Patrick Donovan, the keeper of the Vatican's secret archive, is offered by an unknown person to purchase an ancient manuscript preserved to this day by the Templars. It turns out to be the secret diary of Joseph, a disciple of Christ, with a detailed plan of the place where his teacher is buried. And literally a couple of weeks later, under the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, a group of armed mercenaries opens a secret burial, steals the funeral ark from there, and then, one after another, everyone who is in any way involved in the secret of the ancient shrine perishes... Michael Byrnes' novel "The Holy Mystery" is one one of the most successful thrillers of 2008.