If You Like: The Da Vinci Code
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The Third Secret by
Explosive in both its pace and its revelations, The Third Secret is a remarkable international thriller. Bestselling author Steve Berry tackles some of the most controversial ideas of our time in a breakneck journey through the history of the Church and the future of religion. Fatima, Portugal, 1917: The Virgin Mary appears to three peasant children, sharing with them three secrets, two of which are soon revealed to the world. The third secret is sealed away in the Vatican, read only by popes, and not disclosed until the year 2000. When revealed, its quizzical tone and anticlimactic nature leave many faithful wondering if the Church has truly unveiled all of the Virgin Mary’s words–or if a message far more important has been left in the shadows. Vatican City, present day: Papal secretary Father Colin Michener is concerned for the Pope. Night after restless night, Pope Clement XV enters the Vatican’s Riserva, the special archive open only to popes, where the Church’s most clandestine and controversial documents are stored. Though unsure of the details, Michener knows that the Pope’s distress stems from the revelations of Fatima. Equally concerned, but not out of any sense of compassion, is Alberto Cardinal Valendrea, the Vatican’s Secretary of State,. Valendrea desperately covets the papacy, having narrowly lost out to Clement at the last conclave. Now the Pope’s interest in Fatima threatens to uncover a shocking ancient truth that Valendrea has kept to himself for many years. When Pope Clement sends Michener to the Romanian highlands, then to a Bosnian holy site, in search of a priest–possibly one of the last people on Earth who knows Mary’s true message–a perilous set of events unfolds. Michener finds himself embroiled in murder, suspicion, suicide, deceit, and his forbidden passion for a beloved woman. In a desperate search for answers, he travels to Pope Clement’s birthplace in Germany, where he learns that the third secret of Fatima may dictate the very fate of the Church–a fate now lying in Michener’s own hands.
Call Number: BERISBN: 9780345476135Publication Date: 2005-05-17
The Rule of Four by
Princeton. Good Friday, 1999. On the eve of graduation, two students are a hairsbreadth from solving the mysteries of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, a Renaissance text that has baffled scholars for centuries. Famous for its hypnotic power over those who study it, the five-hundred-year-old Hypnerotomachia may finally reveal its secrets - to Tom Sullivan, whose father was obsessed with the book, and Paul Harris, whose future depends on it. As the deadline looms, research has stalled - until an ancient diary surfaces. What Tom and Paul discover inside shocks even them: proof that the location of a hidden crypt has been ciphered within the pages of the obscure Renaissance text." "Armed with this final clue, the two friends delve into the bizarre world of the Hypnerotomachia - a world of forgotten erudition, strange sexual appetites, and terrible violence. But just as they begin to realize the magnitude of their discovery, Princeton's snowy campus is rocked: a longtime student of the book is murdered, shot dead in the hushed halls of the history department.
Call Number: CALISBN: 0385337124Publication Date: 2004-05-11
Foucault's Pendulum by
A superb cerebral entertainment about three editors who cook up a hoax-involving the Templar Knights, Stonehenge, the Cabala, and Brazilian voodoo, among other things-that suddenly becomes all too real. Translated by William Weaver. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book
Call Number: ECOISBN: 9780151327652Publication Date: 1989-11-01
Blood of Victory by
“In 1939, as the armies of Europe mobilized for war, the British secret services undertook operations to impede the exportation of Roumanian oil to Germany. They failed. “Then, in the autumn of 1940, they tried again.” So begins Blood of Victory, a novel rich with suspense, historical insight, and the powerful narrative immediacy we have come to expect from bestselling author Alan Furst. The book takes its title from a speech given by a French senator at a conference on petroleum in 1918: “Oil,” he said, “the blood of the earth, has become, in time of war, the blood of victory.” November 1940. The Russian writer I. A. Serebin arrives in Istanbul by Black Sea freighter. Although he travels on behalf of an émigré organization based in Paris, he is in flight from a dying and corrupt Europe—specifically, from Nazi-occupied France. Serebin finds himself facing his fifth war, but this time he is an exile, a man without a country, and there is no army to join. Still, in the words of Leon Trotsky, “You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.” Serebin is recruited for an operation run by Count Janos Polanyi, a Hungarian master spy now working for the British secret services. The battle to cut Germany’s oil supply rages through the spy haunts of the Balkans; from the Athenée Palace in Bucharest to a whorehouse in Izmir; from an elegant yacht club in Istanbul to the river docks of Belgrade; from a skating pond in St. Moritz to the fogbound banks of the Danube; in sleazy nightclubs and safe houses and nameless hotels; amid the street fighting of a fascist civil war. Blood of Victory is classic Alan Furst, combining remarkable authenticity and atmosphere with the complexity and excitement of an outstanding spy thriller. As Walter Shapiro of Time magazine wrote, “Nothing can be like watching Casablanca for the first time, but Furst comes closer than anyone has in years.”
