Sign of the Cross - Chris Kuzneski

I've read the first two books in this series and I think we have a pretty good writer here but he uses, to my way of thinking, gimmicky plots to carry his books. I think he would be a fine writer without the gimmicks and I hope that as I go through the series, the plots become less gimmicky. As for this book in particular, it was another in the long life of Vatican-secrecy plots. They seem very common these days. While I think he's a skilled writer, I found many of the comments about the what scholars know, believe, say, hide, etc. to be completely opposite to what I know about biblical scholars. When he had a priest misquote scripture, I realized that the research and scholarship was from very questionable sources, while it seems that he would like to make it seem like at least semi-serious research. In the epilogue, he states that he won't say what's fictional and what's real. I assume that's because it's 99.9 percent fiction. I will read more of this series because I do believe that he has the ability to write a very good thriller but I'm hoping the plots become less gimmicky.