THE RECKONING

Sequel to Monteleone’s The Blood of the Lamb (1992), about Father Peter Carenza, a Catholic priest cloned in the womb of a virgin from molecules of Christ’s blood taken from the Shroud of Turin—a lively premise squandered in banal blood-and-thunder as the Vatican’s Secret Service hit squad chased Father Carenza, who was revealed as a spiritual dunderhead . . . and also the Antichrist. Now Carenza is back, having escaped assassination at the Los Angeles Palladium Convocation, and Rome has made him Pope Peter II. Does a millennial First American Pope mean the End Times are near, as Nostradamus predicted? After all, Pope Peter II has decided to wed ex-TV anchorwoman Marion Windsor and to proclaim that all Catholic clerics may marry. Is God in such a fit about this that he’ll allow Peter to bring on Armageddon with a huge sun flare that will crisp the planet in a snap? Don—t look for Graham Greene’s wistfully bitter wisdom here: this allegedly spiritual novel is all about power games and plot, plot, plot. Catholics may well see Monteleone himself as the Antichrist, piddling away their faith’s essence in dumbfounding melodrama.