Day of Confession
by Allan Folsom
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Book Summary Information
Author: Allan FolsomEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1999-07-01
ISBN: 0446604534
Number of pages: 688
Publisher: Vision
Product features:
- Onteresting
- Well Written
Book Reviews of Day of Confession
Book Review: A FLAWED STORY
Summary: 2 Stars
The evil Cardinal Palestrina hires an international terrorist who kills so many people on the pages of this book that I lost count as I was reading, and for what? So the Vatican can forge ties with China. Huh? Not only is Cardinal Palestrina evil, but he is also nuts. He thinks he is the reincarnation of Alexander the Great. The evil Cardinal intends to kill the good Cardinal as soon as he can locate and kill Father Daniel who has heard the good Cardinal's confession, which, of course, revealed what the good Cardinal knew about the horrific plans of the evil Cardinal... Are you confused yet? And I haven't even mentioned the main character, Harry.
Like the evil Cardinal, Harry's actions are a bit difficult to understand. Initially Harry likes lusty, independent women who like to screw strangers, but later he desires the pure and sweet nun Elena who also, inconsistently, swings between selfless nurse and siren in a sheer nightgown. When the story begins, Harry seems to think little and care less about his brother Danny (aka Father Daniel), but somehow he becomes willing to take ridiculous risks to help his brother. The author throws in a lot of background on the brothers that is supposed to explain this, but it never quite does.
The most memorable character is the terrorist, Thomas Kind, but I kept wondering what his motivation was for doing the bidding of the evil Cardinal Palestrina. Was he just doing it as a job, for money? He killed so many people, you had to wonder if he was being paid by the body. That brings me to one more flaw. The very fact of so many dead bodies was a giveaway to the police that the bad guys couldn't be one Hollywood lawyer (Harry) and one Vatican priest (Danny). In the story, the top cop arrives at this conclusion, but why did Thomas Kind tip his hand in this way?
I can buy into a Cardinal being crazy, but it seems he'd be crazy in a more Catholic manner than thinking he is the reincarnation of Alexander the Great. Didn't author Folsom realize Catholics don't believe in reincarnation? Didn' t the pope (who barely appears in the story) notice that Cardinal Palestrina was, well... evil? The author does throw in a few scenes where the pope senses something is wrong, but, good grief, wouldn't he have noticed it long ago? Wouldn't you expect the Holy Father to be a better judge of character? And why were people on the outside of the Vatican so willing to risk their lives to try to help the good Cardinal when people inside the Vatican were all going along with the requests of the evil Cardinal and didn't seem to mind that the good Cardinal was incarcerated in a tower?
I liked the European settings of the story and the book has a wonderful map of Vatican City on the back cover. The author kept the action moving swiftly (almost too swiftly), but I found the characters too unrealistic and the attempts to show motivation and feeling unconvincing. I almost stopped reading several times when the characters became too cardboard, and when the old cliché about the confession that cannot be revealed, so beloved of Hollywood, turned up. I wondered if finishing the book was even worth the time. I also found the constant scene changes and the huge cast of characters at times confusing. The story had some interesting elements, but I'd have to rate it as a miss.
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