Under the churches of Rome, a killer is offering up priests.
A tour group descends beneath an ancient basilica and finds a priest laid out on a pagan altar, his throat cut, a wreath of laurel on his head and seven oil lamps burning around him. He is the second in three weeks. In his pocket is a photograph of FBI profiler Reid Harper.
Rome's veteran homicide detective, Ettore Fabbri, calls Reid himself. Reid sees what the Italian police missed: the killer is lighting one more lamp for every death. There is only one lamp left.
The trail leads underground, into catacombs, sealed temples and Roman tombs that have been closed for half a century. It leads to a brilliant young man who was thrown out of the priesthood, and who believes that one final offering will make him what God always meant him to be.
And it leads to a young woman who trusts him completely.
Then Reid's own Bureau turns on him. Framed, stripped of his badge and ordered home, he has eight days to find a temple nobody alive has seen and stop a sacrifice planned for midnight. Behind it all is the man who has been watching Reid for years, a man who once taught him everything he knows.
One lamp left. One night. One chance to break the ritual.
The Rome Sacrifice is a dark, gripping FBI thriller that can be read on its own, for fans of Thomas Harris, Jeffery Deaver and Dan Brown.
Genre: Mystery
A tour group descends beneath an ancient basilica and finds a priest laid out on a pagan altar, his throat cut, a wreath of laurel on his head and seven oil lamps burning around him. He is the second in three weeks. In his pocket is a photograph of FBI profiler Reid Harper.
Rome's veteran homicide detective, Ettore Fabbri, calls Reid himself. Reid sees what the Italian police missed: the killer is lighting one more lamp for every death. There is only one lamp left.
The trail leads underground, into catacombs, sealed temples and Roman tombs that have been closed for half a century. It leads to a brilliant young man who was thrown out of the priesthood, and who believes that one final offering will make him what God always meant him to be.
And it leads to a young woman who trusts him completely.
Then Reid's own Bureau turns on him. Framed, stripped of his badge and ordered home, he has eight days to find a temple nobody alive has seen and stop a sacrifice planned for midnight. Behind it all is the man who has been watching Reid for years, a man who once taught him everything he knows.
One lamp left. One night. One chance to break the ritual.
The Rome Sacrifice is a dark, gripping FBI thriller that can be read on its own, for fans of Thomas Harris, Jeffery Deaver and Dan Brown.
Genre: Mystery