I had not really heard of this book, or the author, before deciding to take a chance on it.
The premise of this book sounded enticing, almost in a Dan Brown, a historical dirty little secret with huge ramifications should it ever get out, so powerful people go to extraordinary lengths to keep it all a secret.
It starts off in the Eastern Front during the final months of the war, when Germany was being pushed back towards their own borders by the Russians. Hans Dieter is leading his men in what he pretty much knows to be a lost cause, and he seems to have lost his faith in his Fuehrer, and the cause of the war, but what can he do?
Then, by some twist of fate, he finds himself in a most unusual situation. There is a jeep that heads straight towards his band, and at first, they assume that it is the enemy. So, he orders his men to shoot them dead, and they succeed. Only, when they look inside, they find a most unusual thing. The jeep is filled not with Russians, but with Germans, and others from the Vatican. Also, they find a ton of gold - a fortune!
He knows that there will be people searching for this gold, and he also knows that there will be demons haunting him for his Nazi past. He decides to hide the gold and, when he is sent back to Berlin after getting injured (and injury that will keep him more or less outside of the war until it finally ends shortly after his return), he devises a scheme to keep this fortune well hidden, despite the best men from the Vatican's secret forces in hot pursuit. They know he has it, but they cannot find where he hid it.
Fast forward to the present. Hans Dieter is on his death bed, and he wants to finally reveal his secret: where the rest of the fortune is. more importantly, for the Vatican Intelligence Bureau, where the documents are that linked the Vatican with Nazi Germany. They want those papers destroyed at all costs. We find out that the same man in charge of the investigation right at the end of the war, Mr. Perluci, is still in charge of the investigation now.
Hans tells his son Jim, and Father Dan Flaherty, one of Dieter's best friends for decades, his little secret: where they can find the gold. He gives them conditions, but essentially, they have to make the journey together, and split the fortune between each other.
The trick will be not only how to get the fortune, but also how to bring it back to the United States, with the Vatican Intelligence Bureau and several other policing agencies hot on their tail. To that end, however, we quickly learn that both Dan and Jim have a special background that allows deception and illusion to work in their favor. We also learn that they are not averse to going to extreme measures in their own right, if they need to.
The rest of the book is essentially about the chess match of strategies towards trying to outwit one another, and Jim and Dieter do whatever they can to outwit the Vatican and other police forces, while the police forces themselves use their own ingenuity to outdo them and obtain the treasure for themselves. We see not a small amount of ego trips in the process.
Fast forward to the present. Hans Dieter is on his death bed, and he wants to finally reveal his secret: where the rest of the fortune is. more importantly, for the Vatican Intelligence Bureau, where the documents are that linked the Vatican with Nazi Germany. They want those papers destroyed at all costs. We find out that the same man in charge of the investigation right at the end of the war, Mr. Perluci, is still in charge of the investigation now.
Hans tells his son Jim, and Father Dan Flaherty, one of Dieter's best friends for decades, his little secret: where they can find the gold. He gives them conditions, but essentially, they have to make the journey together, and split the fortune between each other.
The trick will be not only how to get the fortune, but also how to bring it back to the United States, with the Vatican Intelligence Bureau and several other policing agencies hot on their tail. To that end, however, we quickly learn that both Dan and Jim have a special background that allows deception and illusion to work in their favor. We also learn that they are not averse to going to extreme measures in their own right, if they need to.
The rest of the book is essentially about the chess match of strategies towards trying to outwit one another, and Jim and Dieter do whatever they can to outwit the Vatican and other police forces, while the police forces themselves use their own ingenuity to outdo them and obtain the treasure for themselves. We see not a small amount of ego trips in the process.
Ultimately, the book ends with a surprise twist ending, which is what perhaps you can expect.
Angels Fallen is a pretty good and entertaining book. I had assumed that it would reveal more about the Vatican and it's dealings with the Nazi regime back in the day, but it did not actually get into that a great deal. There is some stuff on it, don't get me wrong. But looking at the description, it seemed like it would have a more prominent part in the book, although it was ultimately toned down once the descriptions were read.
Indeed, there are a lot of questions about what, precisely, was the nature of the relations between the Vatican and Nazi Germany back in the day. This has become one of many areas where conspiracy theories have abounded, and many have been unflinchingly harsh and critical of the Vatican's role back then, as well as the Vatican's practice of secrecy which remains to this day, clouding the history and leading to such wide (and often sinister) interpretations. However, that just might actually be about to change, as there are signs that Pope Francis may be willing to reveal much more on this chapter in history. Here is a very interesting article on the subject, that suggests Pope Francis might be willing to reveal more than has ever been revealed before:
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