The Assassini

It is 1982. In the Vatican, priestly vultures gather around the dying Pope, whispering the names of possible successors. In a forgotten monastery on Ireland's gale-swept coast, a dangerous document is hidden, waiting to be claimed. And in a family chapel in Princeton, New Jersey, a nun is murdered at her prayers. Sister Valentine was an outspoken activist, a thorn in the Church's side. When her brother, lawyer Ben Driskill, realizes the Church will never investigate her death, he sets out to find the murderer himself--and uncovers an explosive secret.The Assassini. An age-old brotherhood of killers. Once they were hired by princes of the Church to protect it in dangerous times. But whose orders do they now obey?
The Assassini marks the triumphant retum of a master at the peak of his powers--the first novel in more than a decade from the acclaimed author of The Wind Chill Factor.

Thomas Gifford was the New York Times bestselling author of The Assassini, Praetorian, The Wind Chill Factor, and The First Sacrifice. The Wind Chill Factor won Putnam's prize for best first novel. Gifford also wrote under the names Thomas Maxwell and Dana Clarins. He was a graduate of Harvard University. Gifford died in his birthplace of Dubuque, Iowa, in 2000.