If you were gripped by Cardinal Valendrea’s maneuvering and the backroom deals swirling around Pope Clement XV’s fragile hold on the Church, you’ll love how The Confessor plunges into secret files, compromised clergy, and geopolitical chess around the Holy See. Like Father Colin Michener’s tightrope walk between loyalty and truth, Gabriel Allon wades into a tangle of Vatican archives and statecraft where revelations about past popes ignite present-day campaigns for control.

You were drawn to how Pope Clement XV’s crisis of conscience after confronting the Third Secret rattles the very foundations of belief. In The Name of the Rose, William of Baskerville’s hunt through a labyrinthine abbey library pits reason against doctrine in the same way Father Colin Michener questions what truth the Church can or should reveal. The clash between spiritual authority, dangerous texts, and the cost of knowledge will hit the same nerve.

If you enjoyed Colin following Sister Lúcia’s hints and rifling Vatican records to unpack the Fatima message, The Da Vinci Code delivers that same puzzle-solving momentum. As Langdon and Neveu chase ciphers hidden in art and scripture—much like Michener tracks the breadcrumb trail behind the Third Secret—you’ll get a rapid-fire investigation that turns sacred history into a high-stakes trail of clues.

If Father Colin Michener’s mission from Pope Clement XV—to seek the truth behind Fatima despite stonewalling and danger—kept you flipping pages, Sanctus offers that same urgent drive. A death in a monastic citadel sparks a chase for a guarded secret, and, as with Valendrea’s obstructive tactics, powerful factions will do anything to keep it buried. The propulsion and ticking-clock stakes mirror the search that propelled you through The Third Secret.

If the shocks around the true content of the Third Secret—and the way Valendrea’s schemes kept flipping your understanding—hooked you, The Last Templar delivers twist after twist. As an archaeologist and an FBI agent chase a vanished artifact, each discovery upends assumptions about early Christianity, echoing the rug-pulls you felt when Michener finally confronts what Sister Lúcia’s message really means.