David Morrell - the fraternity of the stone

Synopsis
This classic espionage thriller changed the genre, introducing elements of religious and historical conspiracies into spy thrillers, paving the way for Dan Brown, Steve Berry, and James Rollins almost two decades later. Highly influential, it nonetheless reads as if it were written yesterday.

In a remote monastery in Vermont, a mysterious man named Drew MacLane has spent the previous six years doing penance for sins that he committed for his government. He hasn’t spoken to another human being in all that time. His only personal contact is the hand that delivers his spartan meals through a slot in his door. Desperate to retreat from the world’s violence, he allows himself only one small pleasure, the companionship of a mouse, who visits him each night while he eats.

When the mouse dies, nibbling some bread, a terrible suspicion makes Drew finally step from his room, discovering that all the monks have been poisoned. As a black-ops team searches the monastery, he realizes that his deadly past has caught up to him. For the first time in six years, he leaves his sanctuary to confront the outside world and the ruthless enemies that he prayed he had left behind.