Storyline re Ark is too well known & overplayed!! ( )

Father Anthony Fowler is on a mission: to find a candle stolen from a Jewish family that contains an ancient map of where the Ten Commandments are located. No sooner does he find it than he is swept up in an archeological expedition to find the lost Ark of the Covenant, and finds himself surrounded by archeologists, an out-of-work journalist whose life he once saved, a reclusive billionaire and bloodthirsty soldiers guarding the group while they work in a remote Jordanian valley. Among them is a traitor with ties to a terrorist group in the United States, patiently waiting for the perfect moment to destroy them all.

The book is intriguing, peopled with diverse people at war with one another, and the plot is fairly face paced. At points, it was difficult to remember who was who on the doomed expedition because of the large cast of characters. Fortunately, the author provided a cast listing in the back of the book, which helped immensely.

I also found some of the storytelling clunky. For example, after certain characters are introduced, there are large chunks of backstory given that seem unnecessary (though interesting) and slow the pace of the main plot. (I don't know if this is more standard in European thrillers than American ones; if so, that explains the issue.) I also found some of the prose to be awkward. However, this is a translation, which may explain some of the awkward wording.

Even with these weaknesses, I was engrossed in the story. Gomez-Jurado uses the thriller genre to portray the brutal face of prejudice, racism, and bigotry, deftly showing how humans create enemies. We strip others of their humanity, place our own inner evils upon them, and create a non-person that we can kill without reservation or remorse. He quotes Sam Keen's poem "How to Create an Enemy":

When your icon of the enemy is complete
you will be able to kill without guilt,
slaughter without shame.

The thing you destroy will have become
merely an enemy of God, an impediment
to the sacred dialectic of history.

Something to ponder when we hear news of wars, terrorist attacks, and the slaughter of innocent people. Something to ponder, too, when we find ourselves hating others and considering them to be the enemy.
( )

While not a book I would normally pick up I found this rather and interesting read. I enjoyed the characters quite a bit. The story was intriguing because of the different places the novel took me; from New York City, to Vienna, to Jordon. ( )

Fr. Anthony Fowler and journalist Andrea Otero return in this sequel to GOD'S SPY. After a slow and uneven start, things settle in nicely at around the 75 page mark, or when a pivotal expedition really gets underway. What follows is an enjoyable (but not terribly original) religious thriller with nothing short of the Ark of the Covenant as its objective. Where the protagonists are concerned, I continued to enjoy Fowler immensely (even though there's not much further character development for him in this one), whereas I can't recall finding Otero this unlikable in the first book, making it hard to really root for her, as being manipulative, greedy and self-centered are not endearing personality traits. Still, I felt sorry for her for one loss, at least. As for the story itself, there were some of the usual questionable plot points that didn't really detract from the larger narrative, but they were frustrating and could have been easily avoided or remedied. In the end, a solid if unoriginal story with some weak pacing at times and some inconsequential but questionable plot moments. ( )

This book starts in Vienna in 1943, two parents are attempting to find out if their eldest son is still alive after he was taken to a hospital by the Nazis. To try and get information from the doctor they offer him a gold filigree covered candle, the doctor claims that the boy is already dead and then when the parents leave the hospital he informs the SS. The parents leave behind another young son.

The story then shifts to the present day, the doctor has been hunted down as a suspected war criminal and the candle has been recovered because of course this is no ordinary candle it contains a piece of the Copper Scroll which gives the supposed location of The Ark of The Covenant. With the backing of a multi-billionaire and the Vatican a group of archeologists,mercenaries,a couple of cooks, a doctor, a reporter and a priest head off to the Jordanian desert to find it. Nobody in this group is to be trusted, as well as operatives from the CIA and Mossad they have been infiltrated by a terrorist and the mutli-billionaire is hiding something as well. The identity of the CIA operative is given fairly early on in the story but while Jurado may be trying to keep you guessing as to the identity of both the Mossad operative and the terrorist plus the multi-billionaires secret all are far to obvious.
The reporter is the lead female character and while I think that the author was trying to create a strong character what he actually created was an unlikeable bitch. I don't think it's a good sign if you keep hoping for the lea character to be killed. I might be being unfair, maybe he did create a strong character and something got lost in translation.

Overall a quick read but far too predictable.

( )