The Secret Cardinal

Inspired by true events, masterful storyteller Tom Grace delivers his most provocative novel yet. In The Secret Cardinal, ex-Navy SEAL Nolan Kilkenny returns in an adventure that races from the grandeur of the Vatican across the vastness of Asia, ultimately involving China, the Mafia, and the conclave of cardinals that will elect the next pope.

When Kilkenny is invited to Rome to consult on the functioning of the Vatican Library, he is still grieving the death of his wife and son, and welcomes the distraction of the seemingly simple assignment. But Pope Leo XIV has a startlingly different task in mind for him. In a private audience, Kilkenny learns of an unreported atrocity committed against the underground Church in China and its link to Yin Daoming, the long-imprisoned Bishop of Shanghai who has served thirty years of a life sentence in a Chinese laogai for refusing to renounce the Church of Rome. The pope wants Yin free and asks Kilkenny to devise a plan to accomplish this ostensibly impossible task.

With help from the U.S. president, American Special Forces, and the CIA, Kilkenny assembles a team of ten men and one woman that will use some of the most advanced weapons, aircraft, and computer technology to execute this extraordinary mission.

Tom Grace, the bestselling author of the Nolan Kilkenny novels, is also an architect with a lifelong fascination with science and technology and a passion for storytelling. Grace mined his professional architectural experience with private technology companies and university research labs in crafting his first three novels, Spyder Web, Quantum, and Twisted Web. His interest in space led to Bird of Prey, and his indignation at China’s persecution of Catholics who maintain allegiance to the pope inspired his fifth novel, The Secret Cardinal.

Like the hero of his novels, Grace is a University of Michigan graduate, enjoys scuba diving, martial arts, running marathons, and reading a good book. He resides with his wife and five children in Michigan.