A masterful blend of Christian scholarship and thrilling adventure, The Last Cato is a novel about the race to find the secret location of the Vera Cruz, the True Cross on which Christ was crucified, and the ancient brotherhood sworn to protect it. Holy relics are disappearing from sacred spots around the world—and the Vatican will do whatever it takes to stop the thieves from stealing what is left of the scattered splinters of the True Cross. Brilliant paleographer Dr. Ottavia Salina is called upon by the highest levels of the Roman Catholic Church to decipher the scars found on an Ethiopian man's corpse: seven crosses and seven Greek letters. The markings, symbolizing the Seven Deadly Sins, are part of an elaborate initiation ritual for the Staurofilakes, the clandestine brotherhood hiding the True Cross for centuries, headed by a secretive figure called Cato. With the help of a member of the Swiss Guard and a renowned archaeologist, Dr. Salina uncovers the connection between the brotherhood and Dante's Divine Comedy, and races across the globe to Christianity's ancient capitals. Together, they will face challenges that will put their faith—and their very lives—to the ultimate test.

Ottavia Salina and Farag Boswell, who triumphed in Matilde Asensi's massive bestseller The Last Cato, are back at last in Cato's Return, a new and amazing adventure. What could Marco Polo, the Silk Road and Mongolia possibly have in common with the Holy Land and the sewers of Istanbul? This is what Salina and Boswell are compelled to find out as they travel the world risking their lives as they try to resolve a religious time bomb, a mystery which dates back a full two thousand years. Fifteen years after the trials and struggles which culminated in their discovery of the tomb of Constantine the Great in Istanbul, Ottavia and Farag are living quietly with their niece in Toronto, teaching and carrying out research work at the city's university. But their peace is irrevocably shattered by a visit from the enormously rich Simonsons, who offer them the last surviving fragment of the True Cross in exchange for their leading the search for nine ossuaries that disappeared from Bethlehem back in the thirteenth century. Ottavia and Farag reluctantly accept the offer and embark on a journey which will challenge history as we know it and put their lives and most deeply-held beliefs in danger as they close in on the discovery of the most significant and earth-shattering relic of the Christian faith.