Exciting and Informative     

My rating:  5 out of 5     

The pope has died and the cardinals are gathered to choose the next one.  In the 15 minutes before the door shuts them away from the outside world 2 dramatic events take place.

A fascinating thriller incorporating what happens during the voting system for a new pope, with some dramatic action, twists and difficult decisions to be made by Cardinal Lomeli who must run the voting process.   The voting process itself was fascinating reading (I knew nothing about it before), including the politicking of the likely candidates. 

 Set in the current time, in Rome, the book starts quite slowly, though interestingly, with the gathering of the cardinals and the commencement of the voting process.  After quite a large section of the book has passed, suddenly shocks and twists start occurring, and then I was glued to the book until the end. 

Half way through this book I was rating it a 3 or 4 (I found it a bit slow, but very interesting), however by the end my view is that it definitely merits a 5* rating.  Overall It was exciting, informative and has given me lots to think and talk about.