My version: Paperback
Genre: Fiction, thriller, religion
Publisher: Dell/Random House
First published: 2008
Bought
From the cover:
Beneath the Kremlin lies a shocking ancient truth. And it’s about to be stolen…
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…
The Thieves of Faith really is just not good enough. It’s not entirely in dreadful Clive Kussler territory, but in the foothills of such absurdity, that’s for sure.
The story is something or other to do with breaking into The Kremlin after some golden box with something in it, or maybe with nothing in it, to help save some woman who may or may not be dead. Mostly.
The villains are 100% bad, but with, of course, what the author is obviously convinced is absolutely impeccable taste and the illicitly gained millions to indulge their slightest whim.
The goodies are 100% good, talented and handsome or beautiful. The main man is also, of course, a master thief with a photographic memory and an ability to commit even the most complicated ancient maps of the Kremlin underground tunnels to memory after merely glancing at them. The goodies love(d) their wives/partners with every fibre of their beings. The main man’s wife has recently died and the grief he feels about her loss has “hollowed his heart.” Actually, there needs to be a bit of room in there, because his wife’s last note to him, that he finds after she’s dead, says; “I will always be with you, eternally within your heart.” Bit creepy that, you ask me.
Another thing that annoyed me about the main goodie was that he gets adopted at birth. That’s ok, given the circumstances, but why in this kind of book is it never by a Mr. Mrs. Smith, Jones or Pratt? But always by a Mr. Mrs. St. Pierre, as here. Lucky, that.
The author has obviously been very thorough with his research and tried to be very thorough with the background of his characters – unfortunately, it’s just that it all contributes to making them thoroughly unbelievable.
I was mopping up some of the books at the back of my Amazon Wish List, you really shouldn’t bother wasting your time on it.
speeshreads.com 