Sanctus
The Sancti Trilogy by Simon Toyne
Review: When I first started to read Santus, the first in an expected trilogy of thrillers by Simon Toyne, I felt what the author had done with the divisions of this book might make it difficult to read.
I was wrong.
Not only does the book being in parts and the short chapters make it easy to follow the story, but it gives the book a continuity that allows one to meld the modern day aspect of a tour group with the old world unfolding intrigue of a monastery.
A secret that must be kept at all cost …
Simon Toyne opens the book with a monk being beaten because secret must not revealed. Brother Samuel finds a way to free himself from the Citadel and its Abbot and gets a message to his sister, Liv Adamsen, an American reporter.
The dual storyline plot eventually comes together in an unveiling drama of historic consequence.
If you like a book with an old world religious secret and cliffhanging suspense, you'll love this book.
Special thanks to Lynne Gordon for contributing her review of Sanctus.
Acknowledgment: HarperCollins provided a copy of Sanctus for this review.
Review Copyright © 2011 — Lynne Gordon — All Rights Reserved
Reprinted with Permission
Location(s) referenced in Sanctus: Turkey
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Sanctus by Simon Toyne
Publisher: William Morrow
Format: Hardcover
ISBN-10: 0-06-203830-3
ISBN-13: 978-0-06-203830-2
Publication Date: September 2011
List Price: $25.00
Synopsis (from the publisher): A man climbs a cliff face in the oldest inhabited place on earth, a mountain known as the Citadel, a Vatican-like city-state that towers above the city of Ruin in modern-day Turkey. But this is no ordinary ascent. It is a dangerous, symbolic act. And thanks to the media, it is an event witnessed by the entire world.
Few people understand its consequence. But for foundation worker Kathryn Mann and a handful of others, it’s evidence that a revolution is at hand. For the Sancti, the cowled and secretive monks who live inside the Citadel, it could mean the end of everything they have built. They will stop at nothing to keep what is theirs, and they will break every law in every country and even kill to hold it fast. For American reporter Liv Adamsen, it spurs the memory of the beloved brother she lost years before, setting her on a journey across the world and into the heart of her own identity.
There, she will make a discovery so shocking that it will change everything …