Unholy Trinity by
Paul Adam
pbk out June 00
(Warner)
at £5.99
There are times when one reads a new novel and gets an immediate feeling of sympathy with characters and plot - it's rare in a first novel, but it does happen, and when it does, the reviewer has a vastly easier time of it. Unholy Trinity begins in 1945 with the collapse of Mussolini's Italy. He is moving out, trying to escape the rapid advance of the allies by running away to Germany. With him are friends, German soldiers to protect him from partisans, his lover, and one last member of his bodyguard: the rest have all gone, only the most loyal guard remains.
The history books tell us what happened at the end of the war. We know what happened to Mussolini, and this first part fleshes out the details, but then the writer draws us forward quickly to modern day Rome and the discovery of a priest brutally murdered in his own rooms.
Andy Chapman is a reporter for a London daily and is in Rome out of interest, helping a friend, Enzo, produce copy on the priest's death. Enzo, a local reporter, is keen to find out who could have committed such a hideous act as killing a priest, and while the two reporters are in the room from which the body has just been carried, they are confronted by, and thrown out by the attractive young investigating magistrate, Elena Fiorini.
Soon Chapman and Enzo discover a troubling fact: the Vatican itself is implicated in the killing. Chapman, attracted to the magistrate, is able to help her with her investigation of this strange and worrying murder, but when witnesses begin to die, both realise that the matter is much more dangerous than they had realised.
Paul Adam tells his story by the use of simple flashbacks, taking us back to the confusion and madness of the end of the Second World War, then forward again to the present day. It's a method I have seen other writers use, but it can fail: Adam uses it with simplicity and clarity. He has created a very good thriller.
The atmosphere of Italy is portrayed with wonderful ease; the characters are well described and distinctive; the plot itself is deeply satisfying. Adam makes superb use of history, the corruption at the heart of Roman life, the tetchiness between Vatican and Italian officials, and even the Vatican buildings themselves. The author has a sharp and unfussy method of putting his story down on paper which seems to convey the reality of Italian life and makes reading his book a real pleasure.
I happily recommend this to anyone who likes Len Deighton or Robert Harris: a very good read
(
Michael Jecks
- author of the highly acclaimed Furnshill & Puttock series)
