The murder of a world-famous physicist raises fears that the Illuminati are operating again after centuries of silence, and religion professor Robert Langdon is called in to assist with the case.

"The Pope is dead. Behind locked doors of the Sistine chapel, 118 cardinals from around the world will cast their votes in the world's most secretive election. They are holy men, but they are men of the world, and they have rivals. And over the next seventy-two hours one of them will become the most powerful spiritual figure on earth."--Dust jacket.

When master thief Michael St. Pierre steals two priceless antique keys, which supposedly protect the secret of salvation, from Vatican vaults, he unwittingly sets in motion a deadly plot that brings him face to face with an insidious enemy and sends him running for his life.

Welcome to Italian police detective Nic Costa's Rome: the side of the city the tourist board does not want you to see. "Hewson does more than provide a thrilling read. He saves you the airfare to Italy. When you turn the last page, you'll think you've been there" LINWOOD BARCLAY "David Hewson's Rome is dark and tantalizing, seductive and dangerous, a place where present-day crimes ring with the echoes of history" TESS GERRITSEN "David Hewson is...

Called in by the Vatican to examine the workings of the Vatican Library, former Navy SEAL Nolan Kilkenny soon discovers that Pope Leo has another mission in mind--to rescue a "secret" cardinal, a Chinese bishop imprisoned by the Chinese for some thirty years.

"Lieutenant Billy Boyle could have used a rest after his last case, but when his girlfriend, Diana Seaton, a British spy, goes missing in the Vatican, where she was working undercover, he insists on being assigned to a murder investigation there so he can try to help her. An American monsignor is found murdered at the foot of Death's Door, one of the five entrances to Saint Peter's Basilica. Wild Bill Donovan, head of the OSS, wants the killing investigated....

Bill Kelly, a Cape Cod fisherman and former priest, receives a clear revelation that God is calling him to serve the church again. The next day the deadlocked College of Cardinals elects him the first American pope.

"'This document, dear friend, will shatter the Church'...Reading these words in a letter in a dusty archive, Thomas Kelly is skeptical. The papers to which they refer have vanished, but Father Kelly, a Jesuit priest, doubts that anything could ever have had that power--until the Vatican suddenly calls him to Rome to begin a desperate search for that very document. Meanwhile, standing before a council of her people, Livia Pietro receives instructions:...