Shattered by the breakdown of yet another romance, Jana Hayes becomes a recluse in her tiny Venice apartment and buries herself in her work as an expert art conservator … until an ancient religious icon brings Roman Catholic priest Rob Anderson into her life.

The secret they discover hidden in the mysterious artefact turns out to be not only devastating, but deadly. And it has the star-crossed couple running for their lives across Europe and the Middle East, pursued by three ruthless opposing factions, each for its own reason determined to torture and kill to lay hands on the world-shaking evidence uncovered.

While Rob struggles with his priestly vows and Jana with an overbearing billionaire mother who holds the purse strings to an outrageous ransom demand, they discover, with the help of an ageing genius symbologist, more and more damning revelations about one of the New Testament's most sacred gospel writers – and as the evidence mounts, the stakes rise and the blood flows.

An international thriller and a love story … a fast-moving narrative that takes us to the boundaries between mystery and knowledge, between science and religion, and between the sometimes savagely physical and emotional meaning.

Dr Dennis Haskell. Professor of English and Cultural Studies.