Robert Masello - The Medusa Amulet

Benvenuto Cellini - the master artisan of Renaissance Italy: goldsmith, sculptor . . . necromancer.
Creator of a beautifully carved amulet that was once the proud possession of popes and princes, queens and conquerors. A work of unimaginable power . . . and menace.
In this new spine-tingling thriller by Robert Masello, the critically acclaimed and bestselling author of Blood and Ice, the quest to recover a legendary artifact - and plumb its secrets - depends upon one man: David Franco, a brilliant but skeptical young scholar at Chicago's world-renowned Newberry Library.
What begins as a simple investigation quickly spirals into a twisting, turning tale of suspense and intrigue, a race against time that carries Franco across continents and centuries in a desperate search for the ultimate treasure - and an answer to a riddle that has puzzled mankind since the beginning of time.
Aided only by a beautiful young Florentine with a conspirator's mind and dark secrets, Franco is soon caught up in a life-and-death struggle from which there is no escape. Relentlessly pursued by deadly assassins and demons of his own, in the end he must confront - and defeat - an evil greater than anything conjured in his worst nightmares.
Packed with breathtaking invention and breakneck adventure, The Medusa Amulet is a harrowing ride from the streets of Chicago to the chateaux of France, from the ramparts of the French Revolution to the palazzos of Rome, a story where historical fact meets with fascinating conjecture . . . and the impossible becomes terrifyingly real. Like a masterpiece from the hand of Cellini himself, The Medusa Amulet is a unique and powerful work, as inviting as it is forbidding, as ingenious as it is bold.