” Gentry (introduced in 2009′s The Gray Man) makes ends meet as an assassin working for clients he cannot trust. Russian arms merchant Sidorenko wants Court to kill Sudan’s President Abboud, arguably the man responsible for the genocide in Darfur. The CIA makes a counteroffer: kidnap Abboud and give him to American officials in exchange for amnesty. Court cannot refuse and treks through Sudan in pursuit of nebulous, ever-changing goals. Every element in this book is familiar, but Court is endearing in his perseverance even as his schemes are undermined by sympathetic victims, misleading information, outright lies, poor planning, betrayal, conflicting agendas, and simple bad luck. What could have been a storm of clichés becomes an action-filled yet touching story of a man whose reason has long ago been subsumed by his work ethic.

Synopsis

In The Knight, the third installment in the bestselling series of thrillers featuring FBI criminologist Patrick Bowers, the stakes have never been higher.

Agent Bowers is used to tracking the country’s most dangerous killers, but now it looks like a killer is tracking him. When he realizes the murderer is using clues from an ancient manuscript as a blueprint for his crimes, Bowers faces a race against time to decipher who the next victim will be and to stop the final shocking murder–which he’s beginning to believe might be his own.

Gritty, chilling, and intense, this psychological thriller is guaranteed to keep readers up all night.

From the Publisher

Private investigator David Spandau, an ex-stuntman familiar with the ins and outs of Hollywood—a smart, tough, and wickedly funny observer of la vie L.A.—finds his patience almost sapped when he’s hired to protect actor Bobby Dye from a blackmailing scheme gone wrong. Dye—young, brash, and on the verge of becoming a major star—has been set up by gangster Richie Stella, a nightclub owner and drug dealer with dreams of becoming a Hollywood producer. And he has a movie perfect for Dye. Problem is, it’s the worst script anyone’s ever read. But Richie is not easy to say no to, and when he retaliates, the game becomes deadly for more than a few of its players.

Charged with the elements of all great L.A. noir&crackling dialogue, fast-paced plot, and seedy, jaded characters—Loser’s Town is a deftly written thriller and a gruesomely hilarious depiction of what goes on beneath those white letters on the mountainside.

Publishers Weekly

Spare, clipped expository prose and hip, spot-on dialogue propel this visceral crime novel from Winslow (The Dawn Patrol). The future is looking good for Laguna Beach, Calif., marijuana growers Ben and Chon, until they receive an ominous e-mail from the Baja Cartel. Attached is a photograph showing the decapitated bodies of other independent drug dealers. The message is clear: sell your product through us or else. Ben and Chon try to resist, but matters escalate after cartel thugs abduct Ophelia, the guys’ beautiful young playmate and accomplice, and hold her for a cool million ransom. Meanwhile, Elena “La Reina” Sanchez Lauter, the leader of the Baja Cartel, must deal with rival drug gangs and potential overthrow from within. Ben and Chon propose a trade that Elena can’t refuse, setting the stage for the violent and utterly satisfying ending. Winslow’s encyclopedic knowledge of the border drug trade lends authenticity.

Publishers Weekly

At the start of Morrison’s debut, a routine quest thriller that attracted attention through Amazon’s self-publishing Kindle program, combat engineer Tyler Locke executes a daring rescue after the helicopter carrying archeologist Dilara Kenner crash-lands in the sea near the floating oil rig where Tyler is working 200 miles off the Newfoundland coast. Dilara has come to enlist Tyler’s help in finding Noah’s ark, previously discovered by her father, Hasad Arvadi, who was murdered before he could announce this momentous find. Arvadi’s killer, Sebastian Ulric, the head of a religious cult, plans to use a prion disease found on the ark as a weapon. Tyler, Dilara, and Tyler’s sidekick, Grant Westfield, are all that stands between Ulric and the death of virtually every human on earth. Morrison breaks the story into several main sections involving various battles before finally honing in on what impatient readers will have been awaiting, the actual discovery of the ark.

