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The Shroud Protocol: A Nick Holt Vatican Thriller
The Shroud of Turin has been stolen. The replacement is perfect. And someone wanted Nick Holt to find it.
Former CIA operative Nick Holt works for a Vatican intelligence unit that doesn't officially exist. When a fabricated sensor anomaly sends him to Turin in the middle of the night, he finds what he was meant to a near-flawless forgery where the Shroud should be, and a symbol he last saw in a classified file at Langley eight years ago.
The trail leads to Istanbul, where a dead forger's workshop holds a message left specifically for him. It leads to a Turkish art historian named Dr. Layla Çelik, who has been tracking the same operation for two years — from the inside. And it leads to a private collection of stolen sacred relics that isn't just a collection. It's the infrastructure for something far more dangerous.
Someone has spent thirty years building toward a single acquisition. Not a relic. A document. One that a pope sealed personally in 1971 and never spoke of again.
Holt is running out of time. The Sudarium of Oviedo is next. The document is already moving. And the man who sent him to Turin in the first place isn't the man he thought he was working for.
The Shroud Protocol is the first book in the Nick Holt series — Vatican thrillers for readers who like their conspiracies ancient, their heroes damaged, and their endings earned.
Former CIA operative Nick Holt works for a Vatican intelligence unit that doesn't officially exist. When a fabricated sensor anomaly sends him to Turin in the middle of the night, he finds what he was meant to a near-flawless forgery where the Shroud should be, and a symbol he last saw in a classified file at Langley eight years ago.
The trail leads to Istanbul, where a dead forger's workshop holds a message left specifically for him. It leads to a Turkish art historian named Dr. Layla Çelik, who has been tracking the same operation for two years — from the inside. And it leads to a private collection of stolen sacred relics that isn't just a collection. It's the infrastructure for something far more dangerous.
Someone has spent thirty years building toward a single acquisition. Not a relic. A document. One that a pope sealed personally in 1971 and never spoke of again.
Holt is running out of time. The Sudarium of Oviedo is next. The document is already moving. And the man who sent him to Turin in the first place isn't the man he thought he was working for.
The Shroud Protocol is the first book in the Nick Holt series — Vatican thrillers for readers who like their conspiracies ancient, their heroes damaged, and their endings earned.
237 pages, Paperback
Published March 25, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
September 13, 2026
I really enjoyed this story. There are several levels of subterfuge throughout the narrative. Nick Holt, ex CIA operative, is summoned by the head of Vatican Intelligence, and dispatched to Turin, where he finds the Shroud has been substituted by a similar piece of work. As the story unfolds, Holt discovers that other Holy Relics have been substituted and he has to prevent another one going the same way. However, the real reason for Holt being recruited becomes clearer, and he manages to solve the riddle---just.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review