Conclave Book Review

Tom Davis' book Conclave begins with the unexpected death of Pope John Paul I. Now a new pope must be chosen, but more than just the Catholic church has an interest in who the Cardinals elect. The Cold War turns a spiritual election into a political one, with the Russians hoping to keep things the way they are and the Americans wanting to stop a Russian invasion into Poland.

Here are the things I liked about the book:

1. It's based on real history. Pope John Paul I was pope for 33 days before dying from a heart attack. This resulted in the election of Polish Pope John Paul II, who was pope from 1978 until his death in 2005. (This was the pope I remember from my childhood.)
2. It gives great insight into what goes on during a conclave. When the Cardinals meet to elect a new pope, it's called a "conclave". If you read the book Angels & Demons or saw the movie, you might already be a little familiar with this. (And if you're Catholic, well, you probably are very familiar with this.)
3. It takes you back and forth between different characters and different locations. From Rome to Russia to Washington, D.C., characters from all over are involved in the storyline in some way, and it was interesting to see things from so many different perspectives and try to piece together the puzzle as the information was slowly revealed.
4. The author is a retired army officer who served as a military assistant to the Secretary of the Army and oversaw part of the U.S. Army Special Operations program. Makes you wonder how much of this fictional storyline might have some basis in reality.

And yet, there were a few things that I didn't like about the book:

1. It's really long. 433 pages is a bit off-putting, and I honestly felt that some of the book could have been edited down a bit.
2. The dialogue felt off at times. Again, nothing that a little bit of editing couldn't fix.
3. There wasn't much action. Most of the book is people going somewhere and having meetings. And that's probably very realistic for CIA life. Despite the characters making James Bond references, the action you would expect from a spy movie was noticeably absent in this book.

That said, if you enjoy historical fiction, especially Cold War-era books, then you might enjoy this take on a momentous occasion in world history: the first non-Italian pope to be elected since the 16th century!

Conclave is published by CreateSpace and is available to purchase now. I received a free copy in exchange for my honest review.