Call Number: FURISBN: 9780375505744Publication Date: 2002-08-27
Codex by
About to depart on his first vacation in years, Edward Wozny, a hot-shot young investment banker, is sent to help one of his firm's most important and mysterious clients. When asked to uncrate and organize a personal library of rare books, Edward's indignation turns to intrigue as he realizes that there may be a unique medieval codex hidden among the volumes, a treasure kept locked away for many years and for many reasons. As friends draw Edward into a peculiar and addictive computer game,his obsession deepens as he discovers surprising parallels between the game's virtual reality and the mystery of the codex. An accomplished and entertaining thriller, Codex explores the mysterious power of books in the medieval and modern ages.
Call Number: GROISBN: 9780151010660Publication Date: 2004-03-08
Enigma by
"LITERATE AND SAVVY . . . BRIMS WITH WARTIME INTRIGUE." --The Washington Post Book World England 1943. Much of the infamous Nazi Enigma code has been cracked. But Shark, the impenetrable operational cipher used by Nazi U-boats, has masked the Germans' movements, allowing them to destroy a record number of Allied vessels. Feeling that the blood of Allied sailors is on their hands, a top-secret team of British cryptographers works feverishly around the clock to break Shark. And when brilliant mathematician Tom Jericho succeeds, it is the stuff of legend. . . . "A TENSE AND THOUGHTFUL THRILLER." --San Francisco Chronicle Until the unthinkable happens: the Germans have somehow learned that Shark has been cracked. And they've changed the code. . . . "SUSPENSEFUL AND FASCINATING." --The Orlando Sentinel As an Allied convoy crosses the U-boat infested North Atlantic . . . as Jericho's ex-lover Claire disappears amid accusations that she is a Nazi collaborator . . . as Jericho strains his last resources to break Shark again, he cannot escape the ultimate truth: There is a traitor among them. . . . "GRIPPING . . . CAPTIVATING ." --New York Daily News "ELEGANTLY RESEARCHED . . . Readers will find themselves perfectly placed to experience one of Britain's finest hours." --People "SATISFYING . . . Harris does a crackerjack job here, playing his characters' lives off historical events in surprising ways." --Entertainment Weekly "SUSPENSEFUL . . . FIENDISHLY CLEVER." --Detroit Free Press
Call Number: HARISBN: 9780679428879Publication Date: 1995-09-11
The Last Templar by
With rights already sold in heated auctions in twenty-one countries, The Last Templar, Raymond Khourys epic debut novel, is ready to thrill readers on these shores.It has served us well, this myth of Christ. Pope Leo X, 16th CenturyIn a hail of fire and flashing sword, as the burning city of Jerusalem falls from the hands of the West in 1291, The Last Templaropens with a young Templar knight, his mentor, and a handful of others escaping to the sea carrying a mysterious chest entrusted to them by the Orders dying Grand Master. The ship vanishes without a trace.In present day Manhattan, four masked horsemen dressed as Templar Knights emerge from Central Park and ride up the Fifth Avenue steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art during the blacktie opening of a Treasures of the Vatican exhibit. Storming through the crowds, the horsemen brutally attack anyone standing between them and their prize. Attending the gala, archaeologist Tess Chaykin watches in silent terror as the leader of the horsemen hones in on one piece in particular, a strange geared device. He utters a few cryptic Latin words as he takes hold of it with reverence before leading the horsemen out and disappearing into the night.In the aftermath, an FBI investigation is led by anti-terrorist specialist Sean Reilly. Soon, he and Tess are drawn into the dark, hidden history of the crusading Knights, plunging them into a deadly game of cat and mouse with ruthless killers as they race across three continents to recover the lost secret of the Templars.
