‘The Trinity Game’ (US) is a slick read that had me gripped from close to the opening. To begin, there is an assassination attempt and from there, we skip back a short while to find out how about the events that led up to this moment.
Daniel Byrne is a priest who works for an agency of the Catholic church. Essentially, he’s the man who is sent for to investigate and expose fraudulent claims of miracles. His boss gives him the challenge of investigating his own uncle, a phoney con man of a preacher who brought Daniel up as if he were his own son.
Daniel relishes the possibility of bringing down the uncle who exposed him to so much that wasn’t true. The thing is, that whilst Tim Trinity (the aforementioned uncle) is speaking in tongues, he’s actually making predictions that come true – record his sermons and play his ‘speaking in tongues’ backwards and the messages can be clearly understood. Daniel is surprised by this as it runs counter to the information he’s been provided.
Trinity’s predictions come in all shapes and sizes. He offers race winners, football scores, on the one hand and warnings of dangerous explosions on the other.
I’ve never considered the consequences of what might happen if someone could see into the future, but Sean Chercover clearly has. The mob aren’t happy because of the implications for the gambling industry. The church isn’t happy because their own god cult will be undermined. The government can’t settle because of the possible exposure of their motivations to maintain the status quo. The economic drives of society might be seriously challenged were god to offer insights and messages on morality. In short, there are a lot of agencies who might want to silence Tim Trinity using any means at their disposal.
Chercover has created outstandingly well crafted characters for this story, fully formed people with interesting histories that are interesting in themselves. He’s also found big enough scope to allow a reader to focus upon a number of issues – the lengths the swine of the press will go to uncover a pearl; elected governments and their uneasy relationship with freedom of speech; the ambiguities of national security; institutional racism’ sexism; and general hypocrisy. This is gently done and only adds to the complexities and pleasure that can be derived from the story. There is plenty to provoke thought, but my eyes were always focussed on what might happen next and the eventual outcome.
I was completely wrapped up in the book and bought the entire premise. It’s a tremendous creation that offers far more than your average page-turner.
As I sprinted to the end, I thing I’d been so taken in that I’d begun to expect there’d be a revelation of some kind that might be life-changing. Maybe there’d be a customised messaged that would help me find a path to follow. Of course, the author couldn’t provide that and, instead, he stuck to his job by tying up all the loose ends in the story and making sure the whole thing is bullet proof.
I really enjoyed it and urge you to give it your attention.
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