Mortalis Books In Order

Publication Order of Mortalis Books

Mortalis Espionage Trilogy

Mortalis is a thriller/espionage trilogy by a Canadian novelist David Morrell. The series is set in a world of spies, assassins and secret agencies. Each of the book in the series can be read as a standalone, but it’s important to note that the third book, The League of Night and Fog features include characters who are featured in the first and the second novels.

While Mortalis is an action-packed thriller series, it touches on the themes of redemption and religion where characters must work towards redeeming themselves from their burden of life. The second book, Fraternity of the Stone touches on some elements of Catholic Church history.

The Brotherhood of Rose

If you’ve read Greek mythology, you’ve probably known that the god of love offered the god of silence a rose as a bribe to keep the god of silence from sharing the weaknesses of other gods. Time has passed, and rose has since become the symbol for secrecy and silence.

The Brotherhood of Rose is the story of two boys named Chris and Saul who find themselves in a Pennsylvania orphanage. Their friendship bond grows stronger than brothers.

But it’s that the case with most of us in the modern world, Finding ourselves friends who are more our brothers/sisters than our blood siblings?
Chris is regularly visited by Eliot who gives him a candy bar on every visit. The man takes Chris on fishing trips and backpacking, and soon Saul joins them. As the two boys grow up together, the foster dad introduces them to certain activities such as Karate and when they’re finally old enough he informs them to join the military. They are soon sent to Vietnam.

What the two boys don’t know is that- Elliot has other pairs of orphaned kids from different cities. Amphion and Zethus, Castor and Pollux, Butes and Erectheus, Cadmus and Cilix and Atlas and Prometheus, all these boys are trained to be agents of a shadowy branch of the CIA.
Eliot is a member of a coalition of spies that forms a system known as Abelard Sanctuary.

The spies from different parts of the world reach an agreement that they should have sanctuaries around the world. If you’ve watched John Wick movie featuring Keanu Reeves, there’s a hotel in the film which shares similarity with Abelard Sanctuary. Within the walls of the sanctuary, no one is allowed to kill anybody, and if anyone breaks this rule, all the nations participating are forced to eliminate the killer. A sanctuary is a place where the killers and enemies can mingle without any fear.

Everything seems to be going pretty well until when Saul is told to kill a good friend of the US president. The assassination is made to look like politically motivated by the Israelis. But when Saul goes to the sanctuary, some mercenaries try to eliminate him.

Saul has been blacklisted from the sanctuary.

His first thought is to call Eliot but he cannot because it is the source of the sanctuary. Is it possible that his foster dad could want him dead?
Saul is forced to flee and run for his life. He comes across Chris and the two come up with a survival plan and to succeed in their plan they would need vengeance.

The Brotherhood of Rose is a fast paced action packed and a real page-turner. David Morrell has done a fantastic job in creating a richly detailed plot. The secrecy ascribed to the rose turns out to be an obsession to the many spies of the Abelard Sanctuary. The men and women at the sanctuary have more in common with each other than they have with their mother countries. But by the definition of their careers, these people are lonely, cut off from friends and families, and are hesitant to start relationships that could compromise them in the end.

This book it’s a milestone work can only be compared to successful iconic titles like Odessa File, Eiger Sanction and Marathon Man. Here’s the reason:
The Brotherhood of the Rose does not rely on international politics unlike many thrillers you’ve probably read, and this makes it timeless. It is a story set in the world of assassins and spies. Almost no specific countries or government agencies or real-world conditions are mentioned. It timeless and doesn’t matter whether you read it at the time of release or you read it today- it’s still just as good. All bestselling thrillers ever written possess this exact quality-they are good reads regardless of the period.

The book works so well because assassins, spies, commandos, and secret agencies never go away as long as there are countries and resources.

Fraternity of the Stone

The second book in Mortalis espionage trilogy is The Fraternity of the Stone. The story explores a theme that David Morrell touched in the series debut- an assassin who is tired of violence and seeks salvation through religion.

Drew MacLane was a professional assassin until the day he saw what he firmly believed to be a sign from God. For half a decade, MacLane sought personal salvation in a Catholic monastery where he made contact with no one except Stuart Little, a church mouse.

But then the mouse mysteriously dies after eating part of MacLane’s food. He later discovers that the entire monastery’s resident had all been poisoned and being the only survivor he flees to seek help from a Catholic church.

Hunted by an unknown enemy, MacLane finds himself caught in the search for the real identity of the man responsible for killing Catholic priests. Finding an ally, MacLane struggles to protect his own souls as well as his eternal soul. Eventually, he succeeds in the world of religion since in the world of espionage, it almost impossible to distinguish the good and the bad guys.

David Morrell has crafted an intriguing plot that intertwines modern political machinations with an ancient group of warriors that dates back to the Crusades. The main character, MacLane is a tortured soul, forced to assassinate for his survival, but this only draws him farther from salvation. Mixed in with the suspense and action is a beautifully detailed story of the Catholic Church history that never interferes with the flow of the main story.