Call Number: KHOISBN: 9780525949411Publication Date: 2006-01-19
The Historian by
To you, perceptive reader, I bequeath my history....Late one night, exploring her father's library, a young woman finds an ancient book and a cache of yellowing letters. The letters are all addressed to "My dear and unfortunate successor," and they plunge her into a world she never dreamed of-a labyrinth where the secrets of her father's past and her mother's mysterious fate connect to an inconceivable evil hidden in the depths of history. The letters provide links to one of the darkest powers that humanity has ever known-and to a centuries-long quest to find the source of that darkness and wipe it out. It is a quest for the truth about Vlad the Impaler, the medieval ruler whose barbarous reign formed the basis of the legend of Dracula. Generations of historians have risked their reputations, their sanity, and even their lives to learn the truth about Vlad the Impaler and Dracula. Now one young woman must decide whether to take up this quest herself-to follow her father in a hunt that nearly brought him to ruin years ago, when he was a vibrant young scholar and her mother was still alive. What does the legend of Vlad the Impaler have to do with the modern world? Is it possible that the Dracula of myth truly existed-and that he has lived on, century after century, pursuing his own unknowable ends? The answers to these questions cross time and borders, as first the father and then the daughter search for clues, from dusty Ivy League libraries to Istanbul, Budapest, and the depths of Eastern Europe. In city after city, in monasteries and archives, in letters and in secret conversations, the horrible truth emerges about Vlad the Impaler's dark reign-and about a time-defying pact that may have kept his awful work alive down through the ages.Parsing obscure signs and hidden texts, reading codes worked into the fabric of medieval monastic traditions-and evading the unknown adversaries who will go to any lengths to conceal and protect Vlad's ancient powers-one woman comes ever closer to the secret of her own past and a confrontation with the very definition of evil. Elizabeth Kostova's debut novel is an adventure of monumental proportions, a relentless tale that blends fact and fantasy, history and the present, with an assurance that is almost unbearably suspenseful-and utterly unforgettable.
Call Number: KOSISBN: 9780316011778Publication Date: 2005-06-14
The Secret Supper by
The most talked-about international bestseller of the year Tightly paced and atmospheric, The Secret Supper is a dazzling historical thriller with a unique vision of both Leonardo da Vinci's genius and his masterpiece - which you will never look at in the same way again. The clues to Leonardo's greatest puzzle are right before your eyes . . .Simultaneous Publication with Atria's Standard Print edition.
Call Number: LP SIEISBN: 9780786284672Publication Date: 2006-03-01
Labyrinth by
In this extraordinary thriller, rich in the atmospheres of medieval and contemporary France, the lives of two women born centuries apart are linked by a common destiny. July 2005. In the Pyrenees mountains near Carcassonne, Alice, a volunteer at an archaeological dig stumbles into a cave and makes a startling discovery-two crumbling skeletons, strange writings on the walls, and the pattern of a labyrinth; between the skeletons, a stone ring, and a small leather bag. Eight hundred years earlier, on the eve of a brutal crusade to stamp out heresy that will rip apart southern France, Alais is given a ring and a mysterious book for safekeeping by her father as he leaves to fight the crusaders. The book, he says, contains the secret of the true Grail, and the ring, inscribed with a labyrinth, will identify a guardian of the Grail. As crusading armies led by Church potentates and nobles of northern France gather outside the city walls of Carcassonne, it will take great sacrifice to keep the secret of the labyrinth safe. In the present, another woman sees the find as a means to the political power she craves; while a man who has great power will kill to destroy all traces of the discovery and everyone who stands in his way.
