Title:  Th e Malta Exchange

Author:  Steve Berry

The pope is dead.  A conclave to select his replacement is about to begin.  Cardinals are beginning to arrive at the Vatican, but one has fled Rome for Malta in search of a document that dates back to the fourth century and Constantine the Great.

Former Justice Department operative Cotton Malone is at Lake Como, Italy, on the trail of legendary letters between Winston Churchill and Benito Mussolini that disappeared in 1945 and could rewrite history.  But someone else is after the same letters, and when Malone obtains, then loses, them, the ensuing hunt attracts the attention of the legendary Knights of Malt.

The knights have existed for more than nine hundred years, the only warrior-monks to survive into modern times.  Now they are a global humanitarian organization, but within their ranks lurks trouble–the Secreti–an ancient sect of the knights intent on affecting the coming papal conclave.  With the help of Magellan Billet agent Luke Daniels, Malone races the rogue cardinal, the knights the Secreti

, and the clock to find what has been lost for centuries.  The final confrontation culminates behind the walls of the Vatican, where the election of the next pope hangs in the balance.