From the Fog of War to the League of Fog and Night

The League of Night and Fog is the concluding novel in David Morrell's Mortalis trilogy that begins with The Brotherhood of the Rose followed by The Fraternity of the Stone. Morrell brings back two of the heroes from those earlier works: Saul, a Jewish former CIA operator from Brotherhood; and Drew; a former State Department assassin-turned-Catholic monk from Fraternity.Both men are wrenched from the quiet lives they've retreated to and forced to re-enter the espionage game, each by a different network and for different purposes. Yet the mystery that each man must solve revolves around the same group of missing elderly men, including a high-ranking cardinal from the Vatican. In a complex plot with multiple red-herrings, Saul and Drew eventually uncover a plot seeking vengeance for crimes dating back to the horrors of WWII.

The Mortalis (Latin for "mortal") trilogy explores whether men of faith can commit horrible acts in the name of God or country, and still find salvation. The three books also look deeply into the relationship between father and child. This is a common theme in many of Morrell's books, the author having lost his own father in WWII as well as a young son to cancer. The League of Night and Fog, in particular, questions the legacies fathers leave their children -- both the legacies they want to leave, and those they don't.

All three novels are excellent additions to the library of anyone who enjoys serious espionage thrillers.