Cal Donovan Books

Abruzzo, Italy: a young priest suffers the stigmata of the crucifixion. The Vatican, Rome: the Pope calls on Harvard professor Cal Donovan to investigate the truth of the priest’s claim. Berlin, Germany: a neo-Nazi organization believes the priest is the key to an earth-shattering secret. A secret that can be used as a deadly weapon. When the priest is abducted, a perilous race against the clock begins. Only Cal can track down the ruthless organization and stop it, before an apocalyptic catastrophe is unleashed.

Three impossible births. Three incredible miracles. One deadly secret. Once again, Harvard Professor of religion and archaeology Cal Donovan has been summoned by Pope Celestine to investigate a seemingly impossible miracle. Three Catholic teenage girls, from different corners of the world, have fallen pregnant. All three girls are named Mary, and all three girls have been proven to be virgins. Are they really all bearing the son of God? Before Cal has a chance to visit all three girls, one of the Marys disappears … and then another. As he struggles to uncover the truth, Cal realises that much more than his own and others’ lives are at stake: could this apparent miracle really cause the collapse of the Catholic faith? Will appeal to fans of DAN BROWN, STEVE BERRY and LINCOLN CHILD.

Cooper’s intelligent, heart-pounding homage to Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Da Vinci Code will appeal to fans of action, thriller and conspiracy genres Booklist An ancient loan made by Pope Pius VIII wreaks havoc in the present… The new religious conspiracy thriller featuring Cal Donovan. While browsing the Vatican libraries, Harvard professor Cal Donovan uncovers a secret that could bankrupt the Catholic church. Unearthing evidence of a 200-year-old loan which the Vatican owes to a Jewish bank, Cal deduces that, with centuries of interest behind it, the sum now amounts to a crippling 25 billion Euros. With the future of the Vatican at stake, Pope Celestine asks Cal to intercede with the Sassoon family to whom the sum is owed. Thus Cal finds himself drawn into the tangled affairs of the wealthy yet dysfunctional Sassoons. With eye-watering sums of money involved and the Vatican facing bankruptcy, everyone has their own agenda. Who can be trusted? If Cal isn’t careful, he’ll find more than his own life in danger…

Mysticism, angels, evil spirits: Harvard Professor Cal Donovan investigates a scrying stone linked to the death of his parents. Algosh, Iraq, 1989. During an archaeological excavation Hiram Donovan uncovers a piece of meticulously knapped obsidian. Instinct tells him to hide it from others on the dig, so he sends it back to his wife in America with a note: John Dee, British Museum/Scrying stone? Days later Hiram is murdered with it made to look like an accident. But there was a witness. Decades later, on his death bed, the witness confesses to what he saw. Shortly afterwards, Cal Donovan – Professor of Archaeology at Harvard and Hiram’s son – is told his mother has been killed. Upon finding the parcel still unopened alongside his father’s mysterious note referencing Queen Elizabeth’s astrologer and alchemist, Cal sets out to discover the truth. What he finds are fanatics determined to obtain the mystical stone, but for what purpose...?

Filled with action, intrigue, and suspense, The Fourth Prophecy is a nonstop adventure that proves Glenn Cooper is a master at thrillers. A beloved professor of theology and archaeology at Harvard, Cal Donovan has achieved renown – but he drops everything when he is called by his friend Pope Celestine to investigate the potential existence of a mysterious prophecy. And it soon becomes clear that another party is desperate and willing to kill for the same information. In a race against time that will lead him from Lisbon to Rome and to London and Paris, Donovan will become the only person standing in the way of unspeakable destruction. Now his only hope for survival is to outwit, outrun, and outlast his enemies long enough to get to the truth behind the Fourth Prophecy.

In this action-packed thriller, a Harvard theology professor uncovers religious and papal history—and plenty of conspiracy. Cal Donovan, a theology professor at Harvard, receives an urgent message from a former graduate student, Samia Tedros. Now a museum conservator in Cairo, Samia has discovered a miraculous fragment of papyrus with three unknown lines from the Gospel of Mary Magdalene so explosive that a wealthy man is willing to kill to ensure no one ever sees it. At the Vatican, another drama is developing. The new Pope has defied centuries of tradition and appointed a nun, Sister Elisabetta Celestino, as his secretary of state. Powerful insiders are outraged that a woman now sits as the second most influential person at the Vatican, and they plot to destroy her. When Samia shows up at Cal’s doorstep in the dead of night, he is drawn into a deadly competition to possess a papyrus with the power to rescue Sister Elisabetta and change the course of Christianity.