What dread secret is The Vatican protecting at all costs? Which lives will be sacrificed to keep an awful truth buried behind a code of silence?"My name is Monsignor Capelletti," the voice replied. "I'm the chief of staff for the papal nuncio to the United States, Francis Cardinal Kettering. Your name was given to me as someone to be trusted, someone who can help. And I very much need your help." "Why, has your cardinal murdered somebody?" Justin asked with a deliberate lightheartedness meant to convey to Capelletti that his use of dramatics was not necessary."That's exactly what's happened, Mr. Scott," the priest said, his words barely audible. After hearing that utterance from a terrified priest, ex-FBI agent Justin Scott soon finds himself in the fight of his life.

Hired by the Vatican to ferret out the truth - or so it says, Justin uncovers a hair-raising conspiracy involving powerful Vatican prelates and Italian and Russian crime syndicates, all racing against the clock and each other to take possession of the richest prize in Christendom. With time fast running out, Justin's high-stakes quest leads him to the very steps of the Throne of Peter, then back to Washington DC where he confronts a psychopathic murderer in a cat-and-mouse stalking that plays out to its deadly finish on the mean streets of the nation's capital. The Barbarossa Covenant is evocative of such bestseller thrillers as Steve Berry's The Patriot Threat, or Ken Follett's classic Eye of the Needle. Its time-tested, hi-octane formula of blending fiction and fact inside a meticulously crafted plot guarantees hours of enjoyment for genre aficionados everywhere!.