The Lost Pope

Cooper’s clichéd sixth novel featuring Harvard religion professor Cal Donovan (after 2022’s The Fourth Prophecy) centers on yet another discovery that could upend the Catholic Church. After Jesus’s crucifixion, Mary Magdalene fled to Egypt, where her teachings were recorded on a papyrus scroll that was later stolen. Papyrus restoration expert Samia Tedros discovers previously unseen fragments of Mary’s gospel, and she shares her find with Donovan, whose close friend, Rodrigo Da Silva, has just been elected Pope John XXIV. The new pontiff names Elisabetta Celestino, a beautiful nun whom Donovan had hoped would renounce the veil and marry him, as the Vatican’s first-ever female secretary of state, outraging conservative members of the church, who are determined to oust her. Before long, Donovan is tracking down Mary Magdalene’s long-lost papyrus in a far-fetched attempt to protect Elisabetta. Cooper’s plotting is too goofy to swallow, and rough prose (“Cal capitalized on the unexpected pleasure of being alone with her to open this chess match of the heart with a gambit he’d been contemplating”) makes matters worse. This is a letdown. Agent: Jill Marr, Sandra Dijkstra Literary. (June)