i am robbed of reading pleasure when authors include firearms and their usage- without knowledge. Doetsch attributes the use of a safety to pieces that have no manual/active safeties- and silencers to pieces for which there are no practical safeties- to wit: Glocks and .357 revolvers. lack of personal use could be corrected with advice or research. an otherwise interesting entertainment is tainted with curable ignorance.

-continued- repeatedly calling a magazine a cartridge; and falling back on the hack's 'smell of cordite...'- when was the last time anyone saw, cut, employed, or smelled cordite?
give us a break!

Probably shouldn't even be posting as I'm not even a hundred pages into the book. But I already have a complaint. What's with the made up country? Akbiquesta or however the name goes is not a real country! There're plenty of countries dealing in underhanded diamond trading that this author could have used. It's enough to make me want to stop reading, because who knows what he'll create in the oncoming chapters? I've already heard of a supernatural character somewhere and that's fine, but I don't want a full on fantasy story.

The novel takes you places, like the Vatican. I've never been there and so I had to accept the description on faith. This was my favorite part. The place is more fascinating than fiction. Is there really a five hundred year old statue that the Swiss Guard guard to this day? This "historical" angle is better rendered than the "thriller" aspect. The three antagonists are nearly killed a few too many times (overkill?)
When two of them are compromised, the third shows up at "the last second" and blindsides the villan. This became predictable to the effect that I stopped worrying about them around page 400, and felt little suspense when Finster had Michael by the neck any of the three or four times that they were so juxtaposed...
Beaten to within inches of death, there is no mention of aches or pains as Our Heros climb down 200 feet of steps into the "dungeon." Yeah, I'm picky... Finster (Satan) could read the minds of and answer the unspoken questions of characters in certain situations, yet be ignorant of the machinations of others, such as the bimbo in the nightclub who was scamming him. He was blinded by his ego and his fleshly desires. This was pretty cool; even Satan needs to focus on "higher" thoughts, lest he stumble. There are some gems here, in the rough of too many twists. I would have liked to have seen Mary having an out-of-body experience, floating down the famous "tunnel" only to find the Gates of Heaven closed, and to have her storyline parallel the rest of the action, she could have come out of her coma the instant the keys touched Finster's flesh, for example...but, until I publish my first novel, who am I to pick. I give him a B+

I mean, the three PROtagonists. (been a while since eighth-grade English)