The Fifth Gospel: A Novel

The #1 Indie Next Pick and instant, long-running New York Times bestseller from Ian Caldwell, coauthor of the international sensation The Rule of Four: The Fifth Gospel is a masterful intellectual thriller that will change the way you look at organized religion, humanity, and perhaps yourself (David Baldacci).

Acclaimed by critics as a smart, suspenseful thriller (People) that kicks off at ninety miles per hour and doesn t slow down (Associated Press), Ian Caldwell s The Fifth Gospel was also a significant commercial success that spent eight weeks on the New York Times bestseller list in hardcover and was selected as a #1 Indie Next Pick by America s independent booksellers.

In 2004, as Pope John Paul II s reign enters its twilight, a mysterious exhibit is under construction at the Vatican Museums. A week before it is scheduled to open, its curator is murdered at a clandestine meeting on the outskirts of Rome. The same night, a violent break-in rocks the home of the curator s research partner, Father Alex Andreou. When the papal police fail to identify a suspect in either crime, Father Alex undertakes his own investigation. To find the killer he must reconstruct the dead curator s secret: what the four Christian gospels and a little-known, true-to-life fifth gospel known as the Diatessaron reveal about the Church s most controversial holy relic. But just as he begins to understand the truth about his friend s death, Father Alex finds himself hunted down by someone with vested stakes in the exhibit someone he must outwit to survive.

At once a riveting intellectual thriller, a feast of biblical history and scholarship, and a moving family drama, The Fifth Gospel is spectacular deliciously labyrinthine this superb Rubik s Cube of a novel is the best of its kind (The Providence Journal).