Reviewed by Olga Markova for Readers’ Favorite

The Vacant Seat by C. J. Toca is a superb mystery unfolding in Rome.
Stefania is a young journalist on her first day with the scholarly
Italian Monthly Journal. Her first assignment is to review material at
the Vatican Secret Archives about the pope’s efforts in 1918 to
resolve the First World War. Instead, Stefania is given classified
materials related to the pope’s death in 1978. At the Archives,
Stefania meets Thomas Houghton, an Englishman who is very curious
about the 1978 pontificate. Meanwhile, in Russia, Svetlana
Greshchenko, the new head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service,
inherits from her retiring predecessor the files of Operation
Archangel to infiltrate and manipulate the Vatican in the interests of
the USSR. Before long, Stefania, Thomas, and Svetlana find themselves
in a perilous mystery whirlpool.

The Vacant Seat by C. J. Toca is a fascinating international action
thriller with a gentle touch of clean romantic intrigue. The
atmospheric settings of Rome, the wilds and wonders of Scottish lochs
and castles, the sophisticated secrets of the Vatican and British
royal lineage, unexpected revelations, and suspenseful perils of
fast-paced adventures kept me engrossed from the first page to the
last. I was particularly awed by Toca’s enriching, enticing intrigue
with excursions into the history of Catholicism, highlighting
historical tensions between the Church of England and the Catholic
Church. It is so harmoniously written, formatted, and designed that
nothing less than a top rating, in my view, would do it justice. I
highly recommend it to mystery, adventure, and action thrillers fans.