April 1943 — A Mitsubishi transport plane plunges from the sky over the island of Bougainville. On board is Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto, architect of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. In a document case chained to his wrist is the greatest secret of the Second World War — a revelation with the potential to change the world if it is ever revealed. December 2011 — Art recovery expert Jamie Saintclair celebrates the return of a Vermeer painting to its rightful owner, and the day turns even better when he's offered a lucrative commission. Not much can surprise Jamie, but he blinks when mining tycoon Keith Devlin reveals the object he wants him to find. How did the preserved head of a...

For countless generations the sword had been kept hidden, ready for a time of need. But not hidden well enough, because on one warm July night in 1937 it vanished — its disappearance swallowed up in the storm clouds of war that would soon engulf the world. 1941 — twelve SS generals gather at a castle in East Prussia to re-enact an ancient rite and call on the spirits of Europe's mightiest warriors to aid them in the coming battle in the East. At the heart of the ritual is a pentagram formed by five swords. One of them is Excalibur, the mythical weapon pulled from a stone by King Arthur. 2010 — Art recovery expert Jamie Saintclair laughs when he reads the codex to a German...

AD 64 — Roman centurion Marcus Domitus leads an expedition to find the mythical treasure hidden deep inside Queen Dido's temple. AD 1945 — In the confusion and chaos of a burning Berlin, two high-powered Nazis disappear, and so does a precious object. AD 2009 — Two families are brutally tortured and murdered in Boston and London, the crimes linked by a single name and a shared history. Art recovery specialist Jamie Saintclair receives a call from a Boston detective, asking for his help to investigate a brutal murder. She believes Saintclair might hold the key to solving the crime through his detailed knowledge of specialist Nazi units. But as they delve deeper...

1937, Hitler sent an expedition to Tibet in search of the lost land of Thule. 1941, Heinrich Himmler spent a huge fortune, and sacrificed the lives of hundreds of concentration camp prisoners, to turn Wewelsburg Castle in Germany into a shrine to the SS. Art recovery expert Jamie Saintclair thought he knew his grandfather, but when he stumbles upon the old man's lost diary he's astonished to find that the gentle Anglican clergyman was a decorated hero who had served in the Special Air Service in World War Two. And his grandfather has one more surprise for him. Sewn in to the endpaper of the journal is a strange piece of Nazi symbolism. This simple discovery will launch him on a...