Set in the latter half of the fabulous 1940s, Pope’s Last Case and Other Stories details the adventures of tough, hardboiled, ex-Private Eye Vince Pope and his lovely, rich, socialite wife, Laura. Vince, a veteran of WW II, has hung up his PI shingle in favor of a life of leisure, but old pals and new troubles keep interfering. Written as an homage to Dashiell Hammett’s The Thin Man, this collection of short stories deftly captures the mood and optimism of the country after the Second World War when men were men and the ladies were gorgeous. Join Vince and Laura as they confront gangsters, crimes of passion, crooked politicians, and even a serial killer in this thrill-packed collection of stories that also has the continuity of a novel. Stories included in this collection: Whodunit? A Girl’s Best Friend Between Two Worlds Lost Weekend No Promises Bitter Almonds Knockouts Pope’s Last Case

"Has drawn comparisons with The Shoes of the Fisherman and The DaVinci Code." —Connecticut Post In the tradition of the classic bestseller The Shoes of the Fisherman, this evocative and moving novel takes you deep inside the inner world of the Vatican and the American branch of the Holy See to dramatize the great moral issues dividing the Church. The passing of humble and beloved Pope Gregory XVIII brings the Lords of the Church to the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome to meet in its secret recesses and elect a new pope. They find they must choose between a caring, but guilt-ridden, American cardinal (the very same young priest who made a heart-rending confession so many years ago) who would bring reforms to the Church, or a cardinal whose soul belongs to the Inquisition. At stake—the future of the Church itself.

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, and liberal activists who used it as a way to turn attention on such concerns as celibacy, women’s ordination, and lay empowerment. When the Vatican struck down the U.S. bishops’ draft for handling allegations of sexual abuse, many saw it as an attempt to curb an independent American Catholic church. Yet, as time passed, it became clear that the Vatican’s well-founded concerns about due process were shared by most liberal U.S. bishops and canon lawyers. ALL THE POPE’S MEN is a lucid, in-depth guide to the sometimes puzzling, often incomprehensible inner workings of the Vatican. It reveals how decisions are made, how papal bureaucrats think, and how careers in the Roman Curia are shaped. It debunks the myths that have fed the distrust and suspicions many English-speaking Catholics harbor about the way the Vatican conducts its business, explains who really wields the power, and offers entertaining profiles of the personalities, historical and present-day, who have wielded that power for good and for bad. A thoughtful analysis of the recent sexual abuse crisis sheds light on how the Vatican perceives the Church in the United States. Balanced, lively, and filled with Vatican history and lore, ALL THE POPE’S MEN provides the general reader with an authoritative picture of the highly charged relationship between the Vatican and the richest, most influential national Catholic church in the world today.

The stories of seven popes who ruled at seven different critical periods in the 600 years leading into the Reformation.

Rob Howells has spent the last twenty years investigating the mysteries of Rennes-le-Chateau, the Priory of Sion and the history of conspiracy theories. During this time he has built up an extensive knowledge and experience of secret societies, symbolism and esoteric thought. As a manager for five years of Watkins Books in London, one of the oldest esoteric bookshops in Europe, he extended his research into transpersonal psychology, sacred geometry, Gnosticism and alchemy. He also came into contact with a number of secret societies during this time including the Priory of Sion, the Freemasons, the Order of Lazarus, various neo-Templar orders plus Sufis and other religious groups. His first book, Inside the Priory of Sion was released in 2011 and his second book, The Last Pope, was released in June 2013. He can currently be seen in a documentary series called Forbidden History on the BBC Yesterday channel

Almost thirty years after the world was stunned by the shocking death of Pope John Paul I, journalist Sarah Monteiro finds an envelope stuffed in her mailbox. The contents hold the key to uncovering the truth about that mysterious death. Drawn into a vortex in which deadly mercenaries, crooked politicians, and princes of the Church itself have formed an alliance of deception, Sarah must decide between revealing the truth and saving her own soul.

From the moment he was elected into the papacy, Pope Francis has captured the attention of the world with his humility, charisma, and reformist spirit. This one-of-a-kind, illustrated biography of the first Jesuit pope offers more than 250 photographs and 50 removable documents from Francis's life. Written by Vatican Radio reporter Marie Duhamel, this intimate portrait includes his parents emigration from Italy, his birth as Jorge Mario Bergoglio in 1936, his love of soccer and opera as a child, the pneumonia that nearly cost him his life as a young adult, his calling to the priesthood, and his first encounter with poverty as a missionary in Chile that would change his life. Duhamel chronicles Francis's rise from priest to bishop to cardinal to the papacy and how, along the way, he impressed many people-and alienated some-with his courage to stand up to authority and his dedication to helping the poor. Enclosed documents such as his baptism certificate, photographs from his childhood, pages from a school notebook, handwritten notes as pope, and even a support card for his beloved San Lorenzo soccer club, further illuminate his life and create a lasting keepsake of this pope of the people.

