Vatican - Malachi Martin

Against the heady background of the Vatican's inner sanctums and clandestine meeting places around the world, the tumultuous lives and sometimes bloody deaths of a rich cast of unforgettable characters, both fictional and historical, are played out...

Richard Lansing: the young American Monsignore who finds himself increasingly enmeshed in the deepest Vatican intrigues and learns to wield a power he only slowly comes to understand. 

Guido de la Valle: the shadowy Keeper of the Bargain - the Church's secret path with Mammon - who brings the worldly power of the Vatican to new heights...

Keti Wilson: the beautiful ambitious American who is drawn into the lives of Guido's nephew and Richard Lansing. She marries one and finds she loves the other...

Paulo Lercani: the ruthless financial genius who pits himself against the hounds of hell and the bastions of heaven in his bid to become the economic ruler of the world...

Joachim Lanser: the Jesuit power-broker who influences the most fateful decision in the modern history of the Church - one that may threaten its very existence...

Sweeping relentlessly through five decades from the end of World War 2, Vatican reveals as never before the drama, the intrigue, and the darkest secrets at the centre of the place where limitless power and unyielding faith have warred for nearly two centuries.