A bestseller according to *The New York Times*.
A new installment of the famous “Sigma” special operations unit cycle.
In Moscow, a monsignor named Alex Borelli is murdered—an envoy of the Papal Commission for Sacred Archaeology. He arrived to negotiate the return to Russia of hundreds of books kept in the Vatican. Before he dies, the envoy manages to pass the “Sigma” unit alarming information: he has traced the Golden Library of Ivan the Terrible—an legendary collection believed to have vanished forever. In reality, the library was discovered back in the time of Catherine II, and the empress ordered the discovery to be hidden under the strictest secrecy.
And this secret was not a whim of power. Among the books there is a unique text: within it, not only clues to the ruins of a dead ancient northern civilization are encrypted, but also information about the deadly force that destroyed it. That force has not disappeared—and it is capable of turning into a catastrophe of global scale.
Unraveling a chain of the most complex riddles, the Sigma fighters follow the trail from monastery undergrounds in the Moscow region, across the ice of the White Sea, to the Arctic Circle in order to stop the looming disaster. Their principle is “Be first on the spot,” and this time speed decides everything: the hunt for the solution is not only theirs.
James Rollins is one of the most widely read authors of adventure thrillers, the creator of many #1 novels on *The New York Times* lists, published worldwide in total editions of over 20 million copies and translated into 40 languages.