"The final volume in the Vatican trilogy. Pope XIV is threatened with death: from a heart condition and Islamic terrorists. As he prepares for surgery speculation spreads. Will this iron-fisted pontiff come back from near death whole in mind and body."@en
"Faced with open-heart surgery, Supreme Pontiff Leo XIV sees his life flashing before him. In reforming the Church, he created a wasteland and made enemies, and now he vows to destroy the repression for which he was responsible. But a terrorist group, the Sword of Islam, has other ideas."
"Dans un avenir proche, le récit contrasté de la conversion d'un pape réactionnaire à l'occasion d'une intervention chirurgicale, d'où l'allusion du titre; cette situation enrobée dans une sombre histoire de complot bien orchestrée."
""The final volume in Morris West's Vatican trilogy." As Pope Leo's private struggle unfolds, the terrorists move in for the kill. Leo and those close to him are swept up into a fierce international conflict."