The Order: A Novel (Gabriel Allon #20) [9780062834843]

Overview

#1 New York Times Bestseller • #1 Wall Street Journal Bestseller

From
Daniel Silva, the internationally acclaimed #1 New York Times bestselling
author, comes a riveting new thriller featuring art restorer and legendary spy Gabriel
Allon.

It was nearly one a.m. by the time
he crawled into bed. Chiara was reading a novel, oblivious to the television,
which was muted. On the screen was a live shot of St. Peter’s Basilica. Gabriel
raised the volume and learned that an old friend had died …

Gabriel
Allon has slipped quietly into Venice for a much-needed holiday with his wife
and two young children. But when Pope Paul VII dies suddenly, Gabriel is
summoned to Rome by the Holy Father’s loyal private secretary, Archbishop Luigi
Donati. A billion Catholic faithful have been told that the pope died of a
heart attack. Donati, however, has two good reasons to suspect his master was
murdered. The Swiss Guard who was standing watch outside the papal apartments the
night of the pope’s death is missing. So, too, is the letter the Holy Father
was writing during the final hours of his life. A letter that was addressed to
Gabriel.

While researching in the Vatican
Secret Archives, I came upon a most remarkable book …

The
book is a long-suppressed gospel that calls into question the accuracy of the New
Testament’s depiction of one of the most portentous events in human history.
For that reason alone, the Order of St. Helena will stop at nothing to keep it
out of Gabriel’s hands. A shadowy Catholic society with ties to the European
far right, the Order is plotting to seize control of the papacy. And it is only
the beginning.

As the
cardinals gather in Rome for the start of the conclave, Gabriel sets out on a
desperate search for proof of the Order’s conspiracy, and for a long-lost
gospel with the power to put an end to two thousand years of murderous hatred.
His quest will take him from the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, to a monastery in
Assisi, to the hidden depths of the Secret Archives, and finally to the Sistine
Chapel, where he will witness an event no outsider has ever before seen—the
sacred passing of the Keys of St. Peter to a newly elected pope.

Swiftly
paced and elegantly rendered, The Order will hold readers spellbound, from its
opening passages to its breathtaking final twist of plot. It is a novel of
friendship and faith in a perilous and uncertain world. And it is still more
proof that Daniel Silva is his generation’s finest writer of suspense and
international intrigue.