The Vatican S Vault

Conspiracy, intrigue, deceit, and murder in the holiest of sanctuaries result from man's ultimate fall – thou shall not covet. THE VATICAN’S VAULT is based on religious and historical events that portray the fierce enmity within the Catholic Church emanating from the challenge of modernity versus tradition. The novel traces an early nineteenth-century secret Italian document, The Permanent Instruction of the Alta Vendita, that maps out a generational blueprint to overthrow the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. The story takes place during the final phase of this conspiracy at a time when the Church is most vulnerable following the deadly sins of child molestation, the redefining of family and marriage, and the attempt to overthrow theological rigidity and conservatism. New York Medical Examiner and detective, Dr. Jeffrey Moss, fresh from solving The Mystery of the Milton Manuscript (Urim, 2014), leads the investigation of a young priest murdered at 452 Madison Avenue, the official residence of the Archbishop of New York. At autopsy, the examination reveals three gold pieces ingeniously hidden, two, of which, were designed for Pope Clement VII by Benvenuto Cellini, the great Italian Renaissance artist, and the third, a diadem originating from the earliest days of the Israelites in Egypt. Together with the brilliant archeologist, Daniella Teller, the duo delve into ancient biblical texts, Jewish and Christian history, the deepest secrets of the Masonic Brotherhood, and the internal strife within today’s Vatican to pursue the murderer. The plot turns to terror, including the attempted murder of the Pope himself, as Jeff and Daniella probe the secrets of The Vatican’s Vault that uncovers a conspiracy to destroy the Church and its Papacy.

New York Times Bestseller: A “deeply researched” exposé of the money and the clerics-turned-financiers at the heart of the Vatican (Chicago Tribune). From a master chronicler of legal and financial misconduct, a magnificent investigation nine years in the making, God’s Bankers traces the political intrigue of the Catholic Church in “a meticulous work that cracks wide open the Vatican’s legendary, enabling secrecy” (Kirkus Reviews). Decidedly not about faith, belief in God, or religious doctrine, this book is about the church’s accumulation of wealth and its byzantine financial entanglements across the world. Telling the story through two hundred years of prelates, bishops, cardinals, and the popes who oversee it all, Gerald Posner uncovers an eyebrow-raising account of money and power in one of the world’s most influential organizations. God’s Bankers is a revelatory and astounding saga marked by poisoned business titans, murdered prosecutors, and mysterious deaths written off as suicides; a carnival of characters from popes and cardinals to financiers and mobsters to kings and prime ministers; and a set of moral and political circumstances that not only clarify the church’s aims and ambitions, but reflect the larger tensions of more recent history. Posner also assesses Pope Francis’s potential to overcome the resistance to change in the Vatican’s Machiavellian inner court and rein in the excesses of its seemingly uncontrollable financial quagmire. “As exciting as a mystery thriller” (Providence Journal), this book reveals with extraordinary precision how the Vatican has evolved from a foundation of faith to a corporation of extreme wealth and power. “Reads like a sprawling novel, full of complex characters and surprising twists. . . . Readers interested in issues involving religion and international finance will find Posner’s work a compelling read.” —Library Journal “An extraordinarily intricate tale of intrigue, corruption and organized criminality. . . . Posner’s gifts as a reporter and storyteller are most vividly displayed in a series of lurid chapters on the American archbishop Paul Marcinkus, the arch-Machiavellian who ran the Vatican Bank from 1971-1989.” —The New York Times Book Review