April 1945: Europe is in ruins and Berlin is burning. As the Red Army closes in on the last few blocks surrounding the Fuhrerbunker, a famous aviatrix lands her light aircraft in the center of the shattered German capital. Two days later she takes off again. With her is a man called Heinrich Bechmann, SS mass killer and personal bodyguard of the German chancellor Adolf Hitler-and with Bechmann is a file of documents.

Nearly a century later, in the spring of 2020, Pope Francis announces that he intends to open the Vatican Secret Archives to the public. A week later, masked gunmen kill five people at an isolated Jesuit retreat in the mountains of Sicily. And two weeks after that, the body of a celebrated British historian is discovered in a beach house on Long Island. Aiden Blake, ex-Royal Marine and brother of the dead historian, believes there is a mysterious link between these events, stretching across seventy-five years of history.

He's right-and history itself will provide the clues. The trail will lead him and his brother's New York-based researcher, Hannah Harper, across the Atlantic to the hidden bunkers of Berlin, a Gothic castle in the South Tyrol, Rome, Sicily, and deep into the past in a bid to find his brother's killers-and expose a neo-Fascist plot to kill the present Pope and replace him with one more conducive to the party's own political views and ambitions.

About the Author

London-based Paul Bryers is also the author, under the pseudonym Seth Hunter, of the highly acclaimed Nathan Peake Novels: a series of naval adventures set against the canvas of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars. One of Bryers' children's stories, In a Pig's Ear, was named as one of the Guardian's six best novels of the year. He has written and directed many historical dramas for British television, radio, and the theatre.

Book Information
ISBN 9781493067206
Author Paul Bryers Paul Bryers
Format Hardback
Page Count 280
Imprint McBooks Press
Publisher Globe Pequot Press
Weight(grams) 553g
Dimensions(mm) 230mm * 163mm * 27mm