Gary Mcavoy

The Jerusalem Scrolls is the latest installment of Gary McAvoy's Vatican Secret Archives series. It is fantastic as are all of the books in the series and the initial Magdalene Chronicles series. McAvoy recommends reading the books in order but I have not followed this advise and I don't think I suffered from skipping between the novels. The only real change in the stories is how the friendship between main characters Father Michael Donovan and Hana Sinclair has grown.

The publisher's summary:

Two young Israeli boys discover an ancient red clay jar in a hidden cave tucked away in the Judean Desert near Qumran. Inside the jar are several scrolls written by the Essenes two thousand years earlier, before the Great Jewish Revolt, including one legendary scroll engraved on silver that speaks of what may be the great Lost Treasures of Solomon buried around Jerusalem—consistent with the predictions of the fabled Copper Scroll discovered in 1947 near the Dead Sea. But one of the overlooked parchments turns out to be far more pivotal to Christianity than anything ever before discovered—a startling manuscript written by St. Paul himself that could rewrite religious history.

Father Michael Dominic and his friends are called to Jerusalem to inspect the silver scroll, but others are trying to get to the precious manuscripts first—members of a little known sect called the Mithraists, the chief rival to Christianity up to the fourth century...a wealthy Texas televangelist...an Egyptian antiquities broker...Israeli Mossad agents...and a cast of rogues each out for themselves.

The fiction here is inspired by the question of what if more scrolls were found? What if the scrolls disputed everything Christians believe today about the Resurrection? The plot weaves together archeology, history and religion which I find fascinating. There many twists and turns in the plot with the Vatican, Mossad, and illegal antiquities dealers all vying to obtain the silver scrolls as well as the parchments supposedly written by St. Paul. After a brief beginning, the story quickly becomes a murder mystery, an archeological hunt, a race through the Middle East and America to find the missing scrolls. Along the way we read about the ancient cult of Mithraism. I had never heard about this cult before so the information about it was a fun learning experience for me.

I thought it was odd that Father Michael Donovan and Hana Sinclair did not work as closely together as they have in previous novels. They are the main characters in the series. Father Donovan was prominent in the search for the scrolls though. The story had quite a few bad men searching for the scrolls and initially it was difficult figuring out who they were. I stopped my reading and returned to the beginning two chapters to set them straight in my mind. There were no problems afterward deciphering the characters.

I have always loved these treasure hunt mysteries ever since Dan Brown wrote the DaVinci Code. Brown created a new mystery sub-genre with his books and I have been reading five new authors who began writing these stories. McAvoy's stories always have a fantastical element to them as the treasure his characters are seeking dispute the main beliefs of Christianity. I use the word "fantastical" because I am a Christian. Those who are not Christians won't have this impression toward McAvoy's books.… (altro)

The story begins with a prologue in 33 C.E. in Jerusalem as Jesus is carrying his cross on the way to his crucifixion. Along the way, a woman offers him her veil to wipe his brow. The veil becomes soaked with his blood and his face is imprinted on it as well. This veil was never heard about until medieval times and the woman with the veil became known as Veronica. The legend says that she gave the veil to Mary Magdalene who placed it in the tomb of Jesus. It then disappeared for nearly 2,000 years until a Nazi soldier found it hidden in a church in Rennes-le-Chateau and brought it to Heinrich Himmler. Himmler loved the supernatural and he placed this idol in a secret vault in Wewelsburg Castle.

This story is fantastic! It has great characters and a very interesting story line. It's definitely a page turner. With several characters as priests, the plot centers around the Roman Catholic Church. The morals of each of them are different but most are given a positive spin by the author. The author wrote a note at the end of the story to tell the reader which parts of the book were true and which were fictional. I always find myself googling these references for more information because they are all so fascinating.

I have two more books in the Vatican Secret Archives to read before I am caught up with this series. It's an amazing treasure hunt and I highly recommend it to mystery fans.… (altro)

The publisher's summary:

A curious priest uncovers a mystifying secret... One that leads to a long-buried relic some will do anything to possess. Can he outwit adversaries who will stop at nothing to keep him from revealing an object that challenges history as we know it? Father Michael Dominic discovers a strangely constructed 13th-century puzzle hidden deep within the Vatican Secret Archives. With the help of his brilliant colleague, investigative journalist Hana Sinclair, solving the puzzle exposes a cleverly concealed map that marks the hiding place of a sacred artifact—one with shocking implications. From Rome to France and Switzerland, his search for the object finds Dominic pitted against deadly agents and a ruthless Russian oligarch. Desperate, he must choose between trusting an unlikely collection of possible allies—or certain death. As his enemies close in, can he survive and bring this staggering new secret to light, or will his pursuers bury it beside him in the cold, dark earth of a long-forgotten cave?

I loved this story. It was so much more entertaining than the first book in the series with its non-stop action and adventure. This treasure hunt begins in Rome, moves to France, then Milan and Switzerland and back to Rome. What happens with the newly found treasure? The reader does not know. It is up to the Pope to decide and we may find out in the 3rd book of this trilogy or we might never know. It really isn't that important to me. What I enjoyed is the hunt and back-stabbing among the characters. I was amused that Father Dominic hired 3 gypsies to help him in his quest. You don't see this in mystery novels too often and I thought it was a creative twist.… (altro)