Gómez-Jurado, Juan 1977-

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Gómez-Jurado, Juan 1977-

PERSONAL:

Education: Graduated from San Pablo University, Madrid, Spain.

CAREER:

Journalist and freelance writer, c. 2005—.

WRITINGS:

Espía de Dios, Roca Editorial (Barcelona, Spain), 2006, translation by James Graham published as God's Spy, Dutton (New York, NY), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Juan Gómez-Jurado's first novel, Espía de Dios, published in translation as God's Spy, is a mystery story set against the backdrop of the papal election of 2005. The novel "is a fascinating, intellectually challenging, informative dark gothic work," said reviewer Grady Harp on Bloggingauthors.com, "about the inner workings of the Vatican: it also is one of the finest suspense mystery thrillers to be published in the last decade." Gómez-Jurado takes as his departure the convocation of cardinals that assembled for the first time in a generation following the death of Pope John Paul II in 2005. Quickly the book draws together a number of different themes, including the scandals over concealment of pederasty within the Catholic clergy.

Traditionally the new pope is elected by all the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church meeting together at the Vatican. In his work of fiction, the author makes the convocation the center of a series of murders that are designed to eliminate the top contenders for the papal office. News of a cardinal's brutal murder immediately before John Paul II's death is suppressed by the Vatican authorities in order to avoid adverse publicity. When a second cardinal is similarly killed, the authorities assign one of their own "investigators to the Italian task force, in order to share what information is known, and not destroyed in the cover-up of the first murder," wrote Juanita Marshall in her ButYouDontLookSick.com review. "FBI-trained profiler Paola Dicanti of the Roman police is put on the case," a Material Witness contributor said, "where she is forced to work alongside Fabio Dante, an inspector with the Vigilanza force that polices the Vatican." American priest Anthony Fowler, a psychologist and former intelligence officer, also contributes to the investigative team by identifying the culprit—a former pederast priest bent on revenge. The challenge for the team is to track down the renegade before he kills again. Concluded reviewer Joe Hartlaub on Bookreporter. com, "God's Spy is a wild, compelling ride full of characters you really want to care about."