Gerald Suster - The Elect

Gerald Suster - The Elect (Sphere, 1980)



They meet in Paris in 1776, in London in 1912 and in Washington in 1938. They planned the violence, revolutions and bloody, bitter wars that followed.

THEY MET AGAIN IN 1984.

The conspiracy was almost complete. In the Vatican, the newly appointed Pope was preparing his first Encyclical, guided by a voice like Christ's. In America, Democratic Candidates for the Presidential election were falling like flies. A centuries-old aim was close to attainment.

Nine men were poised to plunge the world into an age as dark and forbidding as Hell itself, an age of anarchic bloodshed. An age completely dominated by THE ELECT.

The devastating novel of occult power and awesome conspiracy.

I'm glad of that cover blurb because Suster throws everything into The Elect and there's no way I can sum it up by resorting to my usual cliches.

The story so far (up to p.123 of 240):

The New Pope, Pius XIII, is an Englishman, Peter Ireton, 57, formerly the Cardinal-Archbishop of Westminster and something of a progressive liberal in his politics. Pious causes a sensation on his first public appearance when, suffering an agonising pain in his chest, his face contorts into an uncanny resemblance of that of Jesus and the media henceforth promote him as "the Pope with Christ's face".

Pius is not without dangerous enemies in the Vatican, notably his Cardinals Starace and Aligaeri. These two were the hot favourites to attain the Papacy and, temporarily setting their mutual loathing to one side, they form an uneasy alliance versus this English upstart who wants to do it all his own way. More threatening than these even is Dr. Valentine Krein, the Pope's personal, hand-picked physician who is really a powerful Satanist! All that unbearable agony Pius has been in recently? All down to Krein and his trusty voodoo doll (see cover).

Also abroad in Rome at the time is Edward Dashwood, the successful author of several studies of the dark occult. When, using a friend's invite, he blags his way into one of the Countess of Bagnoregio's exclusive, strictly-no-trespassers parties, he not only pulls gorgeous fledgling black sorceress Caroline Corbett - the daughter of a Democrat US Presidential candidate - but recognises her current bloke as Krein, the Satanic bastard who destroyed the woman he loved! When Dashwood confronts him, Krein has him thrown out. Next day Dashwood is beaten to a pulp by a Mafia hood with the compliments of the Dr. and the Countess, and Caroline is returned to Krein who thinks of himself as her rightful owner.

And always, pulling the strings in the shadows; "They were known by various names - the Illuminati, the Nine Unknown Men, the Elect .... They were a collective powerhouse, alleged to mould the destinies of nations. The Eye in the Triangle was their symbol." These power-hungry despots have been working toward the New Order for at least two centuries and are now confident that their time is imminent. We know that, like his father and grandfather before him, John Aubrey Vane III is a big noise even among this company and is secretly plotting to establish his world dynasty at the expense of the others.

Front-running Democrat candidate Cassady has been assassinated in the US.

Pope Pius has twigged what the creepy Cardinals are about and humiliated them both.

Krein has just received a calling card from John Aubrey Vane III.

I'm not sure if even I can follow what I've just written so what chance does anyone else have ? It's much easier to say "this is brilliant! A real page-turner" and have done with it. But ...