But first, let’s allow the publisher to introduce the book:

Sister Evangeline was just a girl when her father entrusted her to the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in upstate New York. Now, at twenty-three, her discovery of a 1943 letter from the famous philanthropist Abigail Rockefeller to the late mother superior of Saint Rose Convent plunges Evangeline into a secret history that stretches back a thousand years: an ancient conflict between the Society of Angelologists and the monstrously beautiful descendants of angels and humans, the Nephilim.

For the secrets these letters guard are desperately coveted by the once-powerful Nephilim, who aim to perpetuate war, subvert the good in humanity, and dominate mankind. Generations of angelologists have devoted their lives to stopping them, and their shared mission, which Evangeline has long been destined to join, reaches from her bucolic abbey on the Hudson to the apex of insular wealth in New York, to the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris and the mountains of Bulgaria.

This was in fact the blurb that intrigued me enough to read the book (generously provided by the publisher in this case). But the same book produced two very different reactions.

Janet Maslin calls it “a class-obsessed, scholarship-spouting, minutiae-strewn thrill ride that follows the ‘Da Vinci Code’ model as loftily as it can.”

In contrast, Susan Cokal: “Sensual and intellectual, “Angelology” is a terrifically clever thriller — more Eco than Brown, without the cloudy sentimentalism of New Age encomiums or Catholic treatises.”

So if I had to choose side in this debate who would I declare the winner? I would have to side with Cokal but I can understand where Maslin is coming from to a degree.

More below.

I think it is fair to say that thrillers of every sort expect a certain suspension of judgment. You have to sit back and relax and enjoy the ride. Some authors strive for plausibility more than others but I have rarely come across thrillers where you say: yeah, I could see that happening. Let’s face it daily life ain’t all that thrilling for most of us.

I also think it is fair to say that Janet Maslin either skipped this step or has rather exacting standards. It is a book about angels, Janet. Were you expecting ripped from the headlines type plausibility here?

Secondly, Maslin seems to have not enjoyed the admittedly thick detail that the author uses to situate the story -  in order to have some plausibility or at least a connection to history and legend. And this thick description, if you will, carries over into the book’s style overall.

For these reasons, it strikes me as the kind of book you simply have to jump into wholeheartedly for it to work; you have to pick up some momentum and rhythm to enjoy it. If you are constantly nit-picking and focused on the details as they pile up you will likely be turned off.

There is a somewhat difficult transition when the book flashes back to WWII Paris and I felt like the author focused too much on the emotional rivalry between Celestine and Gabriella in this section. It dragged whenever the focus was on the girl’s relationship instead of the larger mystery and Second Angelogical Expedition.

I myself tend to prefer tighter writing and less layered descriptions while  Trussoni describes everything in great detail. But it gives the novel a sensual and Gothic feel – which I believe was intentional. If anything I think the love interest between Evangeline and Verlain was laid on a little too thick whereas the description involved in Angelology, as I noted, provide the historical and theological backstory.

Was the chase for the missing Lyre pieces at the end a little to convenient at times? Sure. Can the meticulous descriptions drag the story on occasion? Yes. Are the characters actions always plausible? Of course not. But just because a book has flaws doesn’t mean you should ignore the things it does well.

Lev Grossman, reviewing the book for Time, captures the mix well I think:

At times Angelology is little more than a light scaffolding built around the glittering edifice of its genuinely compelling premise. Trussoni’s handling of action is not deft, and the romance between Verlaine and Evangeline makes you long for the raw erotic chemistry between Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu.

But at other times, Angelology finds an almost hallucinatory power

I found Angelology to be a creative and imaginative thriller. As Cokal noted you have to enjoy a book that can weave together “angels of the Bible and Apocrypha, the myth of Orpheus, Bulgarian geography, medieval monastics, the Rockefellers, ­Nazis, nuns and musicology” into an evocative and entertaining story.

It isn’t perfect but if you dive in and just enjoy the ride while it lasts I think you will appreciate it more than if you try to analyze it as you read.