The Last Conclave delivers exactly what you want from a religious thriller: a compelling mystery, global intrigue, and enough historical shadow-play to keep the pages turning late into the night. The disappearance of an entire group of cardinals from the locked Sistine Chapel is a brilliantly eerie hook, and the tension never lets up from there.

Cal Donovan makes for a strong, grounded lead—equal parts scholar and reluctant hero—as he’s drawn deeper into a centuries-old conspiracy that blends faith, politics, and vengeance. The pacing is quick, the stakes are high, and the atmosphere—especially within the Vatican—is wonderfully tense and cinematic.

Some plot elements do stretch plausibility, especially in the final act, and a few supporting characters feel more like plot devices than fully fleshed-out people. But the sheer ambition of the story and the well-executed suspense more than make up for it.

If you enjoy books like The Da Vinci Code or The Rule of Four, The Last Conclave will hit all the right notes—a bold, entertaining blend of history, mystery, and modern-day reckoning.

Glenn Cooper delivers a gripping Vatican mystery in this book, where the conclave to elect the next pope goes missing, ancient secrets and nothing is quite what it seems.

As someone who has read a lot of books on the Vatican, I was hooked, the author's take was quite clever. I love the religious history in the book as I learnt about the medieval Cathars and the decree of heresy by the Church on Catharism with a full blown crusade launched, massacres and inquisitions.

I found the ending a bit predictable but still satisfying. It is a 7.5/10 for me and thank you to the publishers and @netgalley for an advanced readers' copy of this book.

If you love thrillers with robes, ancient secrets and history then this book delivers.

How opportune was this book coming at the same time as the new pope was elected, although thankfully, there was not the same level of drama as unfolds in this book. A really gripping and intriguing read of a subject I do not know much about. Definitely worth a read.

I was eager to read this book after the election of the new Pope and after having seen the movie, Conclave, and I was not disappointed! Lots of action, interesting history, amazing twists and turns, and even a bit of romance made this book almost impossible to put down. I'd highly recommend it to fans of Dan Brown and Robert Harris and those who enjoy a fast paced read without a lot of violence and gore.

Thank you to NetGalley and Book Whisperer for the opportunity to read and review this novel.

I really enjoyed reading this book. In fact, I would give it five full stars if the typos in the e-book version didn’t grate on me so hard.
I see that this is one of a series about Cal Donovan, but I had neither heard of them nor read any previously. I received an advance copy of the book in order to review it.
The title piqued my interest as I very much enjoyed the film “Conclave”, and I wanted more of that setting. This book did not disappoint!
I have only been to Rome and the Vatican one time, but the descriptions of the places in this book were very easy to picture. The characters felt very real, and the timing of *having an actual Conclave* happen while reading this book was an unexpected coincidence.
This book did not do anything I imagined it would prior to reading. It was constantly fresh with innovative plot turns AND some history taught at the same time.
I highly suggest this book for anyone who liked the film “Conclave” or for anybody who likes a fast-read mystery!

When Pope John XXV dies just two years after becoming Pope it is a great shock to everyone. However the Church must go on and after a brief period of mourning the cardinals gather in the Sistine Chapel for the Conclave to elect the next pope. News channels across the world are focused on the stove pipe chimney will announce with white smoke if they have elected the successor to St Peter or black smoke if they are still working to get a 2/3 majority vote for one of their number. But as time drags on with no smoke the rest of the Vatican begins to be worried Sr Elisabetta Celestino, the Pope's Secretary of State asks for the doors of the chapel to be forced open only to find an empty room. The search for the Cardinals and the reasons behind their kidnap become the business of Security services of many countries. When a communication from the kidnappers comes through, Cal Donovan, a religious expert, spots a tattoo of a yellow cross on the arm of the spokesperson. A yellow cross is the symbol of the Cathars, a religious group stamped out by the Church centuries ago- what is their agenda?

The timing of this book could not have been more topical, with the recent death of Pope Francis and I'm sure that is why many might be drawn to it. However once I started it I was completely captivated and read it at breakneck speed. One of my top reads so far this year. Thanks to Net galley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

I really enjoyed this book! If you’ve watched Angels and Demons and liked the movie, it’s very similar. The pace of the book was really good in my opinion, I was interested and locked in throughout. Not sure if Cathar is an actual ancient religion, but I love when historical fiction books like these make me want to research and figure out what’s true and what’s fictional throughout.

Thank you NetGalley for the copy and opportunity to read this book! Just found a new author I will be on the lookout for.

Not what I was expecting. Enjoyed the first bit of the book about the Conclave, and it seems very well researched, but then I kind of lost interest when it turned into a somewhat far-fetched political/religious thriller. I’m sure this book will work for other readers but it was not a good book fit for me.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and couldn’t put it down. It was especially informative and timely with the recent death of Pope Francis. I have not read anything by Glenn Cooper before but will look out for this author in the future.

The Last Conclave by Glenn Cooper tells the story of Cal Donovan who is a religious expert who is commenting on the death of the Pope. The conclave is in session but needs to be entered with the decision made by Sister Elisabetta who is in charge and then the story begins.

