City of Secrets : The Truth Behind the Murders at the Vatican

Rating:
Summary: GOOD READING
Review: ALTHOUGH THE BOOK I THINK DOES NOT FINALIZE THE CONCLUSION, I FOUND THE METHODS THE AUTHOR TRIED TO PASTE TOGETHER THE BITS AND PIECES OF TRUTH OR INFORMATION WELL WORTH THE READ. IN THE END I THINK THE BOOK ANALYZES THE CHURCH MORE THAN IT SHOULD BUT THEN AGAIN WHY NOT?

Rating:
Summary: Sex, lies and secrets
Review: John Follain investigates the deaths of three people in the heart of the Vatican, including a young soldier and the commander of the pope's famous Swiss Guards. The evidence he finds is neither surprising nor inconsistent with the original statement about the circumstances of the death as presented the Vatican. What's interesting is how he finds his evidence and how what was not said in the original inquiry led to the pursuit of a better explanation. In the process, Follain's story reads more like Robert Ludlum mystery or a Nelson DeMille travelogue, as he tracks down people, asks first innocent then probing questions, and effectively if incompletely re-constructs the story behind the deaths.

The Catholic Church and no less the Vatican has been severely damaged by its own secrecy and secrets. While some stories are not worth taking public, an obsession with secrecy produces more distrust than does the hard, candid side of the story. Homosexuality and Opus Dei, two sometimes tawdry secrets of the church, get an airing here, and the most saddening point is the self-illusion of secrecy the church seems intent on maintaining.

Follain also finds that the storied Swiss Guards are much more ceremonial window-dressing than an effective security or intelligence force. The members of this small cadre, the ones Follain contacts, most of them disillusioned or discontented, make a pretty strong case that some men join the Guards for the wrong reasons and the Guard itself seems to be used for the wrong reasons. Tradition seem more important than a clear mission.

It is the misunderstanding and misapplication that lie behind the story of the three deaths. Although the conclusion is not dramatic, neither is it melodramatic. And it is candid and honest, not a Hollywood screenplay, not a sanitized version, and not what the mother of one of the victim's might want. And, in the telling, there is something worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: The Truth is not so interesting
Review: The problem with nonfiction crime writing is exactly what the genre implies --- there's no making things up. While authors like James Patterson or Sue Grafton can decide to swap murderers on a whim if something isn't working, true crime scribes such as Ann Rule or John Berendt have no such prerogative. They transcribe just the facts, ma'am. And that is the predicament with a book like John Follain's CITY OF SECRETS.

Follain, the Rome correspondent for London's Sunday Times, is a nonfiction veteran best known for chronicling Carlos the Jackal. In his latest effort, Follain investigates the May 1998 slayings of three people connected to the Swiss Guard, the pope's protectors: the unit's commander, his wife and a lance corporal. The official Vatican explanation, released within hours of the deaths, was that young Cédric Tornay murdered Colonel Alois Estermann and his wife, Gladys Meza Romero, in a fit of madness. While the Vatican effectively canonizes Estermann, it vilifies Tornay to the point of denying his mother access to the official inquiry.

Like any good reporter, Follain smelled a story when the Vatican dismissed the case so perfunctorily. He spent three years investigating "what really happened," interviewing current and former Swiss Guard members, Catholic clergy of all levels and forensic experts. Unfortunately, Follain did not seem to realize, upon the finish of his exhaustive research, that there wasn't much of a story.

The book is billed as the untold story behind an unsolved crime. Yet there aren't many revelations in Follain's book, other than the fact that the archaically constructed Catholic Church has not changed with the times. Perhaps Follain is a victim of bad timing --- this is not a true revelation to anyone who has followed the news for the past 12 months. In fact, considering the disturbing allegations of child molestation that recently rocked the church, Follain's indictment of a Swiss Guard system that overworks and underpays its emotionally unsatisfied employees seems a little quaint. So the Vatican forces its employees to go to church on Sunday. Swiss Guard enlistment is undertaken entirely by free will. Anyone who chooses to work for the pope should expect a little religious fervor.

Of course, Follain explores other points, too. He deconstructs the on-the-job abuse Tornay tolerated during his three-plus years of service. He discusses but never draws conclusions about an alleged affair between Tornay and Estermann. He never finds the smoking gun that makes crime novels (whether fiction or nonfiction) truly worth the read. Follain finds many facts but draws few compelling conclusions. That the Vatican did not want to cast the Pope's security force as a bunch of incompetent nutcases surely is not a surprise.

