TO KILL THE POPE

Debut thriller by a veteran nonfiction writer, newsman, and pope-watcher (Pope John Paul II: A Biography, not reviewed).

Szulc says he turned to the novel for this time out mostly to protect his story's sources. At the heart of his tale is the very real attempt to assassinate Pope John Paul II on May 13, 1981—and the very secret Holy See investigation into the circumstances surrounding it. Szulc's fictitious pope is the sophisticated Frenchman Gregory XVII, his sleuth the reluctant American Father Ted Savage. Five years have passed since the narrow escape, and the Turkish hit man who fired the three errant bullets is in jail serving a life sentence. That being so, the Italian police have said finito and gone on to more fertile investigations. It's occurred to Gregory and the people around him, however, that papal security might well depend on matters still unresolved. Such as: Was it a case of a lone, crazed gunman? Or was it a conspiracy, and if so who were the conspirators and was their failure permanently discouraging? Father Ted, a onetime CIA operative, understands why he's been tapped for "this most confidential mission," but he doesn't like it one bit. And he's right not to. The truth, when it finally emerges, turns out to be dangerous internationally and disruptive personally in ways he never could have imagined. An array of determined and highly placed people are engaged in cover-up—at least one of them in the Vatican itself—and to them utter ruthlessness in support of conviction amounts to an obligation.

Szulc (Chopin in Paris, 1998, etc.) flounders some as a novelist—underdeveloped people, awkward dialogue—but his research is abundant and persuasive.