My wife recommended this great book to me. It's an extremely high-paced, action thriller
set in modern-day Rome. It seems comparable to works by Tom Clancy, and don't be put off
by the title, it's not a religious doctrine or cult manifesto of any kind. In fact, I'll
just rip the editorial review off Amazon, since it describes it pretty well:
It takes guts to write a novel that combines an ancient secret brotherhood, the Swiss Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire, a papal conclave, mysterious ambigrams, a plot against the Vatican, a mad scientist in a wheelchair, particles of antimatter, jets that can travel 15,000 miles per hour, crafty assassins, a beautiful Italian physicist, and a Harvard professor of religious iconology. It takes talent to make that novel anything but ridiculous. (Amazon)
The story comes across as anything but ridiculous, the author skillfully fuses elements from cutting edge technology and ancient Christian doctrine. The whole 700 or so page story is a single adrenaline rush: everything takes place in less than 24 hours, and is a race against time from one clue to the next. I found it hard to put the book down despite the tearing of my eyes, the clocking reading 2am, and my having to go to work the next day (It's okay, I only have another 100 pages to read, I can do it, I remember thinking).