Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, has written a review of The Thieves of Faith by Richard Doetsch. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.
The Thieves of Faith by Richard Doetsch
A Michael St. Pierre Mystery
Dell (Mass Market Paperback)
ISBN-10: 0-440-24289-4 (0440242894)
ISBN-13: 978-0-440-24289-5 (9780440242895)
Publication Date: December 2007
List Price: $6.99
Synopsis (from the publisher): Since the times of Ivan the Terrible, generations of Russian leaders have turned the Kremlin into a fortress within a fortress, stocking its labyrinthine underground with secret vaults, elegant chambers, and priceless treasures. Now a master thief has the ultimate motivation to stage an assault on the Kremlin’s inner sanctum. Two lives depend on it. Thousands of years of religious faith hinge on it. And a man’s conscience, skill, and passion will not let him fail.
For Michael St. Pierre, history’s most daring heist is only one piece of an intricate puzzle reaching from an ancient monastery in Scotland to a hideaway in Corsica—where a madman has built an empire of terror. Haunted by his own family secrets, and surrounded by the precious few people he can trust, Michael will take on a mission that will make him the most hunted man in the world. But when an astounding truth, buried deep beneath the Kremlin, erupts with shattering force, he may unleash a relic too dangerous to possess.
Review: Richard Doetsch's second international thriller to feature Michael St. Pierre, The Thieves of Faith, has the retired master thief traveling to Moscow to undertake a challenge so daring and dangerous that he could not only lose his life but those of his family and friends as well.
Genevieve Zivera tells Michael of a gold box known as the Albero della Vita, the tree of life, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which, in the wrong hands, could bring death and destruction to the entire world. She asks him to obtain it. It's location: in a subterranean multi-leveled world complete with hidden libraries, secret tunnels, elegant chambers carved in white stone, raging rivers, mazes and crypts. In one of the rooms is the gold box. And all this is 12 stories below the present day Kremlin in Moscow.
But first he must obtain a map to guide him. Hidden in the canvas of a painting by an obscure artist is a map to this underground world. The painting is currently in Geneva and Michael must first steal it before attempting to break into the Kremlin.
Genevieve knows all this because her son Julian is master of this world. He too has been seeking the gold box but has been unable to find it. But if he does, he will use its powers for evil. Genevieve asks Michael to find the box first and destroy it regardless of any personal consequence to her.
The Thieves of Faith rests on the premise that if some truths are fables, then it follows that some fables may be truths. Doetsch explores this supposition in a spine-tingling thriller that mixes stories from the Bible, historical fact, and speculative fiction. Good and evil are explored, but also the benefits of love and the consequences of hate, and that the greatest powers of all are hidden in the simplest of things. This is an intriguing adventure from its very first pages through to its electrifying concluding chapters.
Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of The Thieves of Faith and to Breakthrough Promotions for providing a copy of the book for this review.
Review Copyright © 2008 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved.
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