The Seville Communion

A classic novel by the celebrated Arturo Pérez-Reverte, author of such international bestsellers as “The Flanders Panel,” “The Club Dumas” (the literary basis for “The Ninth Gate,” Roman Polanski’s film with Johnny Depp), the seven-volume adventures of Captain Alatriste (screen adaptation with Viggo Mortensen), and more. “Skin for the Drum” is partly reminiscent of Umberto Eco’s “The Name of the Rose” and at the same time of “The Thorn Birds” by Colleen McCullough. An unknown hacker breaks into the personal computer of the Roman Catholic father superior (the Pope’s father-confessor) and leaves a message about a Seville church that “kills to protect itself.” The Vatican’s secret service dispatches an emissary to Seville on special assignments, and Father Lorenzo Quarte plunges into the intricate web of church politics and big business. He is forced not only to conduct a detective investigation, but also to confront carnal temptations—which, as it turns out, prove to be hardest of all…