"Dan Brown fans will want to check this one out" (Publishers Weekly): The Ghent Altarpiece is the most violated work of art in the world. Thirteen times it has been vandalized, dismantled, or stolen. Why? What secrets does it hold? Enter UNESCO investigator, Nicholas Lee, who works for the United Nations' Cultural Liaison and Investigative Office (CLIO). Nick's job is to protect the world's cultural artifacts--anything and everything from countless lesser-known objects to national treasures. When Nick travels to Belgium for a visit with a woman from his past, he unwittingly stumbles on the trail of a legendary panel from the Ghent Altarpiece, stolen in 1934 under cover of night and never seen since. Soon Nick is plunged into a bitter conflict, one that has been simmering for nearly two thousand years. On one side is the Maidens of Saint-Michael, les Vautours--the Vultures--a secret order of nuns and the guardians of a great truth. Pitted against them is the Vatican, which has wanted for centuries to both find and possess what the nuns guard. Because of Nick the maidens have finally been exposed, their secret placed in dire jeopardy--a vulnerability that the Vatican swiftly moves to exploit utilizing an ambitious cardinal and a corrupt archbishop, both with agendas of their own. From the tranquil canals of Ghent, to the towering bastions of Carcassonne, and finally into an ancient abbey high in the French Pyrenees, Nick Lee must confront a modern-day religious crusade intent on eliminating a shocking truth from humanity's past. Success or failure--life and death--all turn on the Omega Factor. Editorial Reviews 03/14/2022 This lively standalone from bestseller Berry (the Cotton Malone series) centers on a panel stolen in 1934 from the Ghent Altarpiece, "one of the world's great works of art, created in the early part of the fifteenth century, at the threshold of the Renaissance, by two brothers, Hubert and Jan van Eyck." Early chapters alternate between Jan van Eyck and Nick Lee, a field operative in the present day dealing with artistic and cultural issues for UNESCO. Nick is in Ghent, Belgium, visiting his former fiancée, art restorer Kelsey Deal, who's now a Catholic nun. Kelsey is restoring the altarpiece at the Cathedral of Saint Bavo when a fire breaks out. Nick arrives on the scene minutes later, and Kelsey orders him to chase after the vandal responsible for the blaze, who has also stolen her laptop containing images of the masterpiece. Nick and Kelsey are soon racing around France on the trail of a conspiracy linked to the Catholic church that originated 2,000 years ago. Berry once again smoothly blends action and history. Dan Brown fans will want to check this one out. Agent: Simon Lipskar, Writers House. (June) - Publishers Weekly 01/01/2022 In Bentley's Tom Clancy Zero Hour, Jack Ryan Jr. is interviewing a Campus prospect in Seoul when North Korea's leader is devastatingly injured, prompting a power struggle among sleeper agents in South Korea. In Berry's The Omega Factor, UNESCO investigator Nicholas Lee is following a lead to the long-missing 12th panel of the relentlessly plundered Ghent Altarpiece when he stumbles upon a centuries-old conflict between some no-nonsense nuns called the Maidens of Saint-Michael and the Vatican, desperate to grab a secret the maidens guard (200,000-copy first printing). Having appeared in six best-selling DeMille novels, retired NYPD Homicide Detective John Corey is hanging out at his uncle's waterfront estate on Long Island when he heeds a call to help find a serial killer who is dispatching prostitutes and burying them along the beach in The Maze (originally scheduled for June 2021; 500,000-copy first printing). Pulled from the icy Pacific and presumed dead, a revived Elle can remember little except her name in Dodd's stand-alone, Point Last Seen, but it surely looks to rescuer Adam like someone tried to kill her (75,000-copy paperback and 10,000-copy hardcover first printing). What could be Red on the River in the next exemplar of Romantic suspense from Feehan, which is set in the Sierra Nevada mountains? When tomb raiders kill archaeologist Riley Smith's father after he discovers the burial site of Helen of Troy, Riley seeks revenge while asking forensic sculptor Eve Duncan to reconstruct A Face To Die For (100,000-copy first printing). Marshals Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch have their hands full in Knott's Robert B. Parker's Opium Rose when the daughter of Virgil's half-brother arrives in Appaloosa, having fled San Francisco following the death of her lawyer husband; apparently, he was involved in a big opium operation. In Escape, a follow-up to Patterson's Black Book, a rich-as-Croesus crime lord breaks out of jail and leaves a taunting note for crack Chicago detective Billy Harney, who he knew would be called to the scene (300,000-copy first printing). In Quirk's Red Warning, CIA officer Sam Hudson is nearly blown up in Geneva as he obsessively tracks Russian mole Konstanin, then dodges bombs back in Washington, DC, when Konstanin follows him home (125,000-copy first printing). - Library Journal Not since The Da Vinci Code has a thriller so deftly combined religious conspiracy, a message hidden within a world-famous work of art, and pulse-pounding suspense. The Omega Factor is one of the best thrillers of the year."-Douglas Preston, #1 New York Times bestselling author "Berry once again smoothly blends action and history. Dan Brown fans will want to check this one out."-Publishers Weekly "Nick is a good character, with plenty of room to grow. Here's one vote for Berry making a series out of Nick's adventures."-Booklist Praise for Steve Berry "Dive into bestselling author Berry's latest that mixes history with some serious action."-CNN "... a crackerjack plot and terrific new hero ... Berry is in firm command of the material and maintains his equally firm hold on the sub-genre that Dan Brown created with "The Da Vinci Code," and its sequels. "The Omega Factor" is every bit the equal of those, a textbook perfect thriller."-Providence Sunday Journal "Berry pumps the veins of history with action-packed adrenaline."-The Chicago Tribune "Berry is the master scientist with a perfect formula for the bestseller lists."-Associated Press "(Berry) proves once again that he has a genuine feel for the factual gaps that give history its tantalizing air of the unknown."-The New York Times "Bestseller Berry once again shows there's no working author more skilled at combining thrilling adventure with engrossing historical detail."-Publishers Weekly "Prolific writer Steve Berry has been creating intelligent, top-shelf fiction for decades."-bookreporter.com - From the Publisher This stand-alone thriller from bestselling author Berry features a new protagonist, Nick Lee, a field operative for UNESCO who comes to Belgium to see his one-time fiancée, Kelsey. She's now a nun working on the restoration of a panel that was long assumed to be missing from the famed fifteenth-century Ghent Altarpiece. Nick arrives minutes after a fire destroys the panel, and he and Kelsey chase after the arsonist, who has also stolen her laptop with the only extant images of the panel. Narrator Scott Brick captures the high-stakes intensity as the pair uncover a conspiracy that could rock the Catholic Church. Listeners should have no trouble following the many characters and subplots, thanks to Brick's subtle use of accents and tonal changes, and the author's sure-footed execution of this absorbing story. L.W.S. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine - JUNE 2022 - AudioFile This stand-alone thriller from bestselling author Berry features a new protagonist, Nick Lee, a field operative for UNESCO who comes to Belgium to see his one-time fiancée, Kelsey. She's now a nun working on the restoration of a panel that was long assumed to be missing from the famed fifteenth-century Ghent Altarpiece. Nick arrives minutes after a fire destroys the panel, and he and Kelsey chase after the arsonist, who has also stolen her laptop with the only extant images of the panel. Narrator Scott Brick captures the high-stakes intensity as the pair uncover a conspiracy that could rock the Catholic Church. Listeners should have no trouble following the many characters and subplots, thanks to Brick's subtle use of accents and tonal changes, and the author's sure-footed execution of this absorbing story. L.W.S. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine - JUNE 2022 - AudioFile