Call Number: MOSISBN: 9780399153440Publication Date: 2006-03-07
A Finer End by
"Duncan Kincaid has settled into his life as part-time father to Kit, the twelve-year-old son he only recently discovered. But life has more changes in store: Gemma has pursued a promotion that ends their partnership on the job and places their personal relationship on a new, more tentative footing. So when Ducan's cousin and childhood friend calls from Glastonbury to ask his help on a rather unusual matter, he welcomes the opportunity to get out of London - and to spend a relaxing weekend with Gemma. But relaxation isn't on the agenda." "Jack Montfort, Duncan's cousin, grew up in the shadow of Glastonbury Tor in a town revered as the site of an ancient abbey, the mythical burial place of King Arthur and Guinevere, and according to New Age followers, a source of strong druid power. Montfort has not much more than a passing interest in the history of the area - until he comes across an extraordinary chronicle almost a thousand years old. The unsettling way this record comes into his hands brings Montfort into contact with a disparate group of townspeople: Nick Carlisle, a student of the myths surrounding Glastonbury's past; Simon Fitzstephen, a Church scholar whose knowledge of the Old Religion and its ceremonies is just as deep; Gamet Todd, a strange and intense woman with a jealous attachment to the young and very pregnant Faith Wills, and Winifred Catesby, the Anglican priest whose love for Jack has nearly healed his grief at the loss of his wife and daughter." "Something terrible and bloody shattered the Abbey's peace long ago according to Montfort's newly discovered history. And that knowledge will spark a violence that reaches into the present. When a member of Jack's circle is attacked and left for dead, he appeals to Duncan to find the truth the local police cannot see. None of them envisions the peril that lies ahead, or that there is more at stake than either Duncan or Gemma dreamed possible."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Call Number: MYS CROISBN: 9780553109566Publication Date: 2001-05-01
The Thief of Venice by
Never has Jane Langton been more enchanting or thrilling than in her fourteenth Homer Kelly mystery, The Thief of Venice. In a setting splendidly evoked by her line drawings, characters from the wryly innocent to the brilliantly sinister play out a serpentine story of divine mystery, immortal art, and mortal remains.The seductive city of Venice has lured Homer Kelly to a rare books conference and his wife, Mary, into the streets of the city, armed with a camera. While Homer basks in the Biblioteca Marciana, Mary's snapshots reveal more than she intended. In one of her simple tourist images of San Marco, gondolas on jade-green canals, the Rialto Bridge, the labyrinthine streets, the house of Tintoretto, and the Ghetto Vecchio, appears the figure of a missing woman. Thus begins a case that leads to a bona fide miracle and the discovery of a treasure painfully recalling the fate of Venetian Jews in World War II, culminating in an elaborate chase across a maze of ancient bridges as the acqua alta water rises up out of the canals, threatening all Venetians!
Call Number: MYS LANISBN: 9780670882106Publication Date: 1999-06-01
The Grail Conspiracy by
Winner of Foreword Magazine's Book of the Year Award for Best Mystery On assignment in the Middle East, television journalist Cotten Stone stumbles upon an archeological dig that uncovers the world's most-sought-after religious relic: the Holy Grail. With his last dying breath, Dr. Gabriel Archer gives it to Cotten, uttering "You are the only one" in a language she's heard from only one other person--her deceased twin sister. What begins as a hot news story for the ambitious young reporter soon turns into a nightmare when the Holy Grail is stolen and strange "accidents" befall her dearest friends. Running for her life, she turns to John Tyler, a priest with firsthand knowledge of religious artifacts, for help. An anonymous source leads them to New Orleans during Mardi Gras, where an abominable experiment is underway that--unless destroyed--promises to unleash an ancient evil upon the Earth. Praise: "This page-turner is bound to show up on Da Vinci Coderead-alike lists at public libraries across the country."--Library Journal "Religion and science battle through a spectacular hold-your-breath conclusion when the Holy Grail supplies the blood of Christ to the forces of evil."--M. Diane Vogt, author of Six Bills and other Willa Carson Novels "The Grail Conspiracyis an auspicious debut from a dig in the deserts of Iraq to the inner sanctum of the Knights Templar, this multi-layered tale is a gripping blend of modern science, ancient ritual, and page-turning suspense. Next time you face the dark side, you'll want Cotten Stone, this gutsy, intelligent and engaging heroine at your side."--Christine Kling, author of Cross Currentand Surface Tension "If you liked The Da Vinci Code, run out and buy this book! Modern technology mixed with mythology make for a fast read. This globe-trotting adventure story with biblical undertones will keep you hooked!"--Nancy J. Cohen, author of the Bad Hair Day mystery series
Call Number: MYS SHOISBN: 9780738707877Publication Date: 2005-09-08
The Eight by
Computer expert Cat Velis is heading for a job to Algeria. Before she goes, a mysterious fortune teller warns her of danger, and an antique dealer asks her to search for pieces to a valuable chess set that has been missing for years...In the South of France in 1790 two convent girls hide valuable pieces of a chess set all over the world, because the game that can be played with them is too powerful....
