I don't think I've ever mentioned my thought process behind the evolution of the novel.
You see, once upon a time, I considered writing a murder mystery in the Vatican. I made the head of security an Irish redhead who had family with the IRA. I was going to murder a bishop or a Cardinal or something like that. I had a Hispanic Pope named Hector (I don't recall the Papal name), and a few other loose elements kicking around. I may have had a whole page of notes.
Obviously, when I started on A Pius Man, that project went the way of the dodo.
However, one thing that stuck was it was going to be a mystery. I wanted everyone to be under suspicion. I wanted everyone to look dark and sinister, and let the reader decide who to trust, and when they could be trusted. I wanted to cheat, like Agatha Christie, and make even the investigators look like they could be in on the plot.
I wanted it look, at first glance, like every other knock off of that idiot that shall not be named.
Not that anyone would know who that is.
**COUGH** **COUGH**
A Pius Man is at once both subversive and superversive. Superversive in content, but I totally intend to subvert the status quo of X stories.
Obviously, as the first 4-5 chapters are released, you're going to have to tell me how much I managed to make A Pius Man look like the stories we've all come to know and loathe, before the story kicks into high gear and becomes a knock-down drag-out thriller.
And of course, as I've mentioned before on this blog, it spiraled. Mostly because one son of a bitch just wouldn't die.
Again, what I intend may not be what you see, but then again, I'm the idiot who thought that Honor at Stake was a light, fluffy throwaway book. So I'm not the best judge of character.
But you are. Tell me what you think when you read it.
And, if you've done that....
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The Love at First Bite series.
A Pius Review
ReplyDeleteA secret that men are willing to kill and die for that could change the future of the Vatican. The action and intrigue leads though Rome and the Vatican, and decades of lost history. Italian police, international intelligence agencies Vatican security and ex-Soviet agents all struggle with labyrinthine plots to reveal, or conceal the truth. ″A Pius Man″ by Declan Finn begins with action, develops into complex, twisting intrigue, and comes to a furious-paced action-filled conclusion. Whether you are curious about Vatican history, love a complex mystery, or are looking for the next action-filled thriller, ″A Pius Man″ is sure not to disappoint.
It starts off running: with a terrible multiple murder to cover up a discovery that could shift the world. In the next pages, Finn brings in the Italian Police, Vatican security, and intelligence agencies from the USA, Germany, Israel, Egypt as well as a cell of old school Cold War ex-Soviets. Even with all of these trained operators and high-tech weaponry, it's the ever twisting mystery that unfolds that holds you though the book and keeps the pages turning. The action is well done, thought out, and moves with violent speed across the pages.
All of this alone would have me recommending this book. But the detailed events of the Vatican surrounding WWII and the Cold War were the real find. The Papacy has been influential in these times: everyone knows about John Paul II and Poland; but there is a lot more here. Finn gives us a vast, sweeping conspiracy of decades, affecting the whole world, all in and around the mysteries of the Vatican.