The Malta Exchange

As the Vatican prepares for a papal conclave, a rogue cardinal has fled to Malta in search of a fourth-century document that could reshape the Church's foundations. Cotton Malone, hunting missing Churchill-Mussolini correspondence in northern Italy, becomes entangled with the Knights of Malta and a secretive internal faction called the Secreti, who are determined to influence who becomes the next pope. Steve Berry's fourteenth Malone novel draws on nine centuries of Maltese and Vatican history.

Scott Brick narrates Berry's intricate historical thriller with the practiced authority of a narrator who has spent considerable time in Malone's company, keeping the story's multiple competing factions distinct and the historical flashbacks clearly anchored. His voice gives the Vatican sequences a particular gravity that suits the spiritual stakes alongside the political ones. The race toward the papal conclave provides a natural structural clock that drives the pacing effectively.