In the StoryBlack Smoke
The conclave has not yet chosen. One cardinal remembers a different election. Sequestered in the Vatican, Matteo Valli carries an outcome no one around him can verify. Another name, another sequence of events, lending new weight to every present conversation. His memory may be a warning. It may also become a way to influence others without being able to account for his source.
Open the novel ↗A moment in the opening pages
At 11:17, Cardinal Matteo Valli had only one empty box left on the shutdown sheet.Read the excerpt ↗