The Color of Blood

Moore's lofty reputation stands on The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, Catholics, The Doctor's Wife and other widely different novels. All, however, center on characters one cares about and remembers. In this story, the protagonist is Catholic Cardinal Stefan Bem of an unnamed communist satellite. After he is the target of an assassination, Bem is taken by security officers to a remote house for his ""protection.'' But the cardinal knows he is a prisoner, magnifying his suspicion that factions in the clergy and laity plan a demonstration against Soviet oppression at a religious ceremony only days away. Escaping the ``raincoats,'' who use desperate means to try to stop him, Bem hastens to the church, where he dons the princely robes. Thousands are gathered when the cardinal appears to prevent a riot and the murders of both the tyrants and the tyrannized. The novel surges with tensions that never relax, from the hair-trigger opening to the jarring close. (September 14)