Call Number: NEVISBN: 9780345351371Publication Date: 1988-12-27
Map of Bones by
During a crowded service at a cathedral in Germany, armed intruders in monks' robes unleash a nightmare of blood and destruction. But the killers have not come for gold; they seek a more valuable prize: the bones of the Magi who once paid homage to a newborn savior . . . a treasure that could reshape the world. With the Vatican in turmoil, SIGMA Force leaps into action. An elite team of scientific and Special Forces operatives under the command of Grayson Pierce and accompanied by Lieutenant Rachel Verona of Rome's carabinieri, they are pursuing a deadly mystery that weaves through sites of the Seven Wonders of the World and ends at the doorstep of an ancient, mystical, and terrifying secret order. For there are those with dark plans for the stolen sacred remains that will alter the future of humankind . . . when science and religion unite to unleash a horror not seen since the beginning of time.
Call Number: ROLISBN: 9780060765248Publication Date: 2006-04-25
RCLS Titles
The Last Cato by
" A masterful blending of Christian scholarship and pure thrilling adventure, comes a novel about the race to find the secret location of the Vera Cruz, the True Cross on which Christ was crucified, and the ancient brotherhood sworn to protect it from Infidel hands. " Holy relics are disappearing from sacred spots around the world -- and the Vatican will do whatever it takes to stop thieves from their incredible goal; to steal what is left of the scattered and miniscule splinters of the True Cross the Catholic Church has in its possession. Dr. Ottavia Salina, a brilliant and highly esteemed paleographer toils away at her classified workspace deep within Vatican City, analyzing and restoring some of the world's most valuable religious artifacts, until she is called upon by the highest levels of the Roman Catholic Church and charged with a mysterious new assignment: she is to decipher the strange tattoos -- seven Greek letters and seven crosses -- found on an Ethiopian man's corpse. Found next to what was left of the body were three pieces of wood -- suspected by Vatican scholars to be fragments of the Vera Cruz, actual splinters from the Cross on which Christ was crucified. With the help of the captain of the Pope's infamous and tradition-rich Swiss Guard and a renown archaeologist from the ancient city of Alexandria, Dr. Salina is able to uncover a shocking truth: for hundreds of years, a secret brotherhood which refers to itself as the Staurofilakes, and headed by a mysterious figure called Cato, has been hiding the True Cross and means to gather all remainingfragments for themselves. The markings on the Ethiopian corpse, they soon discover, correspond with each of the Seven Deadly Sins, and are part of the complicated, possibly deadly, initiation ritual used to deem candidates worthy of membership into the brotherhood. Having discovered a connection between the brotherhood and Dante's Divine Comedy, they use clues within the text as a roadmap which leads them on a race across the globe to Christianity's ancient capitals. As they travel from Rome to Antioch, with several harrowing stops in between, they must brave a series of unimaginable challenges that put their faith -- and their very lives -- to the ultimate test. If they are to uncover the secrets of the ancient brotherhood, and discover the location of the True Cross, they must do so at their own peril.
ISBN: 9780060828578Publication Date: 2006-04-04
The Third Translation by
An ancient mystery, a hidden language, and the secrets of a bizarre Egyptian sect collide in modern-day London in this ingenious novel of seduction, conspiracy, and betrayal alter Rothschild is an American Egyptologist living in London and charged by the British Museum with the task of unlocking the ancient riddle of the Stela of Paser, one of the last remaining real-life hieroglyphic mysteries in existence today. The secrets of the stela-a centuries-old funerary stone-have evaded scholars for thousands of years due to the stela's cryptic reference to a third translation:
ISBN: 9781401301811Publication Date: 2005-04-06
The Genesis Code by
In a remote Italian town, a renowned scientist enters the confessional and pours out the secret that has consumed his life--a story so alarming that the priest who hears it refuses to absolve the scientist and rushes to alert the Vatican.... In a suburb of Washington, D.C., Joe Lassiter learns that his only sister and her young son have been killed in a fire that destroyed their house. The police believe it was arson; soon they will discover that mother and child were brutally murdered before the blaze was set.... As the authorities abandon the case, Lassiter picks up the trail. Others may die if he cannot uncover the elusive connection that links the innocent victims together.... Envisioning a world where sacred belief and modern science collide with shocking repercussions, John F. Case gives us an electrifying reading experience with all the hallmarks of bestselling fiction: lightning-fast pacing, white-knuckle suspense, and a secret that readers will be so eager to discover they will not put down THE UNBEGOTTEN until the last satisfying page is turned.
