This spine-tingling thriller has Gianfranco Molinari trying to untangle a complex web of corruption that goes to the highest levels of government
In June 1982 with the Argentine forces defeated in the Falklands, disgraced Italian banker Roberto Calvi is found hanging from scaffolding under Blackfriars Bridge London his pockets with wads of cash. Known widely as Gods Banker due to his close ties with The Vatican he had been on the run for three days as his bank collapsed with millions of dollars missing. Thirty years later the deaths of two
British men in Rome, Father Nick Bale and journalist Tom Davies, once again spark interest into the machinations of Calvi and The Vatican. Investigator Gianfranco Molinari finds himself immersed in a murky world of corrupt geo-political power-brokers, politicians, bankers and clergy where his closet ally is a pl***oy gangster. The arrival of Alex Bale, the grief stricken priest’s brother intent on revenge, only complicates Molinari`s investigation. Threatened by the sinister Orsini from Italy’s AISE Molinari juggles the investigation with his own chaotic life. Alex Bale becomes an uncontrollable force as he races around Europe intent on tracing the hired assassin Arlo Negri via the shadowy underworld facilitator known as The Belgian. Hungover and dishevelled Molinari is summoned to the Ministry of Justice where to the dismay of his boss, Brigadier-General Reiti, he is handed an emergency investigative warrant and access to seemingly limitless resources. Distracted by the amorous Justice Minister, Antonia Ginosa, Molinari uncovers a power struggle taking place within the Vatican between the moderates supporting the new pontiff led by his friend Archbishop A`mer Barjat and a right-wing fundamentalist group calling themselves La Sapiniere. The race to the truth is littered with lies, deceit, duplicity and death. To find the truth Molinari must first understand the parallax.