Ben Driskill Books in Order

Ben Driskill is the reluctant center of Thomas Gifford's two-book thriller series, beginning with The Assassini. Driskill is a lawyer and former Jesuit whose family connections and moral stubbornness make him useful when powerful people would rather keep a crisis quiet. He is not a polished spy or a superhero. He is a smart, angry man who keeps pushing after he has been warned to stop.

The first book opens in 1982 as Pope Callistus IV is dying and the fight over his successor begins. Ben's sister, Sister Valentine, is murdered, and the Church seems unwilling to pursue the truth. Grief gives Ben a personal reason to investigate, but the clues soon take him well beyond one killing.

His search moves through Church politics, wartime secrets, old photographs, and a remote Irish monastery. At the heart of the mystery is the Assassini, a shadowy brotherhood with a long history of doing violent work for people close to power. The novel is a large-scale Vatican conspiracy story, but Ben's relationship to faith, family, and institutional betrayal keeps the danger personal.

In Saint's Rest, Gifford brings Ben back to the United States for a more political story. A suspicious death draws him into trouble surrounding President Charles Bonner's reelection campaign. The trail leads to the quiet Iowa town of Saints Rest, where further killings suggest that the threat is organized, well-funded, and aimed at more than one candidate.

The change in setting matters. The Assassini has international travel and Church intrigue, while Saint's Rest uses Midwestern landscapes, Washington politics, and an atmosphere of distrust inside a democracy. In both books, Ben works against people with money, access, and a talent for making murder look like something else.

These are dense, old-school thrillers with lots of history, competing agendas, and long-buried evidence. Start with The Assassini, since it introduces Ben, his family history, and the mix of conscience and persistence that drives the series. Then move to Saint's Rest for a later case that places the same character in a different kind of national conspiracy.