Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: Set in a not-too-distant future, and moving between Rome and Amsterdam, God's Dog is a detective novel unlike any you have read before.

It is the eve of Pope Benedict XVIII's canonisation and Domingo Salazar, a Haitian orphan and now a Vatican secret agent, is hellbent on defeating the Angels of Death, pro-abortion and pro-euthanasia dissidents who are undermining the Pope's authority.

But as Salazar closes in on the cell he finds his life turned upside down. Suddenly it is Salazar and his closest friend Guntur who are under suspicion of sabotaging the administration. Their concept for a globalised religion called Bible-Koranism has upset the Church and they are in grave danger, as is Guntur's infamous Swahili-speaking chimpanzee Django.

God's Dog is a spoof on the absurdities of institutionalised religion that will delight aficionados of thrillers and detective novels as well as fans of Diego Marani.

My Review: A very short book indeed, though parts of it, eg a long section of journal entries, dragged like a caveman's wedding. The alternative world that's posited here is terrific, and I'd've loved it if I'd been more in that world while the action of the thriller was thrilling me.

In summation, I gave the book all the stars for a terrific idea, and took the others off for frustrating lapses of world-building and action. Peccato, mm? ( )

It lost me on about page 5 when our protagonist, a secret agent of an authoritarian state, has to resort to subterfuge to arrange a routine meeting with his handler on their own home territory. The political point of the book is laboured very heavily indeed, and the writing awfully clunky in places. Nicholas Lezard gave this a very positive review in the Guardian; he must have been in a very generous mood that day. ( )