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Formats
Ebook Details
  • 09/2018
  • B07H253C7H
  • 298 pages
  • $2.99
Paperback Details
  • 12/2018
  • 978-1794133389
  • 371 pages
  • $9.99
W.D. Gagliani
Author
The Judas Hit

Adult; Mystery/Thriller; (Market)

Playboy lady-killer, lover, assassin, immortal (almost), Betrayer...if the shadowy Vatican Secret Service used the double-0 tag, he'd be 008. This century he's just known as Simon Pound. But Simon has a secret--he is Judas Iscariot, who made a certain Deal right after putting the rope around his own neck. Now an expert assassin for the VSS, his assignment is to guard against evil and protect the papacy from its enemies. Most of his missions are routine assassinations, but occasionally Simon also assumes the role of avenger and executioner. So what's a vile religious artifact--that had once been safely locked away in the famed secret Vatican archives--doing beneath a mall construction site in Queens? And why are people dying all around it--dying, but only after being brutally tortured? Where are the other four missing vile statuettes? Who is behind the fanatics of the New Golden Dawn, and why are they gunning for Simon Pound? And the secret demon prison beneath the Vatican is about to be breached. Simon's personal code is as ambiguous as he is. He's an immortal who loves women, wine, music, the good life...and murder...in equal amounts. But how sane can he be, after two thousand years?
Reviews
Stoker Award–finalist Gagliani’s offbeat supernatural thriller boasts an audacious premise: instead of Judas Iscariot taking his own life, the prototypical traitor was reprieved and transformed into a near-immortal agent for the Vatican Secret Service. In the present, under the alias Simon Pound, Judas confronts his greatest challenge after construction on a Queens, New York, mall unearths a statuette depicting a satanic version of the crucifixion, with an evil smile carved on Christ’s face. Simon learns that statuette has ended up in the hands of the New Golden Dawn, which is after four more figures so they can liberate the demon Astaroth, who has been confined in Rome for centuries. Simon’s efforts to stop the apocalyptic plan are hampered by someone who knows his closely guarded secret—that without a special band around his wrist, he can be killed. Gagliani (Wolf’s Trap) doesn’t stint on the gore (“She stared at his face, watching the vitreous and bloody matter leak onto his cheek from the new entry holes”). Action fans looking for an out-there page-turner are in luck. (BookLife)
Cemetery Dance Online

The Judas Hit by W.D. Gagliani
Tarkus Press (September/December 2018)
298 pages; $1.99 e-book/371 pages; $9.99 trade paper
Reviewed by Dave Simms

W.D. Gagliani returns to gift readers with a novel that combines James Bond with Constantine, but with a darker flair in a story that is pure fun to read. Those familiar with his excellent Wolf’s Trap/Nick Lupo series will find plenty of familiar elements here, yet the humor the author imbues ratchets up the entertainment level, along with action scenes that leap off the page in a style that is flawless.

Simon Pound has some dark secrets. Working as an assassin for the Vatican (yes, there really is a secret police for the institution, but the supernatural portion might be a bit sketchy) keeps him busy. Like Bond, he’s a lady killer who enjoys the fruits of his labor — a playboy putting Sean Connery’s suave skills to shame.

However, Pound’s alter-ego, his original name, is Judas Iscariot. The original betrayer copped a deal while the noose pulled tight to work for the power of good. He battles demons and other supernatural forces in his travels. There’s an object that’s killing anyone who comes in contact with it, and the other ones that have gone missing from the Vatican vault must be recovered in order to save mankind. Add in a cult that’s hellbent on killing him and you have a nonstop powerhouse of an supernatural action horror novel. And…there’s a prison beneath the Vatican that houses the worst demons on earth, and it’s about to pop.

Gagliani has created a tantalizing, fun new hero in Simon Pound that will entertain fans of thrillers, horror, adventure, and pure fun reading, yet he adds in a layer of deep mythology that draws the reader in further. Considering The Judas Hit a cross between the Bond film Spectre and Dan Brown’s thrillers wouldn’t be a bad description.

Recommended reading.

Formats
Ebook Details
  • 09/2018
  • B07H253C7H
  • 298 pages
  • $2.99
Paperback Details
  • 12/2018
  • 978-1794133389
  • 371 pages
  • $9.99
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