Stealing God

Jimmy Costello Mystery #2

by James Green

The most dangerous man in London is back, and he's studying to be a priest. After ripping through Britain's criminal underbelly in Bad Catholics, hard-man Jimmy Costello travels to Duns College in Rome in search of a peaceful, spiritual life. He may have thought he put his old life behind him, but Jimmy's past refuses to stay buried in this chilling thriller for thinkers.

256 pages, Paperback

First published November 30, 2009

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

James "Jim" Green is a British writer and broadcaster who turned to writing as a full time profession after a 25 year career in teaching. He has had over 40 titles published in various genres, from educational text books to travel guides to crime novels. His latest publication is called Bad Catholics (2008 Luath), the first of a trilogy chronicling the exploits of reformed gangster Jimmy Costello.

Series:
* Jimmy Costello Mystery
* U.S Historical Spy Thriller Series

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first two thirds of the book are a big improvement on the last book. Was the Archbishop murdered, if so why and by who? Who wants the investigation kept unofficial? Is there really a conspiracy to try and kill the Pope? Does somebody really want to try and control Conclave? While the story sticks to these questions it works just fine, afterall people have tried to kill the Pope before so why wouldn't somebody else have a go.
However the last third is just stupid. The bad guys whoever they might be are not just going to try and kill the Pope they are going to plant a nuclear bomb somewhere in Rome.Two asian students are arrested trying to bring the bomb into Rome. Jimmy however decides that it is not terrorists but instead it is the CIA that is responsible, and their reason for nuking Rome, so that they can move the Vatican to the US.
In the end it turns out that there was no nuclear bomb, although there had been an attempt by a group to obtain nuclear material from China so that they could build one however Vatican intelligence found out about it and I'm not sure what the point of the plot was after that. You've found out about the bomb, you know who was behind it and it wasn't the US why would you then have this whole charade of an investigation and set up these students?