In British author Toyne's stellar first in a projected trilogy, a thriller in the Dan Brown tradition, an ancient sect of monks who live in the Citadel, a church carved out of a mountain near the fictional Turkish city of Ruin, have been protecting a secret, "the Sacrament," since before the Christian era. A monk who knows the secret, Brother Samuel, escapes from the Citadel and throws himself off the mountain in full view of spectators and news crews. Later, American newspaper reporter Liv Adamsen learns that her phone number, carved into a small leather strap, has been found inside Samuel's stomach. The monk turns out to be her brother, whom she hasn't seen in years, so Liv travels to Ruin to try to solve the puzzle of his mysterious death. She and several other groups battle the deadly monks, who will stop at nothing to thwart their efforts to discover the Sacrament's secret. The truly mind-boggling revelation will leave astounded readers eager for the next installment. (Sept.)

In British author Toyne’s stellar first in a projected trilogy, a thriller in the Dan Brown tradition . . . The truly mind-boggling revelation will leave astounded readers eager for the next installment.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) on Sanctus

“Remarkable . . . Its ‘just one more page, one more chapter’ urgency keeps you reading into the night, and the final revelation of the Citadel’s secret is haunting.” — Library Journal (starred review) on Sanctus

“When you read Sanctus, you’ll see just how frightening, ruthless and relentlessly entertaining an order of monks can be. Haunting in the best way.” — Brad Meltzer, New York Times bestselling author of The Inner Circle

“[Sanctus] might turn out to be the next great cliffhanger conspiracy thriller.” — Fort Worth Star-Telegram

“[A] cool, confident debut. A talented new writer who instinctively grasps the broad rules of superior action thrillers and adapts them with pace, grace, humour and a keen eye for cinematic effect.” — Daily Telegraph (London)

“A huge, bold thriller, Sanctus is a bloody, twistedly perverse story about a battle against a secretive group of heretical, conspiring monks . . . . the most engaging writing I’ve read in months.” — San Jose Mercury News

“This is a big, bold thriller, so big that it needs to create its own mythology . . . Elegantly written and imaginatively plotted, with a smart heroine and an appropriately evil villain, this is a must-read for fans of high-concept thrillers involving grand conspiracies.” — Booklist (starred review)

“Hard to think of it as a debut, better to think of it as the beginning of a massive new adventure, and a so-long to Dan Brown. . . .” — The Daily Mirror (UK)

[Sanctus] might turn out to be the next great cliffhanger conspiracy thriller.

[A] cool, confident debut. A talented new writer who instinctively grasps the broad rules of superior action thrillers and adapts them with pace, grace, humour and a keen eye for cinematic effect.

Hard to think of it as a debut, better to think of it as the beginning of a massive new adventure, and a so-long to Dan Brown. . . .

A huge, bold thriller, Sanctus is a bloody, twistedly perverse story about a battle against a secretive group of heretical, conspiring monks . . . . the most engaging writing I’ve read in months.

This is a big, bold thriller, so big that it needs to create its own mythology . . . Elegantly written and imaginatively plotted, with a smart heroine and an appropriately evil villain, this is a must-read for fans of high-concept thrillers involving grand conspiracies.

When you read Sanctus, you’ll see just how frightening, ruthless and relentlessly entertaining an order of monks can be. Haunting in the best way.

"This is a big, bold thriller, so big that it needs to create its own mythology . . . Elegantly written and imaginatively plotted, with a smart heroine and an appropriately evil villain, this is a must-read for fans of high-concept thrillers involving grand conspiracies."

A cassocked monk stands on a mountaintop in modern-day Turkey above the fictional city of Ruin. Arms outstretched, he forms a tau, the 19th letter of the Greek alphabet. Having climbed from within a cloistered Vatican-like city-state called the Citadel, he is a remarkable sight, attracting media attention as he deliberately plummets outside the Citadel's walls. To some, this event portends a prophetic sequence, but the ensuing investigation brings unwanted scrutiny upon the secretive order. What message was this monk delivering…and to whom? When his journalist sister arrives to claim the body, she unwittingly becomes enmeshed in intrigue befitting an action thriller. The monks are hiding something in the Citadel, and they will go to any length to protect it. VERDICT Throwing his hat in with the religious conspiracy thriller crowd, former British television producer Toyne has written a well-developed, exciting debut, the first volume of a projected trilogy, that doesn't tip off the ending midnovel like so many of its kind. Its "just one more page, one more chapter" urgency keeps you reading into the night, and the final revelation of the Citadel's secret is haunting. [100,000-copy first printing; rights sold in 27 countries; see Prepub Alert, 3/14/11.]—Laura A.B. Cifelli, Ft. Myers-Lee Cty. P.L., FL

A cliffhanger—literally—that aspires to towering heights but doesn't quite get there.

Why would a proper monk go climbing out of a mountain lair and then shoot gospel-gang signs at an eager public watching his every move before the face of God? ("The sign he's making is the Tau," says one knowing fellow.) Suffice it to say that said monk has a secret involving, of course, a secret library (think Umberto Eco), a heretical gloss on the Bible (think Dan Brown), a tough detective named Arkadian (think Martin Cruz Smith) and a militant order of religious guardians (think Indiana Jones). A few loose phrases of Greek and Aramaic waft through the pages of this debut by Toyne, a Briton resident in France, who packs a lot of well-researched information into this aspirational thriller. If you're looking to survive a siege, Toyne provides helpful instructions. The timing is off, though; it takes much too long to get to the meat of the story—understandably, perhaps, since it takes our monk a good while to ease himself across the sheer rock face, his progress marked by clerics of sinister demeanor ("Even if by some miracle he does manage to make it to the lower slopes, our brethren on the outside will apprehend him"). Toyne has a realistic bent, however, and the derring-do and scriptural intrigue never get too unwieldy or too unworldly. His characters, too, are well-rounded and credible; what's not to like about a monk who reads Nietzsche? A bonus: Toyne's battery of good guys include strong women characters, with no condescension; too many books of this kind treat women as afterthoughts, if not mere love interests. And there's some nice elaboration of the plot, keeping the reader guessing whether the heretics are good guys or bad, and just when the seventh seal is going to crack.

A promising debut. One hopes for a more tightly structured narrative next time around, but the right ingredients are all here.