International Bestseller: "Meticulously documented . . . Frattini gives us an exclusive look at the hidden face of the papacy—revelations that send a chill up the spine." — Le MondeFor five centuries, the Vatican—the oldest organization in the world, maker of kings and shaper of history—has used a secret spy service, called the Holy Alliance, or later, the Entity, to carry out its will. Forty popes have relied on it to carry out their policies. They have pl...

Divided into themed sections, linked together with a chronology of the most important events in the life of the Vatican, Secrets of the Vatican includes:THE HISTORY OF THE VATICANThe rise of the Catholic church, from its inauspicious beginnings as a persecuted cult in Rome to its establishment as the world's largest organized religionHOUSES OF THE HOLYA look at the vast wealth of art, sculpture and literature collected in the Vatican Museums and some of the sc...

**What The Vatican Doesn't Want You To Know:The lies. The conspiracies. The cover-ups. The truth.**Deep behind the walls of the world's holiest site is a dense network of lies, corruption, and conspiracies fueling the Vatican's vast and unchecked influence on world events. From the Holy Orders that defied the commandment "Thou Shalt Not Kill" to the scandals splashed across international headlines, the Vatican is no longer shrouded in mystery, legend, and secrecy.

From the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning history The Dead Hand comes the riveting story of a spy who cracked open the Soviet military research establishment and a penetrating portrait of the CIA’s Moscow station, an outpost of daring espionage in the last years of the Cold WarWhile driving out of the American embassy in Moscow on the evening of February 16, 1978, the chief of the CIA’s Moscow station heard a knock on his car window. A man on the curb ...

A fascinating and enlightening look at the world’s oldest and most mysterious institution, written by an American journalist with unparalleled knowledge about the Vatican's past and present.The sexual abuse scandals that shook American and British Catholicism in 2002 brought to light a long-standing cultural gap between the English-speaking Catholic world and the Vatican. In Rome, the crisis was often seen as an attack on the Church mounted by money-hungry lawyers, a hostile press,...

The Fifth-Century Political Battles That Forever Changed the ChurchIn this fascinating account of the surprisingly violent fifth-century church, PhilipJenkins describes how political maneuvers by a handful of powerful charactersshaped Christian doctrine. Were it not for these battles, today's church could beteaching something very different about the nature of Jesus, and the papacy as weknow it would never have come into existence. Jesus Wars reveals the profoundimplicatio...

Presents conclusive evidence that ancient Egypt was originally the remnant of an earlier, highly sophisticated civilization• Supports earlier speculations based on myth and esoteric sources with scientific proof from the fields of genetics, engineering, and geology• Provides further proof of the connection between the Mayans and ancient Egyptians• Links the mystery of Cro-Magnon man to the rise and fall of this ancient civilizationIn the late nineteenth cent...

From the author of New York Times bestseller The Tourist...It's August, 1948, three years after the Russians "liberated" the nation from German Occupation. But the Red Army still patrols the capital's rubble-strewn streets, and the ideals of the Revolution are but memories. Twenty-two-year-old Detective Emil Brod finally gets his chance to serve his country, investigating murder for the People's Militia.The first victim is a state songwriter, but the facts...

A thrilling literary mystery costarring Jane Austen from the New York Times–bestselling author of The Bookman’s Tale.Book lover and Austen enthusiast Sophie Collingwood has recently taken a job at an antiquarian bookshop in London when two different customers request a copy of the same obscure book: the second edition of A Little Book of Allegories by Richard Mansfield. Their queries draw Sophie into a mystery that will cast doubt on the ...

The wickedly candid New York Times bestesller that Ava Gardner dared not publish during her lifetime—“the heartbreaking memoir of the ultimate heartbreaker” (Philadelphia Inquirer).Ava Gardner was one of Hollywood’s biggest and brightest stars during the 1940s and 1950s, an Oscar Award–nominated leading lady who costarred with Clark Gable, Burt Lancaster, and Humphrey Bogart, among others. But this riveting account of her storied life, including h...

In the secret world of spies and covert operations, no other intelligence service continues to be as surrounded by myth and mystery as the Mossad. Gordon Thomas reveals that all too often the truth exceeds all the fantasies about the Mossad. Revised and updated for 2015, this new edition includes:- Mossad's secret meeting in 2013 with Saudi Arabia's intelligence chief to plan for Israel to use Saudi to attack Iran should the Geneva discussion fail to be honored by Iran.- The ...

Charles I or Charlemagne united most of Western Europe during the Middle Ages and laid the foundations for modern France and Germany. He was the first recognized Roman emperor in the West since the collapse of the Roman Empire three centuries earlier and ruled absolutely over a vast domain for thirteen years.Einhard’s biography of the Carolingian Empire’s founder The Life of Charlemagne: Vita Karoli Magni is one of the most famous pieces of literature on the early Middle Ages. It i...