Of Bread & Wine
About this ebook
Chicago criminal attorney Michael Prescott is on holiday in Rome, and visits with his best friend, Monsignor Robert Cavalieri, a Special Diplomat to the Vatican. He is informed by “Fr. Rob” that Giovanni Cardinal Masellis, the “Mafia Cardinal”, who was once considered the most evil and influential cardinals at the Vatican in his day, has made a deathbed confession to him before his passing as to the details of the death and poisoning murder of Pope John Paul I. Masellis confesses to also spearheading the massive cover-up surrounding the pope's poisoning death in September, 1978. Unfortunately, his confession is secretly recorded by the Italian newspaper “La Republicca” and their ambitious editor, Max Gianforte. He desperately tries to find other sources within the Vatican to confirm the Cardinal's deathbed revelations.
The Vatican is now concerned over the effects such media disclosure will have on the reputation of the Catholic Church. Almost forty years after the mysterious death of the pope, the Vatican is imbued with the various documents and specific details regarding the circumstances of his death, especially the missing “Coins of Gregorio” a priceless gift donated by an influential Italian mobster, Don Giancarlo Cesario, the night before Pope John Paul I's murder. The gift was an attempt to bribe and influence His Holiness in the Vatican investigation into the Banco Ambrosiano scandal, for which the Cesario Family and Cardinal Masellis was significantly involved.
Meanwhile, wine master Marco DiVito, the former Vatican head of security and a distant cousin of the Cesario Family, now oversees his vineyard near the foothills of Rome. He is nervous and apprehensive over meeting his long lost daughter, Sienna DiVito. She is a prominent investigative journalist with the Washington Post, and DiVito abandoned her as a little girl in Boston over twenty years ago. The Post has asked her to investigate “one of the biggest stories to come out of the Vatican in decades.” Michael meets Sienna after losing his wallet at the Café Michelangelo in Rome, and after a few chance meetings, they begin a relationship. They set in motion their investigative search together into the certainty of Masellis's deathbed revelations, but Michael never reveals his relationship with the Vatican. He tries to temper her investigative efforts in discovering the truth of the Pope John Paul I's death.
As rumors swirl around Rome after the death of Cardinal Masellis, Italian crime boss Calogero "Don Charlie” Cesario believes that the actual murderer also possesses these missing, priceless coins. The crime family is also unhappy with the La Republicca and their intention to insinuate their family's involvement in the beloved Pope's poisoning death. He points his suspicions towards DiVito, and threatens him to either return the missing coins to the crime family or there will be “dire” consequences towards him and his beloved daughter.
These revelations of the Vatican's most corrupt Cardinal and the Mafia's search for the return of their missing heirloom coins threaten the lives of Michael and Sienna, and their investigative search reveals the total corruption and instability of the Vatican and the Roman Catholic Church.
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About the author
When the author was in high school, it was suggested by his English teachers that any career, other than writing, would be 'a total waste of time'. He always had a passion for writing but was discouraged to pursue it as a career. Born and raised in Detroit and being the first generation from Italian immigrants, he moved to Chicago at age 21 with only his college degree and $100 in his pocket. After working in public accounting for several years, he started his CPA accounting firm from his kitchen table and went on to become a very successful CPA and businessman. But becoming a fiction author was always his life-long passion. After a thirty-year marriage and a lengthy divorce, it was suggested that he take up writing again as a 'form of therapy'.
He has now devoted all his time in developing new and exciting story lines for his next fiction novels. His writing prose and style is often set within his hometown of Chicago, his native Detroit, and his many travel experiences to Italy and in Europe. He invests a considerable amount time and historical research in developing his story lines and various characters, which are very often modeled from many of his real-life experiences. Edward Izzi has written a countless number of short stories, poetry, and has completed several fiction thriller novels, including "Of Bread and Wine", "A Rose from The Executioner", "Demons of Divine Wrath" and "Quando Dormo”.
