The Pope’s Men

Serious secrets hide within the walls of the Church: priests no longer loyal to the cloth, lobby groups vying for position, underworld connections. The Pope’s Men paints a very real portrait of Pope John Paul II’s secret war with the KGB. With tales of conspiracy, recruitment and crimes dating back through the years, the mysterious past of priests employed by Moscow is at last out in the open. This thriller presents a detailed and true depiction of Eastern Europe as the Iron Curtain crumbles, the KGB’s unique method of pulling informers into its web, and the workings of the secret services as they plan a series of strikes that personally involve bishops positioned frighteningly close to the Pope. The recent Vatileaks scandal and the ensuing cover-up only represent a fraction of what actually goes on behind closed doors in Rome. By the end of the book, readers will also know what could possibly lead to a pope (XVI. Benedict) resigning his throne.

The story starts in 2005, when Tom Erkel and his SWAT team, working for the Hague Tribunal, are inadvertently caught up in a unique assignment: they are dispatched to uncover the real motives behind the 1981 assassination attempt against the Pope. Their investigation leads them back to a 1940 massacre in Katyin, Russia, which reveals shocking new facts. Their research spans the past and the present—they must find and prosecute the surviving conspirators in a labyrinthine plot. They soon find that modern technology is useless when tracking down the KGB-controlled secrets of the Cold War as assassins from the former USSR are closing in around the team.