Conclave: The bestselling Richard and Judy Book Club thriller

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what might otherwise be minor tales and melodramas become bestselling works of political, ethical and social import. Behind the locked doors of the Sistine Chapel, one hundred and eighteen cardinals from all over the globe will cast their votes in the world’s most secretive election. In the novel Conclave our storyteller is Cardinal Lomeli, dean of the College of Cardinals and the man responsible for presiding over the conclave. This is not to say that great evil has not been perpetuated by this huge institution including widespread childhood sexual abuse and the oppression of women, sexual minorities and other faiths. I am not a Roman Catholic so couldn’t say whether every little detail of dress, procedure and so forth was strictly accurate, but I always feel, that unless they are glaring, minor lapses don’t affect a rattling good novel.

No, a month – 17 September, to be exact, after the Mass to commemorate the Impression of the Stigmata upon Saint Francis – the longest period he had gone without a private audience since the Pope had been elected. A mando da religião, brada-se por uma Igreja humilde, ao serviço dos fiéis e desfavorecidos, o que de momento está longe de suceder! Indeed, all the characters were well-drawn and interesting, and easy to distinguish (another of Harris’s fortés). The selected Pope had secrets too but why his was OK and others weren't was a puzzle of sorts to me.There are plenty of gossipy titbits about the election of popes, from John XXIII to Francis, which suggests that the unnamed “informers” credited in the acknowledgements have been happy to spill some pretty substantial beans. Cardinal electors, emotions run high as support is given to individuals and taken away as secrets are discovered.

From what I know of Conclaves and the rules surrounding them, Harris has used everything at his disposal to create momentum in the most interesting of spots without dragging things out too much or weighing the story down in a constitutional miasma. Will a traditionalist be elected, someone who will sweep away the reforms to the Roman Catholic Church that have been made over the previous 50 years? The story is narrated by Cardinal Lomeli, one of the Pope’s closest associates, who is tasked with the organisation of the conclave, just as he is struggling with a crisis of faith.Conclave is unputdownable in exactly the same way that the work of Henry James, for example, is very easily putdownable, which is to say its put- or unputdownableness is not a necessary indicator of its overall quality. Its interior light was on, the windscreen wipers scudding back and forth, close enough for him to be able to make out the faces of both the driver and his assistant.