Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Assassini | 1990 | Thomas Gifford | Buy |
| 2 | Saint’s Rest | 1996 | Thomas Gifford | Buy |
The Ben Driskill series consists of two novels that take on the Catholic Church as a setting for large-scale thriller fiction. The Assassini, published in 1990, introduces Driskill as a man whose sister, a nun, is murdered. His investigation leads him deep into the Vatican, where he discovers that a secret order of assassins has been carrying out killings on behalf of Church factions for hundreds of years. The novel runs to over 800 pages and covers multiple countries and centuries of history.
Saint’s Rest, the follow-up published in 1996, continues Driskill’s encounters with institutional corruption and hidden violence. Gifford brings the same research-heavy, expansive approach to both books, treating the Church as a setting rich enough to support the kind of conspiracy plotting that other authors apply to governments and intelligence agencies.