Conclave
ROBERT HARRIS
![Conclave, by Robert Harris](/web/20161109142758im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/8/x/s/3/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gs8xxk.png/1477274638100.jpg)
HUTCHINSON, $32.99
Robert Harris has created superior thrillers within and outside history, from the counterfactual Fatherland, a detective novel set in a world where the Nazis won the Second World War, Â to his Cicero trilogy, which dramatised the intrigues of the late Roman Republic. In Conclave, he turns his hand to a different power struggle: a fictional Papal election. A Pontiff, not unlike the current one, has died, and the College of Cardinals meets to choose a successor. Backroom politicking sees several contenders emerge: an Italian arch-conservative and his liberal nemesis, an African cardinal striving to become the first black Pope, and a North American with a talent for publicity. When a mystery cardinal anointed by the former Pope in secret appears, revelations emerge, and the scheming takes on a darker hue. Another page-turner from Harris, this one rich in Catholic history and ritual.