Waiting on Wednesday – The Omega Factor by Steve Berry

Welcome to my weekly segment, Waiting on Wednesday, where I look at upcoming books that I am planning to order and review in the next few months and which I think I will really enjoy. I run this segment in conjunction with the Can’t-Wait Wednesday meme that is currently running at Wishful Endings. Stay tuned to see reviews of these books when I get a copy of them. For my latest Waiting on Wednesday, I look at a cool upcoming thriller centred around a historical conspiracy that I know is going to be a ton of fun, The Omega Factor by Steve Berry.

The Omega Factor Cover

Over the last few years, I have been having an awesome time reading the extremely clever and entertaining novels from thriller author Steve Berry. Berry, who has been writing for nearly 20 years, is best known for his Cotton Malone series, which follows the titular protagonist as he investigates multiple crazy conspiracies and mysteries from histories which have the potential to impact the modern era. His last three Cotton Malone novels, The Malta Exchange, The Warsaw Protocol and The Kaiser’s Web, have all been extremely amazing, and I had a lot of fun exploring their complex and fascinating narratives and historical content.

As such, I was very excited when I saw that Berry had a new novel coming out in 2022, The Omega Factor. This new novel is not part of the Cotton Malone series, but instead will introduce a new protagonist, UNESCO investigator Nicholas Less, who will get caught up in a conspiracy involving the Ghent Altarpiece and a civil war between a secret order of nuns and the Vatican. Naturally, this crazy plot idea is extremely appealing to me, and I cannot wait to see how it turns out. The Omega Factor has a current release date of 7 June 2022, and I will probably try and grab an audiobook version of it. Based on my prior experience with Berry’s great writing, and the crazy synopsis below, I already know I am going to have an incredible time with this upcoming thriller, and I am very excited to fully explore The Omega Factor’s unique and entertaining historical conspiracy storyline.

Synopsis:

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—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 the twelfth panel for 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, 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.