The Statement

Brian Moore once again masters the thriller genre. The Statement, his 18th novel, introduces Pierre Brossard, an elderly Frenchman living in small-town Provence. After an assassin tries to murder him, Brossard is exposed as a cunning war criminal who has eluded a death sentence for killing Jews in World War II. Granted sanctuary by the Catholic church, he has spent years hidden in an underworld of abbeys — but with mysterious enemies on his trail, alliances are tested. The cast of characters — cardinals, priests, police, activists, and French officials — plays an intricate chess game, with no one ever quite whom he seems to be. Their maneuvers ultimately reveal a massive conspiracy, but Moore keeps the reader guessing its true nature until the end. A-