Gerard O'Connell, invariably a reliable correspondent, brings his skills and reputation to a well-written, book-length account of developments from February 11, 2013, the day Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation, to March 19, 2013, the inauguration ceremony of Pope Francis.

O'Connell's narrative is a thirty-seven-day journalist's diary in four parts—the eighteen-day period from Benedict's announcement to his abdication, eleven days of a vacant see before the conclave, the two-day conclave, and six days afterward. Through the first two parts, suspense builds as cardinals arrive in Rome, and O'Connell summarizes reflections and speculations by players there and stories in the worldwide press that eventually brought more than six thousand journalists, reporters, and photographers to Rome. O'Connell traces sources, relates rumors, juxtaposes imagined scenarios, and recounts probabilities. Although cardinal electors must take oaths of secrecy, they likewise keep notes, chat among themselves, and share memories and details unintentionally—O'Connell suggests—with others, who write about what they hear or share eventually with someone who does. O'Connell identifies no sources but gives tallies of all five ballots in part 3. His narrative of those two days discloses early signs of later public opposition to Pope Francis by some, who entered the conclave confidant of an outcome, but shifted desperately to stop Bergoglio's election. Part 4 recalls the deeply fascinating events in the first six days of the new papacy that inspired hope and enthusiasm among those hoping for a renewed commitment to the reforms of Vatican II. The book has a useful index. Notes are conveniently listed by pages at the end.

O'Connell and his Argentinian wife, Elisabetta Piqué, also a Vatican correspondent and author of a biography of the pope (Francis: Life and Revolution, Loyola Press, 2015), are true insiders on Vatican affairs and with Jorge Mario Bergoglio. Piqué introduced O'Connell to Archbishop Bergoglio years before O'Connell had his “first real conversation” with him just days before the 2005 conclave. According to a leaked “secret diary of the conclave,” Bergoglio gathered forty votes of the 115 electors by the third ballot. The number was sufficient to block anyone's election, including Joseph Ratzinger's, whose tally was five shy of the needed seventy-seven. According to O'Connell's sources, Bergoglio let it be known that he did not want to be a candidate of opposition to Ratzinger for the sake of the church's unity.

The papal election of 2013 was unanticipated, highly unusual, revolutionary, and proved to be pivotal for the church. O'Connell's account will remain a detailed record of the election of Pope Francis and of his substantive initiatives for many years to come. O'Connell handles discussion of those issues primarily in part 2 with summaries of the presentations by the cardinals in their general congregations prior to the conclave. The poor handling of Vatican finances, the crisis of leadership, and mishandling of cases of abuse are among those topics. Bergoglio's “brief but electrifying talk” on March 9 was probably the major factor positioning him well among three front-runners—Angelo Scola and Marc Ouellet were the other two. Bergoglio spoke of recovering the joy of evangelizing (Paul VI), encouraging boldness (parrhesia), overcoming self-referentiality, recovering the mystery of the moon reflecting its greater light (John XXIII), and contemplation of Jesus Christ (Ignatius of Loyola).

O'Connell reveals how much was in play in the conclave of 2013 that knowledgeable readers will quibble with him on some of a wide range of topics. I do. Following ecumenical relations, I know that official responses from Christian communions to John Paul II's invitation in Ut Unum Sint to dialogue on the papacy in service to the unity of the church were few in number, but they were significant in scope. Also, I stand with Hebblethwaite's dismissal (Pope of the Council, 288–90) and Melloni's handling (Il Conclave, 111, 115–17) of a rumored Roncalli-Tardini ticket that O'Connell repeats, which presumably allowed Pope John's eventual election on the eleventh ballot. Yet, like these two and other accounts of Pope John XXIII, which remain stirring to read today, O'Connell's record of Pope Francis’ storied path to the papacy will be exciting for years to come.