Follain devotes very little of the book to Estermann, instead concentrating on Tornay. Although the idealistic young man could certainly have been better dealt with during his tour of duty --- the last-minute denial of a medal he had apparently rightly earned is seen as the catalyst for the killings --- that still doesn't justify the murders. It's hard to buy Follain's position, almost from page one, that others also bear responsibility for Tornay's actions. For all intents and purposes, there was no pre-warning for his actions. No matter how much you hate your boss, there's no excuse for killing him. The guilt is Tornay's and Tornay's alone.

CITY OF SECRETS offers some interesting insights into the workings of the Vatican and the frailty of the once-dynamic pope. Unfortunately, Follain is determined to narrate the book while revealing very little of himself. What he does reveal is either bland or, at the most, a tad self-righteous. He's a competent writer but not a creative one. He should have either kept himself out of it or made himself more of a character. Perhaps if he had explained more about his interest in the Vatican and what he has surely seen during his years on the Roman beat, he would have found his hook. Without it, this remains a collection of facts sans revelation. It's a shame --- a big revelation in the final pages could have salvaged the effort. Too bad he couldn't have invented one. That's the trouble with nonfiction.

--- Reviewed by Toni Fitzgerald

Rating:
Summary: Behind the Vatican murders
Review: The strength of John Follain's book, based on his four-year investigation, is that we end up with a firm understanding of why Tornay did it. City of Secrets is both superb journalism and an outstanding example of forensic psychology.
Secondhand investigations of sensational crimes are often nothing more than instant books. However, Follain not only took the time to contribute something of worth to the canon of crime journalism but also exposed weaknesses in the Vatican that need addressing. In this case it is the fact that the Swiss Guard, supposedly responsible for protecting the Pope, are nothing more than toy soldiers -- Dennis Chute, The Edmonton Journal

Rating:
Summary: Behind the Vatican murders
Review: This book investigates the deaths of three people inside the Vatican in 1998. The official story is that a Swiss Guardsman murdered his commander and the commander's wife after the Guardsmen was angered by his not receiving an expected medal. The author investigates the story at the behest of the Guardsmen's mother and out of his belief that the Vatican is not telling all that it knows.

However, the book tends to be more an indictment of the Vatican and its traditions than a true investigation into the deaths. Also, the author cites much evidence for which he has nothing more than unnamed sources. Specifically, he states that he believes the murders were the result of a homosexual love tryst gone bad that the Vatican wished to cover up. However, he cites no evidence to bolster this theory.

Until new evidence is brought forth, it will have to be assumed that these murders occurred due to the reasons the Vatican has stated. And this book does not introduce any new evidence and leaves the reader without any sense of a firm conclusion.

Rating:
Summary: No real conclusion...
Review: This book investigates the deaths of three people inside the Vatican in 1998. The official story is that a Swiss Guardsman murdered his commander and the commander's wife after the Guardsmen was angered by his not receiving an expected medal. The author investigates the story at the behest of the Guardsmen's mother and out of his belief that the Vatican is not telling all that it knows.

However, the book tends to be more an indictment of the Vatican and its traditions than a true investigation into the deaths. Also, the author cites much evidence for which he has nothing more than unnamed sources. Specifically, he states that he believes the murders were the result of a homosexual love tryst gone bad that the Vatican wished to cover up. However, he cites no evidence to bolster this theory.

Until new evidence is brought forth, it will have to be assumed that these murders occurred due to the reasons the Vatican has stated. And this book does not introduce any new evidence and leaves the reader without any sense of a firm conclusion.

Rating:
Summary: 'Secrets' investigates violent deaths in Vatican
Review: This is an excellent example of a book that starts great and sort of fizzles into an uninteresting ending. True, this was an account of actual events but I think that Mr. Follain should have sought a more intiguing story to write about.
The book was not a total waste since it offered a few peaks into Vatican life.

Rating:
Summary: Great read.
Review: This is another book that deals with the hypocrites in the Vatican.

People seems surprised when their hear of crimes in the Vatican, but this is an organization that supports and promotes priest who molest little boys.

The latest example of the lies and hypocrisy of the Vatican can be found with this week's tsunami.

The official newspaper of the Vatican had a spurious and misleading report that falsely claimed the Israeli government had denied emergency relief for tsunami victims in Sri Lanka.

The official Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano singled out Israeli leaders for declining the country's request for emergency help, when in fact the Israeli government's offer to provide a team of medical and security personnel was rejected by the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry. However, Israel is providing an airlift of food and medical supplies to Sri Lanka.

Can you believe that? The Vatican defends priest who are child molesters yet has the gall to falsely criticize Israel.