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The Living Thread - Chapter 1

The Kept House

The basement smelled like the inside of a church - not incense exactly, but something older than incense.

Published April 4, 2026 The Living Thread - Chapter 2

The Landline

The envelope contained three things.

Published April 4, 2026 The Living Thread - Chapter 3

The Crossing

He left Alton at five-thirty, which gave him more time than he needed and which was, he recognized, not an accident.

Published April 4, 2026 The Living Thread - Chapter 4

The Four

There were three of them in the pew, and they looked at him the way people look at someone they have been expecting but are not entirely sur...

Published April 5, 2026 The Lost Crown - Chapter 1

The Night Before the Arrest

The knight's name was Gaufred de Montbrun, and he had known for eleven days that he was going to be arrested.

Published April 9, 2026 The Living Thread - Chapter 5

What the Compass Does

Three days after the first Thursday meeting, Joshua went back to the library.

Published April 13, 2026 The Lost Crown - Chapter 2

The Psalter of Mas-Dieu

The man who found it was not looking for it.

Published April 16, 2026 The Living Thread - Chapter 6

Thursday Again

He told himself he was going back because of the books.

Published April 20, 2026 The Lost Crown - Chapter 3

The Archive, Late

The Vatican Apostolic Archive closes at five o'clock in the afternoon.

Published April 23, 2026 The Living Thread - Chapter 7

The Cipher

He had been sitting on it for two weeks, which was long enough that bringing it up felt like a confession.

Published April 27, 2026 The Lost Crown - Chapter 4

The Archivist of Barcelona

Pere Camprubí received the package on a Tuesday in June of 1891 and set it aside until Thursday.

Published April 30, 2026 The Living Thread - Chapter 8

Tuesday Morning

Ambrose had told him to go to Mass on a weekday.

Published May 4, 2026 The Lost Crown - Chapter 5

What Ockham Began

This chapter has no documents.

Published May 7, 2026 The Living Thread - Chapter 9

The Safety Deposit Box

He had been putting it off for three weeks, which was long enough that he had stopped pretending it was anything other than avoidance.

Published May 11, 2026 The Lost Crown - Chapter 6

The Vendée, 1793

What follows is drawn from two sources: a parish register from Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre, and a deposition taken in 1796 from one Marie-Anne F...

Published May 14, 2026 The Living Thread - Chapter 10

What Ambrose Says

He had not planned to tell Ambrose about Tuesday morning.

Published May 18, 2026 The Lost Crown - Chapter 7

Prague, 1942

What follows is drawn from a set of handwritten notes found inside a chalice case in the possession of Teodor Maren at his death, and from a...

Published May 21, 2026 The Living Thread - Chapter 11

The Colleague

The email from Paul Whitfield arrived on a Wednesday, which was the day Joshua usually spent in the library.

Published May 25, 2026 The Lost Crown - Chapter 8

The Letter from Rome, 2023

What follows is a recovered email correspondence between Teodor Maren and Dr. Mara Leclerc of the Vatican Apostolic Archive, conducted betwe...

Published May 28, 2026 The Living Thread - Chapter 12

The Name

He had written to Mara Leclerc on a Wednesday evening, which was three days after Ambrose had given him her name and eleven days after he ha...

Published June 1, 2026 The Lost Crown - Chapter 9

The Dissolution, 1540

What follows is reconstructed from three sources: a letter from Prior Edmund Holt of Rievaulx to an unknown recipient, dated October 1539; a...

Published June 4, 2026 The Living Thread - Chapter 13

The Invitation

The invitation arrived at the end of the meeting, in the way that things arrived from Ambrose - not announced, not prepared for, simply pres...

Published June 8, 2026 The Lost Crown - Chapter 10

The Reasonable Age

What follows is drawn from the working journal of Father Sébastien Renard, SJ, kept between 1748 and 1771, recovered from the library of the...

Published June 11, 2026 The Living Thread - Chapter 14

The Drive South

He left Alton at seven on a Friday morning in the first week of July, which gave him three hours for a drive that should have taken two.

Published June 15, 2026