"New York Times"abestselling author Robin Cook returns with another ripped-from-the-headlines medical thriller, where DNA science, biotechnology, and religion collide. Jackas classmate Shawn Doherty is now a renowned archeologist and biblical scholar at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, whose taste for good wine and generally deteriorating health are taking a toll on his career. He has recently obtained permission for a final dig beneath Saint Peteras, and despite his long-standing grudge against the Catholic Church, begins his researchawhich eventually takes him to Jerusalem and Venice aonly to make a startling discovery with ecclesiastical and medical implications. And when Kevin Murray, now Bishop of the Archdiocese of New York, gets wind of Shawnas findings, heas desperate to keep them from the public. Kevin has strong political ambitions withinthe Church, but his association with Shawn threatens to undermine them. Kevin turns to his old friend Jack to help protect an explosive secretaone with the power to change lives forever.