A behind-the-scenes view of the power struggles within the Vatican and “a look inside the byzantine halls of the institutional Catholic Church.”—Publishers Weekly A journalist who has long covered the Vatican, Marco Politi takes us deep inside the struggle roiling the Roman Curia and the Catholic Church worldwide, beginning with Benedict XVI, the pope who famously resigned in 2013, and intensifying with the unexpected election of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, archbishop of Buenos Aires, now known as Pope Francis. Politi’s account balances the perspectives of Pope Francis’s supporters, Benedict’s sympathizers, and those disappointed members of the laity who feel alienated by the institution’s secrecy, financial corruption, and refusal to modernize. Politi dramatically recounts the sexual scandals that have rocked the church and the accusations of money laundering and other financial misdeeds swirling around the Vatican and the Italian Catholic establishment, and how Pope Francis’s attempts to address these crimes has been met with resistance from entrenched factions. He writes of the decline in church attendance and vocations to the priesthood as the church continues to prohibit divorced and remarried Catholics from receiving Communion. He visits European parishes where women perform the functions of missing male priests—and where the remaining parishioners would welcome the ordination of women, if the church would allow it. Pope Francis’s emphasis on pastoral compassion for all who struggle with the burden of family life has also provoked the ire of traditionalists. He knows from experience what life is like for the poor in South America and elsewhere, and highlights the contrast between the vital, vibrant faith of these parishioners and the disillusionment of European Catholics. As Pope Francis and his supporters are locked in battle with the defenders of the traditional hard line and with ecclesiastical corruption, the future of Catholicism is at stake—and it is far from certain Francis will succeed in saving the institution from decline.

Take a two-income, quasi-New Age, newlywed couple with two Greyhounds and the resolve never to have children or to embrace any form of organized religion. Add ten years of hunger for "something more." What do you get? A large Catholic family, of course. And one in which in which the second youngest, while watching Pope Benedict depart the Vatican, solemnly declares, "Now I'll be pope: Pope Awesome the First, with my Swiss Guard army. And if my army men don't give me any new video games, I'll punch them in the face." In words often as sassy as those of her little Pope Awesome, Catholic homeschooler Cari Donaldson here relates how her friend's newborn baby, a portrait of the Virgin Mary, and the words of the Miraculous Medal called her forth from a selfish, small way of life into the welcoming arms of the Church. Six children in ten years have banished all her hopes for a tidy secular life, and, in her upscale town, where "Cats, not kids" bumper stickers are seen, have raised countess eyebrows along the way. Undaunted, Cari declares that "If we're to be a traveling carnival freak-show by New England standards, then we're going to be a carnival freak-show for Jesus," although her husband has stopped her from airbrushing onto her van a mural of Our Lady of Guadalupe riding a unicorn over a sparkling river. Above all, Cari tells of the awakening of her love for the Eucharist, the deepening of her love for her husband and her children, and the humility and faith these experiences have nurtured in her. To Jesus she confesses, "You taught me to be open to the lives You wanted to bring into the world through me. I rose above myself just enough to let You bring the blessings of these children into my life. I was sometimes scared and sometimes angry, and always at a loss about how I was going to mother these children, but I knew that it would be Your grace, and not my shortcomings, that would triumph." Through Cari's remarkable tale of her conversion and the peace she's found as a Catholic, you'll be reminded of the many profound, lifelong blessings God gives you through your Faith, and, yes, even through your daily small troubles and unexpected joys . . . like little Pope Awesome punching his Swiss Guards in the face! Cari's tale will lead you to share her conviction that we never know what God has planned for us tomorrow, but, for sure, "it will be better than anything we ourselves could have planned, even in our wildest dreams."

The Bishops of Rome have been Christianity's most powerful leaders for nearly two millennia, and their influence has extended far beyond the purely spiritual. The popes have played a central role in the history of Europe and the wider world, not only shouldering the spiritual burdens of their ancient office, but also in contending with - and sometimes precipitating - the cultural and political crises of their times. In an acclaimed series of BBC radio broadcasts Eamon Duffy explored the impact of ten popes he judged to be among 'the most influential in history'. With this book, readers may now also enjoy Duffy's portraits of ten exceptional men who shook the world. The book begins with St Peter, the Rock upon whom the Catholic Church was built, and follows with Leo the Great (fifth century), Gregory the Great (sixth century), Gregory VII (eleventh century), Innocent III (thirteenth century), Paul III (sixteenth century), and Pius IX (nineteenth century). Among twentieth-century popes, Duffy examines the lives and contributions of Pius XII, who was elected on the eve of the Second World War, the kindly John XXIII, who captured the world's imagination, and John Paul II, the first non-Italian pope in 450 years. Each of these ten extraordinary individuals, Duffy shows, shaped their own worlds, and in the process, helped to create ours.