Salonika, Greece: December 1939. In the dead of night, a clandestine order of monks embarks on a desperate mission: to transport a mysterious vault to a hiding place high in the Italian Alps. The sinister cache, concealed for centuries, could rip apart the Christian world. Now, as the Nazi threat marches inexorably closer, men both good and evil will be drawn into a violent and deadly hunt, sparking a relentless struggle that could forever change the world as we know it. Praise for Robert Ludlum and The Gemini Contenders “[Robert Ludlum’s] most ambitious novel . . . Its twist and turns carry the reader on a fast bobsled run. . . . A marvelously unflagging imagination.”—The New York Times “A winner . . . one of those books you intend to put down after just one more chapter . . . suddenly it’s two in the morning and you’ve read the whole thing.”—United Press International “A skyrocket of a book . . . The action never stops for a second.”—The Plain Dealer “Packed full of excitement.”—The Denver Post

Andrew and Adrian Fontine, antagonistic twin sons of Vittorio Fontine-Cristi, search separately for the small Greek monastery vault and its priceless ancient documents, hidden high in the Italian Alps.

Andrew and Adrian Fontine, antagonistic twin sons of Vittorio Fontine-Cristi, search separately for the small Greek monastery vault and its priceless ancient documents, hidden high in the Italian Alps

The Third Reich is in its death struggle... A brilliant international thriller from the No.1 bestselling author

A CENTURY OF SPY FICTION: REFLECTIONS ON THE GENRE brings together Nader Elhefnawy's writings on that subject. From the birth of the spy story in the marriage of detective fiction with the invasion story to the genre's post-Cold War travails, from the forgotten but hugely important adventures of the original "international man of mystery" Duckworth Drew to the age of Jack Ryan, this revised and updated second edition of the book trace the broader history of the field while peering at many a keyhole to see just what has been going on all the while in this often mysterious genre about mystery.