ISBN: 9780449911013Publication Date: 1997-04-15
The Black Angel by
To those who have been forsaken, hell has no geography. The Black Angelbegins with the disappearance of a young prostitute from one of New York City's seamiest neighborhoods. Like so many tormented souls before her, the girl's mother is inevitably drawn to Charlie Parker's doorstep desperate for redemption and revenge. Despite the danger that his chosen profession imposes on his wife and newborn daughter, Parker knows that the woman and her troubles cannot be ignored. As always, he is driven as much by the evil that simmers in the hidden honeycomb world as he is by the ties of friendship and blood.As Parker gets closer to the girl's captors, he discovers that her disappearance is linked to a church of bones in Eastern Europe, to the slaughter at a French monastery in 1944, and to the myth of an object known as the Black Angel -- an object considered by evil men to be beyond priceless. But the Black Angel is not a legend. It is real. It lives. It dreams. And the mystery of its existence may contain the secret of Parker's own origins.
ISBN: 9780743487863Publication Date: 2005-05-31
Day of Confession by
A heart-thumping whirlwind of action, suspense & murder that reaches deep into the highest levels of Vatican power & uncovers a demonic scheme to massacre hundreds of thousands of Chinese in an attempt to establish a new Holy Roman Empire on the Chinese mainland in the twenty-first century.
ISBN: 9780316287555Publication Date: 1998-09-09
The Footprints of God by
From the acclaimedNew York Timesbestselling author comes a cutting-edge new thriller rich with imagination and vision.In the heart of North Carolina's Research Triangle stands a corporate laboratory much like the others nearby. But behind its walls, America's top scientists work around the clock to attain the holy grail of the twenty-first century -- a supercomputer that surpasses the power of the human mind.Appointed by the president as ethicist to Project Trinity, Dr. David Tennant finds himself in a pressure cooker of groundbreaking science and colossal ambition. When his friend and fellow scientist is murdered, David discovers that the genius who runs Project Trinity was responsible and that his own life is in danger. Unable to reach the president, and afraid to trust his colleagues, David turns to Rachel Weiss, the psychiatrist probing the nightmares that have plagued him during his work at Trinity. Rachel is skeptical of David's fears, but when an assassin strikes, the two doctors must flee for their lives.Pursued across the globe by ruthless National Security Agency operatives, David and Rachel struggle to piece together the truth behind Project Trinity and the enormous power it could unleash upon the world. As constant danger deepens their intimacy, Rachel realizes the key to Trinity lies buried in David's disturbed mind. But Trinity's clock is ticking...Mankind is being held hostage by a machine that cannot be destroyed. Its only hope -- a terrifying chess game between David and the Trinity computer, with the cities of the world as pawns. But what are the rules? How human is the machine? Can one man and woman change the course of history? Man's future hangs in the balance, and the price of failure is extinction.Considered one of the most insightful and ingenious of the new generation of bestselling authors, Greg Iles has written a thriller that maps the fascinating territory where science and spirit clash in a battle for the future of humanity. Stunning in its scope,The Footprints of Godis a brilliant realization of its author's talent.
ISBN: 9780743234696Publication Date: 2003-08-12
Untitled by
The perfume of old books and the smell of danger... Publisher Alex Plumtree is in for the most astounding week of his life. First he comes into possession of a rare, centuries-old book, rumored destroyed on orders of King Edward IV. Then he receives an undreamed-of honor: an invitation to join a select society of book collectors...who are also some of the most powerful men and women in England. But Alex's triumph quickly turns sour. The book vanishes from Alex's office. His initiation weekend with the Dibdin Club is rife with bizarre behavior, appalling accidents--and a death that sends Alex reeling. He quickly begins to suspect that his valuable find is even more than it seemed on first glance. For hidden in its pages is a shocking secret that could change the history of books forever...as well as the face of the modern world. And there are people--and foreign powers--who would do anything to keep this secret from coming to light. All Alex has to do is figure out what that secret is. If he can stay alive long enough.
