The Secret Cardinal

The book that I chose to read this marking period is called The Secret Cardinal. It is an action/suspense novel by the author Tom Grace. The story takes place modern-day China and Vatican City. It is about a Chinese Roman Catholic Bishop who was arrested by the People's Republic of China (PRC), which is under Communist rule, for his religion. To have a religion is considered antisocial to the PRC and is illegal. The Bishop was sentenced to death, however, the sentence was never carried out because of political reasons. So, the Bishop sat in prison for 30 years waiting for the PRC to decide to carry out the order. The Pope in Vatican City had different plans though, he asked a former US Navy Seal to break the Bishop out of the Chinese prison, so with the help of a few friends from the US Seals and some Roman Catholics in China he set up a plan to free the imprisoned Bishop. Unfortunately, their time is limited when the Chinese find out that the Vatican is planning on breaking the Bishop out, and they make an order to carry out the Bishop's sentence. On top of that, the Pope died suddenly and a new Pope has to be elected, the only problem is that the next Pope may not like the idea of a mission like this and may call it off. So it is a race against time and the Chinese Military to get the Bishop out of China. This is a story of fiction that ties in with real political problems in China. I would recommend it to anyone that likes action/suspenseful/political-fiction.