The Assassini: A Novel

By Thomas Gifford

It is 1982.  In the Vatican, priestly vultures gather around the dying Pope, whispering the names of possible successors.  In a forgotten monastery on Ireland's gale-swept coast, a dangerous document is hidden, waiting to be claimed.  And in a family chapel in Princeton, New Jersey, a nun is murdered at her prayers.  Sister Valentine was an outspoken activist, a thorn in the Church's side.  When her brother, lawyer Ben Driskill, realizes the Church will never investigate her death, he sets out to find the murderer himself--and uncovers an explosive secret.The Assassini.  An age-old brotherhood of killers.  Once they were hired by princes of the Church to protect it in dangerous times.  But whose orders do they now obey?

The Assassini marks the triumphant retum of a master at the peak of his powers--the first novel in more than a decade from the acclaimed author of The Wind Chill Factor.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Apr 24, 2013
• ISBN: 9780804149778

Thomas Gifford

Thomas Gifford (1937–2000) was a bestselling author of thriller novels. Born in Dubuque, Iowa, he moved to Minnesota after graduating from Harvard. After eight years as a traveling textbook salesman, he wrote Benchwarmer Bob (1974), a biography of Minnesota Vikings defensive end Bob Lurtsema. The Wind Chill Factor (1975), a novel about dark dealings among ex-Nazis, introduced John Cooper, a character Gifford would revisit in The First Sacrifice (1994). The Wind Chill Factor was one of several books Gifford set in and around Minneapolis. Gifford won an Edgar Award nomination for The Cavanaugh Quest (1976). The Glendower Legacy (1978), a story about an academic who discovers that George Washington may have been a British spy, was adapted for the film Dirty Tricks (1981), starring Elliott Gould. In the 1980s Gifford wrote suspense novels under the pen names Thomas Maxwell and Dana Clarins. In 1996 he moved back to Dubuque to renovate his childhood home. He died of cancer in 2000.

Reviews for The Assassini

[tinydancer11_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

If it hadn't dragged on for quite so long, it would have been a much more enjoyable read. The premise was a very good one, I just feel that there were several parts that could have been left out entirely and still had the same, if not a better, effect.

[wyvernfriend · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This showed promise on the back, a secret order of assassins, operating with the connivance of the top echelons of the catholic church, ruthless machinations, but no, it didn't quite work. The story got bogged down on celibacy, unthinking faith and some stuff that went on for too long. Billed as "as shocking as the Da Vinci Code" that tag is obviously to generate sales on the coat-tails of the other book.It could have been a very good read but instead it dragged on and on occasionally and then you would blink and miss an important bit. Not bad but nothing exceptional in it's genre.

[corgidog2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Intrigue in the Roman Catholic church regarding the election of a new pope, affiliation with the Nazis in WWII and paid official assassins for the church. Readable but frustrating at times.