ISBN: 9780553577174Publication Date: 1999-11-02
Ex-Libris by
The second novel, by the author of Brunelleschi's Dome, and Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling is an elaborate historical mystery.Responding to a cryptic summons to a remote country house, London bookseller Isaac Inchbold finds himself responsible for restoring a magnificent library pillaged during the English Civil War, and in the process slipping from the surface of 1660s London into an underworld of spies and smugglers, ciphers and forgeries.As he assembles the fragments of a complex historical mystery, Inchbold learns how Sir Ambrose Plessington, founder of the library, escaped from Bohemia on the eve of the Thirty Years War with plunder from the Imperial Library. Inchbold's hunt for one of these stolen volumes -- a lost Hermetic text -- soon casts him into an elaborate intrigue. His fortunes hang on the discovery of the missing manuscript but his search reveals that the elusive volume is not what it seems and that he has been made an unwitting player in a treacherous game.
ISBN: 9780802733573Publication Date: 2001-01-01
The Last Day by
"The final week of 1999 draws to a close. Billions prepare for the inevitable letdown. Billions more hold their breath. Will the wild fantasies of New Age zealots be realized and the world we know end? Will the dawn of a new era be marked by profound occurrences? Or will it be just another New Year's Eve turning into one more New Year's Day?" "Suddenly and terrifyingly, everyone's question is answered. On Christmas Eve, fiery destruction rains down on a secret scientific installation in the Negev desert. Then, at midnight on New Year's Eve, a beautiful young woman appears, displaying a strange and awesome gift."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
ISBN: 9780446522854Publication Date: 1997-11-01
The Brotherhood of the Holy Shroud by
The Brotherhood of the Holy Shroudis the explosive international bestseller that mixes fact and fiction to tell the riveting story of one of the world’s most controversial relics—the Holy Shroud of Turin—and the desperate race to save it from those who will stop at nothing to possess its legendary power.... A fire at the Turin cathedral and the discovery of a mutilated corpse are the latest in a disturbing series of events surrounding the mysterious cloth millions believe to be the authentic burial shroud of Jesus Christ. Those who dare to investigate will be caught in the cross fire of an ancient conflict forged by mortal sacrifice, assassination, and secret societies tied to the shadowy Knights Templar. Spanning centuries and continents, from the storm-rent skies over Calvary, through the intrigue and treachery of Byzantium and the Crusades, to the modern-day citadels of Istanbul, New York, London, Paris, and Rome,The Brotherhood of the Holy Shroudraces to a chilling climax in the labyrinths beneath Turin, where astounding truths will be exposed: about the history of a faith, the passions of man, and proof of the most powerful miracle of all….
ISBN: 9780385339629Publication Date: 2006-12-26
The Unburied by
A riveting historical murder-mystery by the bestselling author of The Quincunx. There are three separate tales interwoven in this novel-three tales that could be called ghost stories, for their mysteries can never be resolved, the victims and the perpetrators never laid to rest. Dr. Courtine, an unworldly academic, is invited to spend the days before Christmas with an old friend. Twenty years have passed since Courtine and Austin last met, and the invitation to Austin's home in the cathedral close of Thurchester is a welcome one. When Courtine arrives, Austin tells him a tale of deadly rivalry and murder two centuries old. The mystery captures Courtine's donnish imagination, as it is intended to do. Courtine also plans to pursue his research into another unresolved and older mystery in the labyrinthine cathedral library. If he can track down an elusive eleventh-century manuscript, he hopes to dispose of a deadly rival of his own. Doubly distracted, Courtine becomes unwittingly enmeshed in the sequence of terrible events that follows his arrival, and he becomes witness to a murder that seems never to have been committed.
ISBN: 9780374280352Publication Date: 1999-11-24
The Dante Club by
A New York Times Bestseller Words can bleed. In 1865 Boston, the literary geniuses of the Dante Club—poets and Harvard professors Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, and James Russell Lowell, along with publisher J. T. Fields—are finishing America’s first translation of The Divine Comedy and preparing to unveil Dante’s remarkable visions to the New World. The powerful Boston Brahmins at Harvard College are fighting to keep Dante in obscurity, believing that the infiltration of foreign superstitions into American minds will prove as corrupting as the immigrants arriving at Boston Harbor. The members of the Dante Club fight to keep a sacred literary cause alive, but their plans fall apart when a series of murders erupts through Boston and Cambridge. Only this small group of scholars realizes that the gruesome killings are modeled on the descriptions of Hell’s punishments from Dante’s Inferno. With the lives of the Boston elite and Dante’s literary future in America at stake, the Dante Club members must find the killer before the authorities discover their secret. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes and an outcast police officer named Nicholas Rey, the first black member of the Boston police department, must place their careers on the line to end the terror. Together, they discover that the source of the murders lies closer to home than they ever could have imagined. The Dante Club is a magnificent blend of fact and fiction, a brilliantly realized paean to Dante’s continued grip on our imagination, and a captivating thriller that will surprise readers from beginning to end.
