Reviewed by Alice DiNizo for Readers' Favorite

The priest, wearing the green cassock which means he is sanctified, climbs to the top of the Citadel, a mountainous religious retreat that towers above the city of Ruin in Turkey. He then opens his arms and stands in the form of the Cross, or perhaps the mysterious Tau, and then jumps to his death far below, outside the legal perimeters of the Citadel. This shocking event is witnessed by the entire world, including by the monk's twin sister, Liv Adamsen, a hard-bitten newspaper reporter. Liv had been aware of her brother Samuel's disappearance years before and now learns of his death. Meanwhile, Kathryn Mann, her son Gabriel, and her ancient father Oscar, who holds his own secrets, including a former life as a Citadel monk, head to Ruin where the police are already at work to discover why the monk called Samuel jumped. Police Detective Arkadian knows that the monks of the Citadel hold more than a library of ancient texts in their reclusive kingdom.

Good guys, bad guys and a plot that will hold readers spellbound fill the pages of this thriller as they all race to find out exactly what is the Sanctus and why Samuel's stomach held apple seeds with an encoded message on each.

Author Simon Toyne has written a first-rate thriller that will hold readers spellbound. It is extremely well written, and the author's use of short chapters to move the plot is nothing short of brilliant. All the many characters are well drawn and totally believable. Bad guys like former soldier Cornelius and good guys such as Brother Athanasius, who creeps carefully through the Citadel's labyrinths, make Sanctus memorable. The conclusion is violent and will keep the reader's attention until the last page where Liv and Gabriel's romance blooms amid the carnage.