The Order

Gabriel Allon, the celebrated spy and art restorer, has slipped away to Venice for a long-overdue holiday with his wife and their two young children. The break ends when Pope Paul VII dies suddenly and Gabriel is called to Rome by the pontiff's private secretary, Archbishop Luigi Donati.

The world has been told the pope died of a heart attack. Donati has two strong reasons to doubt that. The Swiss Guard who stood watch on the night of the death has vanished, and so has the letter the pope was writing in his final hours, a letter addressed to Gabriel himself.

The trail leads to a remarkable book kept in the Vatican Secret Archives. It is a long-suppressed gospel that challenges the New Testament's account of one of history's most momentous events. The Order of St. Helena, a shadowy Catholic society with ties to the European far right, will do anything to keep it from Gabriel. The Order is also plotting to take control of the papacy, and that is only the start of what it intends.