The Easter break is over, and so too is my reading of Gary McAvoy’s hugely entertaining Magdalene trilogy, which started with The Magdalene Deception, continued with The Magdalene Reliquary, and now concludes with The Magdalene Veil. During the course of these three fast-moving and engaging adventures, we follow the same trail of breadcrumbs scattered throughout history that the trilogy’s main characters do. Whether or not they lead you to the same crisis of faith Fr Michael Dominic faces is beside the point; the thrill is in the journey.
In each of the preceding novels I was able to relate them to some other book or movie that had captured my interest in the past. With The Magdalene Veil, my thoughts turned to one of each: Where Eagle’s Dare (1968), the preposterously entertaining WWII romp with Richard Burton and a brilliantly sardonic Clint Eastwood who, if they weren’t killing Nazis, were calling Danny Boy on the radio; and Ira Levin’s conspiracy thriller The Boys From Brazil, also a movie, starring the ultimate in odd couples, Gregory Peck and Laurence Olivier, Oscar winners both. The Magdalene Veil takes concepts from both movies and books and runs with them in a couple of very surprising ways.
Much has been made of the Third Reich’s interest in the occult. Anyone who has seen Raiders of the Lost Ark might be aware that Hitler was indeed a “nut on the subject”. So much so, he and his evil goons set up an organisation called the Ahnenerbe, tasked with justifying their hatred of the Jewish race by delving deep into Aryan ancestry and uncovering shared DNA with the biblical Jesus. Heinrich Himmler allegedly finds the proof he needs, but before he can escape to Argentina with the relic, he is caught by Allied forces and kills himself. Fast forward to the present day, and Fr Dominic and his friend, journalist Hana Sinclair, are approached by a man who claims he knows, via a diary his father kept, where this relic can be found. Of course the path to glory rarely runs smooth, especially when exiled Nazis are lurking around every corner.
The bulk of the action this time around takes place in Bariloche, a German settlement in the Patagonia region of Argentina. The South American country is also the place where the former Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Dante, has been exiled to. He finds fellow conspirators in the burgeoning neo-Nazi community (as you naturally would if you were fake-Catholic, I guess). Eventually he will have to cross swords with the people who put him there.
All of the elements that made the first two books in the series enjoyable to me are present here. The two Swiss Guards, Karl and Lukas, are in their element, using the skills they inherited from their training to aid in rescue and recovery missions. I’d have these two on my team of bodyguards any day of the week, if such a service was ever needed. Hana’s grandfather always has a private jet lying idle, which comes in handy for fast, frictionless international travel. And there’s always God, who will take the side of the righteous when things don’t go according to human planning. He’s normally reliable that way.
Gary McAvoy utilises his own skill-set perfectly well, too, mixing historical fact with historical fiction. He very helpfully links his research at the end of the novel, and all he wants is for readers to be entertained and to want to read more about the secret history of the Third Reich. When the Nazis get what they deserve, it’s hard not to pump your fist with victory. Because who doesn’t want to see Nazis defeated all day every day?
I enjoyed reading these books and I would recomment them to fans of Robert Ludlum and Dan Brown. My thanks to Gary McAvoy for providing me with a copy of The Magdalene Veil in exchange for an honest review. I loved it. Honestly.
What I think About When I Think About Writing. 