Ava Curzon has returned from
Baghdad to the British Museum, and is recruited by Britain’s ultra-secretive MI13 intelligence department to assist in recovering the
Turin Shroud, which has been stolen by a
Russian special forces team. As the chase moves to London, she finds herself on the trail of Oleg Durov, a Russian oligarch, who leads an apocalyptic group of castrati known as the
Skoptsy. With the stakes rising, Ava discovers that Durov possesses two of
Rasputin’s personal notebooks, in which the Russian mystic left baffling clues. After a brazen attempt on her life, she infiltrates the headquarters of the mysterious
Order of Malta in
Rome, where the quest becomes infinitely more dangerous. Following up a hunch, she becomes involved with
Mexican gang in London smuggling war-looted antiquities from the Middle East, and finds herself playing a lethal game over an ancient
Aramaic artefact like none she has ever seen before. After re-establishing contact with Uri, a
Mossad assassin, she solves Rasputin’s clues, which lead her to the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre in
Jerusalem, where she finds an ancient manuscript hidden by a medieval
Knight of Saint John. As the net closes in on her, she solves the riddle of the knight’s manuscript, and is propelled towards the chilling climax, where she must confronts Durov and the Skoptsy at an ancient castle in the
south of France. There, she finally comes face to face with the ancient biblical manuscript that has been driving the mystery all along. Finally, in the husk of the ancient
Cathar castle of
Montségur, where the medieval heretics were burned alive, she has to face Durov, and present him from unleashing his plan of devastation in the Middle East. == Principal Characters ==