Lost gospel, a contentious relic and a dying pope's final wish converge to send two brothers—both Vatican priests—on an intellectual quest to untan-gle Christianity's greatest historical mystery. Ten years ago, Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason's The Rule of Four be-came a literary phenomenon that sold nearly two million copies in North America and was hailed by critics as - ingenious profoundly erudite (The New York Times) - compulsively readable‖ (People) and - an exceptional piece of scholarship (San Francisco Chronicle). Now, after a decade of painstaking primary research, Ian Caldwell returns with a masterful new thriller that confirms his place among the most ambitious popular story-tellers working today.

In 2004, as Pope John Paul II's reign enters its twilight, a mysterious ex-hibit is under construction at the Vatican Museums. A week before it is scheduled to open, its curator is murdered at a clandestine meeting on the outskirts of Rome. That same night, a violent break-in rocks the home of the curator's research partner, Father Alex Andreou, a Greek Catholic priest who lives inside the Vatican with his five-year-old son. When the papal police fail to identify a suspect in either crime, Father Alex, desperate to keep his family safe, undertakes his own investigatio

Ian Caldwell is the coauthor of The Rule of Four, which spent forty-nine weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, sold nearly 2 million copies in North America and was translated into thirty-five languages. He lives in Virginia with his wife and children.