The story line is very creative but the ending was somewhat predictable. I liked the characters of Cal and Elisabetta and would read more of their adventures.

Thank you to NetGalley and Lascaux Media for this ARC.

This is a well time released book, with the movie and the recent pope being named. I don’t think I would have picked this one up otherwise. The book is good, I found it a little slow in parts. As some one who’s not religious I found it easy to follow and interesting.

With the recent selection of a new pope, I picked up this book with some interest. I was not disappointed. This was a religious thriller with the right blend of religious history and intrigue. Because the story deals with historical religious movement combined with modern intrigue, the comparisons to Dan Brown are natural, but that is unfair to the original storytelling style of Glenn Cooper. His cinematic experience is obvious as you can imagine these scenes on the screen and the conclusion wraps up the story lines in a satisfying manner. This is my first book of his, but not my last.

SUPERRRRRRRRRRR THRILLING!!!!! The plot twist I didn't expect.

Thanks Netgalley for making this available to read!

A strong start that fumbled at the end.

Like a lot of people I was drawn to give this book a try due to recent world events. It opens very powerfully, the death of a pope and then a conclave where everyone vanishes. Considering that was the blurb on the back, I expected this to be more a mystery of how they all vanished, when in fact that was solved only a few pages later. Then the chase began.

Trying to track down the kidnappers was fun, following the trail, trying to uncover the identities and where they were going was all great, good action, good pace.

And then they reached their destination, and that's when it started to get a little silly. I mean, it wasn't Templars which is something, but it was next best conspiracy, Cathars.

I get why we needed the flashbacks to the time of the Cathars, to really link what happened then to now. And the writer captured the world very well, especially the crusaders. But it also threw you out of the story to suddenly be so removed from the events of the moment.

Cal was a decent enough lead, he wasn't trying to be a hero, he was just a history guy who has feelings. He was brave and willing to risk his life to do the right thing, I enjoyed him and his story.

Where it fell down for me was the reasoning behind the plot. There have, in fact, been conclaves that were held under bad conditions, conclaves where the cardinals were forced to vote one way. And what usually happened after that, was that they would then promptly elect a second pope, with one becoming known to history as an 'anti-pope'. It hasn't happened for hundreds of years, but to build the whole plot around the fact once they elect a pope that's it, is silly. There were even cases of the same cardinals voting for the pope and anti-pope. Not to mention a pope can resign. (albeit its only happened twice and I don't know if Benedict would have happened in this world.) I understand this is probably more a me issue as suspension of disbelief is a thing, and not everyone is interested in papal history, but I am and it annoyed me that you had a papal expert as the main character who didn't even mention such things.

This is not the type of book I usually read in my personal time, however with the events of choosing a new Pope and hearing more about the process as a non-Catholic, I thought that reading this would be an interesting time. And it was. As someone who has a vague knowledge of Catholicism from friends and family, as well as learning about various religions in school, combined with a mystery that had me wanting to read the next chapter, I overall had a good time with this. As someone who rarely reads historical fiction without some sort of fantastical element to this, I would 100% recommend it to those that enjoy historical fiction.

I didn't enjoy this one and found it hard to get through at times. It was well-researched and the plot is good, if not a bit far-fetched, but the pacing drags in some parts. I see what this book was trying to do, and felt like it was mashing up the Dan Brown/Robert Harris formulas but didn't quite achieve the same heights.
Thank you to NetGalley and Book Whisperer for the advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

I really loved this book. There were definitely some inaccuracies as far as the policy that would take place in the Catholic Church but as a fictional thriller this was well written and beautifully done.

For some reason I devour books about popes and the conclaves. I love the drama, the adventure and just how the world of the Vatican works. I have read a few of the authors book before, but this one truly peeked my interest because of the new, very real American pope.

I was not disappointed at all. It was so much fun to be in the front seat of how the story unfolded like a movie right in front of me, and I truly had no idea what the endgame would be. Bravo. I absolutely love this fast paced drama, and have to admit that Cal was my favourite character from the beginning. This book I’m going to buy for my father, since it’s right up his alley. My only complaint was that it felt a little bit too shorty and rushed towards the end, but that is truly just a small thing.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this arc copy, and letting me give my honest feedback’.

Great Read!!!
Cooper has a 5 star winner all the way.
When the Conclave is called together in Rome at the pope's death, all seems to
be moving along as per the usual way.
Cal Donovan is sitting in with CNN as an expert guest commentator, when all hell breaks loose
and the conclave disappears from the secure, impenetrable Sistene Chapel.
Great suspense, intrigue and absolutely riveting storyline.
Characters are so well defined they jump right off the pages.
Great timing on the story.
Solid gold all the way.
.

Great mystery–and I don’t usually like mysteries. It hits all the spots—assasinations, Catholicism, women’s rights, history, family conflict, etc. and the timing of the release was accidentally perfect. In addition to an enjoyable mystery, one can learn about a medieval
Christian sect, the Cathars. The novel goes back and forth between the hunters and the hunted, and ends with a bang.