The Debt

March 18, 2019
In Cooper’s unremarkable third Cal Donovan thriller (after 2018’s Three Marys), an unexpected discovery rocks the foundations of the Catholic Church. Cal, a Harvard professor whose previous service to Pope Celestine was rewarded with an all-access pass to the Vatican archives, finds a reference, while researching the revolutions of the Italian states in 1848, to a 19th-century loan to the church made by the Jewish Sassoon banking firm. The Sassoons lent the sum under duress after a family member was held hostage; the loan was never repaid. Including compound interest, the church’s debt now amounts to about $27 billion. The pope, who takes the crisis as an opportunity to get a handle on the church’s wealth, proposes to sell enough assets to pay off the debt—and found a charitable foundation in partnership with the Sassoons. The plan, of course, triggers violent opposition, placing both Cal’s life and the pope’s at risk. Cooper fails to make the plot conceit believable, and neither the characters nor the prose rise above routine. Cooper’s attempt to spin a religious tale without great theological implications falls flat.

April 1, 2019
In the third Cal Donovan thriller, the Harvard religion and archaeology professor discovers something shocking in the Vatican archives: records of a two-century-old unpaid loan made by a Jewish bank to the Vatican. In the years since, the debt has increased to a staggering 25 billion euros, enough to put the Catholic Church out of business. The pope asks Donovan to act as a liaison between the Vatican and the family that now holds the debt; but this is no simple negotiation. In the subgenre of religion-based conspiracy thrillers, Cooper has carved out a solid reputation. His name on a book's cover guarantees two things: an elaborate story with plenty of twists and turns, and a swift pace that carries the reader through to the end. His prose lacks some polish, and his characters are occasionally less than finely constructed, but there's no denying that he can serve up an exciting adventure. For his fans, this one's a winner.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)