Jonathon Payne and David Jones are back in the fray in this page-turning, blockbusting new instalment from Chris Kuzneski, bestselling author of Sword of God, Sign of the Cross and The Lost Throne.

When the prophetic writings of sixteenth-century apothecary Nostradamus begin to ring alarmingly true, Payne and Jones find themselves in a life-or-death race across the world to stop those who would use the French seer's predictions for their own dark purposes.

With the breathless pace that's found Chris Kuzneski hundreds of thousands of fans, The Prophecy is the autumn's must-have adventure thriller.

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Prologue
17 June 1566
Salon-de-Provence, France

The letter was written by an apothecary who had gained his notoriety in another field. Knowing the uproar it would cause, Michel sealed it and several documents inside a wooden box. He gave the box to his lawyer on the same day he signed his last will and testament.

The year was 1566. He was sixty-two years old.

He died fifteen days later.

When his possessions were divided among his heirs, the box was not mentioned. If it had been, the rest of his estate would have seemed inconsequential, for the contents of the box were far more valuable than gold or jewels or anything that he owned. Knowing this, he added a secret codicil to his will that only his lawyer knew about. The four-page appendix described in very specific terms what was to be done with the mysterious box and, more importantly, when.

To ensure that his wishes were followed, Michel established a trust fund that compensated the guardians of his secret from one generation to the next. None of these men knew who their benefactor was – otherwise curiosity would have overwhelmed them, tempting them to open the box. Instead, all they were given was a date and a simple set of instructions.

If they completed their task, they would be paid handsomely for their efforts.

If they didn’t, they wouldn’t see a cent. Amazingly, the chain remained unbroken for over four hundred years. Decade after decade, century after century, they followed their orders like scripture and were rewarded as promised. Wars raged throughout Europe, but somehow the box survived. Cities burned to the ground, but somehow the box survived. No matter what happened, no matter where it was stored, the box always survived – as if it had a guardian angel. Or was protected by magic. Those familiar with Michel might have suspected the latter, since he had been publicly accused of practising the dark arts on more than one occasion. But those charges never stuck. Partly because of his connection to the queen of France, a loyal patron who believed in his special powers, and partly because of his cunning. Nearly everything he had written was hidden in plain sight, published for the world to see, but purposely ambiguous. This was his way of avoiding prosecution. Authorities couldn’t convict him of witchcraft or wizardry because his writings could be interpreted in a variety of ways, most of which were benign.

Yet most scholars knew his work was anything but innocuous. They realized it was complex, and layered, and intentionally cryptic. The proverbial enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in mystery. Just like the man himself. Of course, Michel knew how he was perceived, which was why he penned his fi nal letter in straightforward language and sealed it inside the box.

This was his last chance to explain himself to the world.

His last chance to warn the human race.

Once you reach a certain age, it becomes increasingly difficult to remember specific things about your childhood. For instance, I can’t remember when I first read a book by Dr. Seuss, listened to a tune by the Beatles, or learned the true identity of Santa Claus. Still, despite my advancing age and declining memory, I know exactly what I was doing when I discovered Nostradamus.

Amazingly, the man who introduced me to the sixteenth-century prophet wasn’t my father or a teacher. It was Orson Welles, the plump, white-bearded actor who, in his later years, actually resembled Santa Claus. That is, if Santa dressed in black, smoked cigars that were larger than an elf, and had a whiskey glass attached to his hand. Because that’s how Welles appeared on film as the narrator in the 1981 documentary The Man Who Saw Tomorrow. The award-winning thespian, best known for his work on Citizen Kane and his infamous radio broadcast of War of the Worlds, is the only reason I didn’t change the channel when I turned on the television that Saturday afternoon. Even though Welles slurred half of his words because of one of those aforementioned cigars, his presence added credibility to a film that a kid like me normally would have skipped for a cartoon. Instead, I sat glued to my couch for two hours, fascinated by all the “facts” that I learned about the legendary Nostradamus and frightened by many of his dire predictions.

In case you didn’t notice, I put the word facts in quotation marks because very little is actually known about Nostradamus. He published his best-known book Les Propheties in 1555, a turbulent time in France when seers and occultists were persecuted by the Inquisition. Their witch-hunt forced him to write everything in code, often using a mixture of word games and languages in order to obscure his prophecies. To protect himself further, he rarely revealed personal information about himself. In fact, the names of his first wife and two children—all of whom were killed by the Bubonic plague—are still unknown to this day. In addition, many of his journals and papers mysteriously disappeared from his office at the time of his death, a date that he supposedly foresaw and prepared for.

In my latest thriller, The Prophecy, I reveal what happened to Nostradamus’s most valuable documents and imagine what a modern-day criminal would be willing to do to obtain them. Standing in his way are Jonathon Payne and David Jones, two ex-soldiers who are dragged into the conflict by a mysterious woman. They quickly find themselves the target of a ruthless killer who will stop at nothing to learn the seer’s final prophecy. In an adventure that spans several centuries and countries, the Americans are forced to fight for their lives while trying to decode Nostradamus’s final puzzle.