ISBN: 9780375505294Publication Date: 2003-02-04
The Da Vinci Legacy by
The Lost Mysteries of Leonardo The Da Vinci Codex is a priceless collection of Leonardo's original work-- or is it? When Da Vinci scholar Vance Erikson discovers that several of the Codex's pages are forgeries, the search is on for the genuine documents, which may hold startling secrets and revelations. But Erikson is not the only one seeking the missing pages. He soon finds himself the target of a murderous conspiracy that dates back to the dawn of Christianity itself. For the Da Vinci Codex is more than just a precious document. It is also the key to a long-lost discovery of frightening importance. Now, not only Erikson's life but the future itself is at stake. Ultimate power is the prize for whomever seizes ... The Da Vinci Legacy First published in 1983,The Da Vinci Legacy is an engrossing international thriller.
ISBN: 9780765349675Publication Date: 2004-01-05
The Club Dumas by
Lucas Corso's search for the original copy of a book of the occult takes him from Madrid to Paris and into a secret society of antiquarians.
ISBN: 9780151001828Publication Date: 1996-01-01
The Book of Q by
In his national bestsellerThe Overseer, Jonathan Rabb demonstrated his imaginative power and keen understanding of history with a superb thriller that dazzled critics and fans alike.The Book of Qnow brings his gifts to full, stunning fruition. Asia Minor, sixth century: After several centuries of conflict with the early Christian church, the Manichaeans, a heretical sect, vanish from the historical record. Bosnia, 1992: Ian Pearse, a young American relief worker destined for the priesthood, has his faith tested by the horrors of war, but is jolted from his despair by a passionate affair with a Croatian woman named Petra. Rome, present day: Father Pearse, now a researcher at the Vatican Library, comes into possession of an ancient scroll after the mysterious death of one Vatican priest and the disappearance of another. His scholar's curiosity aroused, he has the document translated by an old friend in Rome. He is stunned to learn that the scroll contains ingeniously coded letters and the text of the "Perfect Light," a Manichaean prayer that has never been found in its written form. In the early days of the Christian church the Manichaeans had been an overly zealous, highly organized secret society, scorned by the church and seemingly driven out of existence. But these newly discovered documents indicate an earth-shattering alternate history, a long-dormant, highly evolved conspiracy carefully nurtured for centuries, and an even more important scroll hinted at in the letters that will facilitate "the great awakening." When the pope dies of a sudden illness, Pearse is roughed up by Vatican security, who want the scroll, and when the woman who translated the prayer for him is kidnapped, he realizes that "the great awakening" is not an academic concept but something very real and dangerous. With his friend's life at stake, Pearse must find the document that holds the key to this Manichaean conspiracy. Racing from the Vatican to Greece and back to Bosnia, Pearse has to decipher the cryptograms and codes that have been passed down for centuries from one Manichaean sect to another in the documents he finds. He is also reunited with Petra, the passionate, determined Croatian woman who has lingered in his mind since their time together in Bosnia years earlier. Together they must face a heresy that has been vigilantly guarded and cared for throughout the centuries until the time is right to unleash it on the world. And the time is now. . . .
ISBN: 9780609604830Publication Date: 2001-05-08
The Medici Dagger by
On the heels of his bestselling memoir First Person Plural, West turns out a top-flight action novel that centers on a man's quest for the puzzle of a missing page taken from the journals of Leonardo DaVinci.
ISBN: 9780743420358Publication Date: 2001-08-28
Series to Try
Steve Berry's Cotton Malone series beginning with: The Templar Legacy
Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt series beginning with: The Mediterranean Caper
Iain Pears's Jonathan Argyll series beginning with: The Raphael Affair
Daniel Silva's Gabriell Allon series beginning with: The Kill Artist
The rest of Dan Brown's Robert Langdon series which began with: Angels & Demons
Authors to Try
Sources
Red Wing Public Library If you like The Da Vinci Code
If you like The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
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