"Standing in the shadows of the Vatican, the cavernous, decaying abbey of San Redempto, once a community of more than a hundred, now houses only about a dozen and has been forgotten by the Church. San Redempto's obscurity is threatened, however, when six of the seven age-blackened paintings of martyrs that have long hung in its hallways are stolen. The remaining painting - depicting the martyrdom of St. Agatha - is identified by Reverend Brocard Curtis, the monastery's archivist, as a long-lost treasure, most likely by Poussin. These events seem destined to bring the kind of attention to San Redempto that many within the priory and without, have been working for years to avoid." "While Brocard sets about trying to uncover the provenance of the paintings and solve the riddle of the theft, others frantically work to protect their secrets, resorting to murder, with conspiracy upon conspiracy reaching deep into the Church itself."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved