The Venice Conspiracy

September 3, 2012
British author Christer follows his 2011 debut (Stonehenge Legacy) with a leisurely paced yet suspenseful religious conspiracy thriller. One night in a poor L.A. neighborhood, Fr. Tom Shaman busts up a rape attack and kills two of the rapists in the process. To escape the news furor, Tom leaves the priesthood and travels to Venice, Italy, where he falls into a steamy sexual relationship with travel writer Tina Ricci—and becomes enmeshed in a murder investigation after finding a young woman’s mutilated body in a canal while on a morning walk. The story of a young priest and his pregnant wife in Etruria in 666 B.C. that alternates with the contemporary action adds historical depth. A beautiful silver relic passed down over the centuries that holds evil mystical powers, modern-day satanic rituals, and Vatican intrigue all help propel the plot of this solid entry in the post–Da Vinci Code subgenre. Agent: Luigi Bonomi, Luigi Bonomi Associates.

October 1, 2012
The latest thriller from Christer. The novel has two storylines, reinforcing the idea that evil is forever. In 666 B.C., the wife of a seer is raped, and the child she later bears is the rapist's. Meanwhile, she and her husband create a set of silver tablets representing the gates of hell. Evil forces lust after their creation and are still hunting for it in 18th-century Venice. In the present-day storyline, 32-year-old Father Tom Shaman (A priest named Shaman. Get it?) accidentally kills two thugs in Los Angeles while trying to rescue a woman who is being raped. Exonerated but distraught, he quits the priesthood and goes to Venice to start a new life. Immediately, he finds a dead body and then a live one--a beautiful woman who picks him up in a cafe and promptly deflowers him. The dead girl has 666 wounds in her body. Police quickly dismiss Tom as a suspect but persuade him to consult on the possibility that a Satanist is on the loose. That evil number crops up again and again, including a 666-square-foot room and the climactic event taking place at 6 a.m. on June 6. The novel is even divided into six parts. By the end, the reader is spitting sixes. The other maddening matter is the abundance of short, declarative sentences. And sentence fragments galore. And the ubiquitous present tense. The novel's premise isn't a bad one; Satan is one tough hombre whose power on Earth rivals God's. Every earthly disaster is the work of Satan, who seems quite able to fight the deity to a draw. There's plenty of good material for Christer to work with, and he deserves credit for his forensic and historical research. If only he wouldn't whack the reader upside the head 666 times with his symbolism. This book could have been far better.

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