The Ghosts of Rome: Book 2 in the Rome Escape Line Trilogy
In the final months of World War II, a clandestine group known as The Choir smuggles thousands of escapees out of Nazi-occupied Rome via a secret route known as the Rome Escape Line. When an unidentified airman falls from the sky, The Choir is plunged into lethal danger and the survival of the Escape Line itself is threatened.
The Choir is riven with internal tensions and infighting. The organization is in danger of falling apart, which would leave thousands of escaped allied soldiers, POWs, Jews, and objectors stranded in a Rome that is ruled with vicious efficiency by the Nazis. Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, the architect of the Escape Line and acknowledged leader of The Choir, broods inside the Vatican, seemingly paralyzed by what he sees as the intolerable risks of keeping the Escape Line in operation.
One man has been given the task of definitively destroying the entire operation and the price of his failure is high--SS Commander Paul Hauptmann's wife and children are under Gestapo supervision in Berlin. Hauptmann is ordered to stay on in the city he both loathes and loves and to dismantle the Escape Line, or watch his family perish. Into this deliriously thrilling melee steps the Contessa Giovanna Landini, a reckless, audacious, and magnetic member of the Italian Resistance who has the nerve to challenge Hauptmann's authority.
A beautifully written and expertly crafted historical suspense novel that is bursting with action, atmosphere, and unforgettable characters, The Ghosts of Rome is the thrilling follow-up to Joseph O'Connor's best-selling My Father's House.
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Praise for My Father's House
"A potent blend of excitement, suspense and intrigue... A gripping World War II-set drama featuring the unlikeliest of heroes, one whom the reader roots for every step of the way... hugely satisfying."--Malcom Forbes, Washington Post
"My Father's House is primarily--and triumphantly--an intimate drama that illuminates both the fragility and the wonder of unlikely human connections forged in adversity and, in some cases, enduring for a lifetime."--Anna Mundow, Wall Street Journal
"Sometimes a novel's setting looms so large it becomes a crucial element of the plot. That's certainly true of the dangerous streets of World War II Rome, which Joseph O'Connor explores in his historical thriller My Father's House."--Alida Becker, The New York Times Book Review
★ "O'Connor is a masterful storyteller, weaving a violent, terrifying, suspenseful, yet ultimately uplifting story of one man's courage and determination to fight back against Nazi brutality, whatever the risk. Superb!"--Booklist (Starred Review)
★ "Riveting... A storytelling tour de force. This is top-drawer WWII fiction."--Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
★ "If the story were told in typical thriller style, emphasizing action over language, it would still be good, but O'Connor's phrasings are a special joy... A deeply emotional read."--Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
"A riveting tale about the power of community in the face of unfathomable evil... A seamless blend of fact and fiction by a master of the genre; a brisk, polyphonic narrative that brings the heroism of ordinary people thrillingly to life."--Irish Times
"The diverse ventriloquism of O'Connor's novel evokes a city in peril with wonderful vitality."--Financial Times (UK)
"The novel's evocative scene-setting, its propulsive narration and its powerful depiction of bravery and unity in extremis, all make for an engrossing read."--The Telegraph (UK)
"A spectacular, thrilling novel... the novel offers much more than tensely plotted thrills. O'Flaherty's deep and impressively detailed love of Rome is emphasised and handsomely conveyed by O'Connor... My Father's House celebrates triumphant against-the-odds camaraderie. It would require a present-day Puccini to do operatic justice to its tremendous tale."--The Sunday Times (UK)
"This remains a tale worth re-telling, adorned as it is by the brilliance of O'Connor's impressionistic writing."--The Times (UK), A Best New Thriller for January 2023
"There have been many books written and films made about Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, the Kerry-born Vatican priest who rescued thousands of Jews and Allied Prisoners of War during the Second World War. But his latest incarnation, as the hero of this fast-moving novel by Joseph O'Connor, is surely the most memorable... A novel that triumphantly recreates the extraordinary human being that was Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty and his colourful co-conspirators."--Irish Examiner
"Superb."--Irish Independent
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