I had kind of a sick day Saturday and read this whole thing over a period of two days. It had that special magic where you can't wait to get to the next page.

The author did a very skilled job of drawing different characters and political factions, and the psychological portrait of Lomeli was well done and unexpected.

The author said that the unnamed prior Pope wasn't Francis, but he definitely felt like Francis.

The twists in the last 20% of so left me kind of cold and felt dated. Obviously they'd be emotional events for a faithful Catholic, but the fact that they were presented as shocks felt kind of 2000s.

Will definitely see the movie.