“I know. I know. It sounds like a bad movie starring Tom Hanks.” That is the observation of a character in Ralph McInerny’s latest mystery novel, The Third Revelation, about the behind-the-scenes story of the international uprising of radical Islam against the Catholic Church. The story includes murders of high-ranking clerics in the Vatican, international art dealers, a revived duel between former KGB and CIA agents, conspiracy theories about the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II and the Church’s alleged suppression of the true content of the third revelation of Fatima, and a desperate quest to recover the stolen document of that revelation to set the record straight and stave off escalating violence.

Fortunately for readers of McInerny’s book, the resemblances to Dan Brown are all superficial. This is a well-crafted and intricately plotted story that introduces an array of characters and subplots and then deftly weaves them together in the last third of the book. McInerny is also attuned to the way forgeries and hoaxes can infiltrate religious traditions and especially to the way conspiracy theories can grip the minds and hearts of the most passionate believers.

McInerny’s book, without sanctimony or wooden characters, has something to say about the complex propensities of the human soul, for good and for evil, and for the mysterious process known as conversion. The author is also skilled at filling in the historical and theological background in a way that informs without distracting from the story. . . .

This is the sort of popular writing we could use more of — smart, entertaining, and sympathetic to the most tragic struggles and deepest yearnings of the human soul.