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Bless me, Father, for I have sinned…” Marco Venetti has heard the words thousands of times before. But this is a cry for help, not absolution—and soon Marco finds himself racing against time to foil a conspiracy aimed at the heart of the Vatican…

It is an ordinary day in Marco Venetti’s quiet coastal parish—but the woman who’s come to confess is not ordinary. Marco has always been drawn to beautiful Elena, and she brings news that will shatter his peace.

Elena’s sister and daughter have been kidnapped, to force her to bring a gang of ruthless men into the country—if she doesn’t, her family will be brutally killed. But if she obeys, many more innocents will die… In her desperation she turns to Marco, knowing his time in the military has given him the skills she needs. Determined to protect her, Marco draws on the violent past he has tried to forget.

A terrifying battle on a rocky island offshore leaves no survivors. But after the last man is dead, Marco finds a note on one of the men’s bodies, a map that reveals their ultimate goal: a deadly terrorist attack on the Vatican City itself.

Marco and Elena find themselves racing to reach the Vatican City, and stop the deadly threat against the pope. But Marco quickly realises that his mission isn’t over. Accompanied by a CIA assassin, Marco must prevent a deadly weapon falling into the wrong hands or see a truly apocalyptic outcome. Once more he must confront his own darker nature, and decide whether a man of God can justify going to war…

For fans of Joel C. Rosenberg, Tom Clancy and Steven Konkoly, The Vatican Conspiracy is a non-stop explosive thriller of betrayal, revenge and world-shaking conspiracy.

Amazon: https://geni.us/B08D6NVWB1Social  

Apple: http://ow.ly/TAAd50ACRX0

Kobo: http://ow.ly/fXEb50ACRTG

Google: http://ow.ly/hAEU50ACS2Y

 

CHAPTER ONE - Teaser Extract #TheVaticanConspiracy 

Father Marco Venetti dabbed the sweat from his beard and fanned the air with his rescinded invitation to the papal mass in St. Peter’s Square. It was stifling inside the confessional, and the faithful weren’t in a penitent mood this week, giving him nothing to think about other than the appalling heat and his canceled trip to Vatican City. Not that he minded a reprieve from the usual slate of sins—I have taken His name in vain, I missed mass last week without an excuse—but it was especially warm this afternoon, and the prevailing breeze had taken an untimely midsummer break. 

He heard the shuffle of feet coming from outside his door and sat up in his chair. The door opened, and the kneeler creaked as the penitent—a woman, he guessed, about one hundred and thirty pounds from the groan of the ancient cypress—readied herself to make confession behind the screen. 

“Bless me, Father …” Her voice was sultry and familiar, and he still heard it echoing inside his skull late at night when the sea was calm and the waves licked the shore beneath the rectory. “… for I have sinned. It has been one year since my last confession.” 

For a second, he couldn’t believe it was really her, but her scent was unmistakable, an intoxicating mixture of lavender and Sciacchetrà, the local wine made from aged grapes. 

“May the Lord be in your heart to make a good confession.” 

“I have done something terrible, Marco … I didn’t mean to. You must believe me.”

 

Peter Hogenkamp was born in upstate New York and attended the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. (Go Crusaders!) He graduated in 1986 and was exiled to Europe for three years by his premedical adviser, for which he will be grateful the rest of his days. Spending the next three years - supposedly - teaching chemistry and algebra in Salzburg, Austria, he traveled extensively, drank a lot of beer and made many a lifelong friend. In his travels, he found dozens of great places for scenes in a thriller: castles perched on cliffs; monasteries tucked away in alpine valleys; villages built above rocky coastlines; cities soaked in history. When he isn't writing or hiking with his strong-willed Cairn Terrier, Hermione, Peter practices medicine with his lovely wife, Lisa (who does most of the heavy lifting), hosts Your Health Matters, which airs on cable television, streams on YouTube and sounds off on podcast, and tends to the needs of his four children.

 

 

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