A Novel of Conscience, Identity, and Holy Vows
He gave everything to God — except the one truth he could never speak.
From international bestseller Glenn Cooper, author of The Library of the Dead and The Last Conclave, comes his most intimate novel yet — a literary Vatican thriller about secrecy, identity, and spiritual burden.
Anthony Budd is a quiet, reform-minded cardinal — young, devout, and untainted by scandal. When deadlock in the papal conclave threatens to fracture the Church, his name emerges as a compromise. He accepts the will of God with humility. But beneath his composure lies a secret he has carried for decades — a truth that could upend everything he believes, and everything the Church demands of him.
As Pope Innocent XIV, Budd must navigate the brutal realities of Vatican politics, the weight of his holy vows, and the quiet threat of blackmail from a voice in the shadows. Someone knows who he is. And they intend to destroy him.
