As unseasonable October sunshine streams through a window high in Covent Garden, Robert Harris, the genial and welcoming author of Conclave, has every reason to be happy.
His new book is a thriller set in the enclosed world of a fictional conclave. All the action takes place in the Sistine Chapel and the Domus Sanctae Marthae, the cardinals’ residence, or between the two. There are none of the usual set pieces common to thrillers, such as chases or discoveries of mangled corpses, though there is some broken crockery and, at one crucial point, some noises off. Yet the tension of the story, delivered through the unities of time and place, keeps the pages turning briskly. Who will be elected? Which candidate will break from the pack and make it past the two thirds needed? There’s nothing to see, except a group of old men voting, but it’s the greatest show on earth.
