An American monsignor is murdered at Death’s Door, an entrance to Saint Peter’s Basilica, and Billy Boyle is smuggled into German-occupied Rome to investigate. The Vatican’s neutrality shelters diplomats, clergy, spies and political factions, but it also restricts what Billy can ask and whom he can trust.
Billy’s real urgency comes from Diana Seaton, who disappeared while working undercover and is being held in Regina Coeli prison just beyond the Vatican boundary. Solving the murder may provide a route to her captors, but an attempted rescue could expose the investigation, provoke the Germans and compromise the Vatican’s precarious position.
