Review: The Pope's Butcher by Joseph C Gioconda

Synopsis: A new novel inspired by the true historical account of one man and his penchant for murder and misogyny in the medieval Roman Catholic Church is being released.

A story that has never been released to the public, The Pope's Butcher recounts the life of Father Heinrich Institoris, the Grand Inquisitor, a visionary man driven to cleanse the world of Eve's original sin by eradicating any woman he suspects of witchcraft. As Inquisition courts bloom across Europe, he vows to leave no stone unturned, no hovel unexamined, and no woman alive, in his search of his own perverse version of justice.

At a time when women had no power or voice, only one man seeks to stop him. The reader follows the life of Sebastian, a young seminarian who was abandoned as a child but carries with him an innate sense of morality that drives him to stand up for even the most vulnerable victims against his own Church. Will such a humble man be able to stop this powerful murderer, a killer even the Pope admires?

This astonishing account of religion, witchcraft and the occult in the Middle Ages reminds us that violence against women is as old as civilization itself and we must understand the events of the past, so we never repeat them.

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I was expecting something a bit different and as a result found no connection to the narrative nor the characters.

On the one hand we have the character of the witch-hunter and Grand Inquisitor, Fra Heinrich Institoris, a perverse and perverted man, whose mission is to eradicate witches and women he deems are witches. This is definitely a man worthy of further exploration, even if in a fictionalised account - but we are left with only a rudimentaty glance.

Then we have the naive, unworldly Sebastian, who is sent off on what is deemed to be a mission of such importance - to gather as much information as he can about witches and any heretical texts and report back to Heinrich. Quite frankly - Sebastian and his storyline was - for me - pure fantasy - it just didn't ring true for a supposed fictionalised account of actual historic events. Was Sebastian surplus to stock - probably, as I found myself wondering if he was really necessary at all, just there to pad out the word count and "make discoveries" (ie: display the author's research).

When this narrative finally gets to the point, we discover that this is the foundation story for the infamous "Malleus Maleficarum" or "Hammer of Witches" - and the narrative might have been put to better use by instead focusing more on the character of the tome's author, Heinrich Kramer or Heinrich Institor and just plain ditching the woeful character of Sebastian.

Overall, this just didn't cut it for me - I did read it through to the end but was disappointed I didn't set it aside sooner.