Books like The Brotherhood of the Rose

”In Greek mythology, the god of love once offered a rose to the god of silence, as a bribe, to keep that god from disclosing the weaknesses of the other gods. In time, the rose became the symbol for silence and secrecy. In the Middle ages, a rose was customarily suspended from the ceiling of a council chamber. The members of the council pledged themselves not to reveal what they discussed in the room, sub rosa under the rose.”There once were two boys named Romulus and Remus, not the two founders of Rome, but two boys who found each other in an orphanage in Pennsylvania. They became closer than brothers. Isn’t that the case with many of us, finding our close friends to be more our brothers and sisters than our own flesh and blood? Chris (Remus) is visited periodically by a gray faced man named Eliot who starts every visit by extending a Baby Ruth candy bar. In an orphanage you are more likely to find a bar of gold than a bar of chocolate. He takes Chris on backpacking trips and fishing trips. Soon Saul (Romulus) joins them. As they grow up their foster father suggests certain activities for them such as Karate. When they are old enough he suggests they join the military. They are sent to Vietnam. Suggestions from Eliot are the same as commands. They don’t know it until later, but Eliot has several pairs of orphaned boys from various cities. Castor and Pollux, Cadmus and Cilix, Amphion and Zethus, Butes and Erectheus, and Atlas and Prometheus. They are all trained to be operatives for a shadowy sector of the CIA. The reverence they all show for Eliot borders on worship. Eliot is also part of a national coalition of spies that formed a system called the Abelard Sanctuary. "I had come there as a fugitive and, in the depths of my despair, was granted some comfort by the grace of God.” Peter Abélard (1079-1142) was a brilliant rising star of theology, philosophy, and logician who fell in love with the scholar of classical letters Héloïse. They are secretly married to appease her uncle, but when he announces the marriage publicly it is denied by the couple. The Uncle is sure that Abélard is up to no good so he hires some thugs to pay him a visit. They castrate him. The letters of longing between Abélard and Héloïse become some of the most famous love letters of all time and forever immortalized the couple among the most legendary of doomed lovers rivaled only by Shakespeare’s creation of Romeo and Juliet. Abélard becomes a monk, but has difficulties with the monastery system and eventually retires to a chapel at Paraclete. He went there seeking sanctuary. If he wished to remain anonymous or forgotten it did not work. Students appeared living in tents around the chapel and soon he is teaching once again. The coalition of spies from all over the world find that there are times when they need sanctuary. They reach an agreement to place these Abelard Sanctuaries strategically all over the world. For those that have seen the recent movie John Wick, starring Keanu Reeves, the hotel in the movie is based on the same concept as an Abelard Sanctuary. No one is allowed to kill within the walls of sanctuary. If someone breaks the truce all of the nations participating are forced by the rules of the contract to do their best to execute the killer. It is a place where enemies can mingle without fear. Everything is going fine until Saul is ordered to blow up a close friend of the President of the United States. The assassination was made to look like the Israelis for political reasons. When Saul goes to his designated safe house some men are there to try to kill him. He has been blacklisted. His first thought is to call his foster father, but that was the source of the safe house location. Is it possible that the person he revers most in the world could be wanting to kill him? Saul is forced on the run for his life. He meets up with Chris and between the two of them they come up with a plan of survival. Betrayals begat betrayals and soon all that they think they believe in is suddenly nothing more than an enigma of deception. To survive they will have to embrace revenge. The pacing of the novel is excellent. It is certainly a page turner. David Morrell is an old hand at deftly keeping the plot from faltering. The secrecy attributed to the rose becomes an obsession for many of the Abelard Sanctuary group. Many of them begin cultivating them as a hobby, all becoming as bewitched by their beauty as the Dutch were about tulips in the 17th century. Some reviewers have found the sanctuary concept, a truce between foes, to be verging on science fiction, but for me it makes sense. The men and women who work behind the cloak of secrecy have much more in common with each other than they do with the countries they call home. By the definition of their careers they are lonely people, cut off from their families and friends, and reluctant to form relationships that could in the end compromise them. Sometimes your enemy knows you best and with them there are no pretenses about the job. My favorite David Morrell so far is: Murder As a Fine Art a book about Thomas De Quincey the famous British Opium Eater. The second book with De Quincey is scheduled to release in March. Murder as a Fine Art Review