1636 · The Vatican Sanction

Book #24 in the multiple *New York Times* best-selling Ring of Fire series. 

SEVEN DAYS IN MAY, 1636

It’s spring in Burgundy. The flowers are out and so are the cardinals—of Pope Urban’s renegade papacy, now on the run from the Vatican’s would-be usurper Borja. Most of the Church’s senior leaders have converged upon the city of Besancon, where the Pope plans to offer an ecumenical olive branch to the other Christian denominations with which Rome has been at war.

Fortunately, Urban has up-time help. He can rely upon Cardinal-Protector Larry Mazzare’s theological savvy, Sharon Nichols’ medical skills, and her husband Ruy Sanchez’s keen-eyed experience as a body-guard-in-chief. And even though Urban has a new Papal Guard in the form of Owen Rowe O’Neill’s Wild Geese, Mike Stearns has loaned the Pope a small contingent of the Hibernian Battalion—just in case.

Which is prudent, since Urban and his peace initiative are not merely at risk from Borja’s assassins. There is another, more deadly, team of professional killers in town, directed by the man who almost killed the Pope before: lethal Spanish mastermind Pedro Dolor.

Dolor hasn’t come to confess murder—he’s come to commit it.

**About *1635: A Parcel of Rogues*:** "The 20th volume in this popular, fast-paced alternative history series follows close on the heels of the events in *The Baltic War*, picking up with the protagonists in London, including sharpshooter Julie Sims. This time the 20th-century transplants are determined to prevent the rise of Oliver Cromwell and even have the support of King Charles."—*Library Journal*

**About *1634: The Galileo Affair*:** "A rich, complex alternate history with great characters and vivid action. A great read and an excellent book."—*David Drake*

"Gripping . . . depicted with power!"—*Publishers Weekly*

**About Eric Flint's Ring of Fire series:**

“This alternate history series is . . . a landmark…”—*Booklist*

“[Eric] Flint's 1632 universe seems to be inspiring a whole new crop of gifted alternate historians.”—*Booklist*

“ . . . reads like a technothriller set in the age of the Medicis . . . ”—*Publishers Weekly*