Eric Van Lustbader
Description
Product Description
The new international thriller from the
New York Times bestselling author of
The Bourne Legacy
Braverman Shaw—“Bravo” to his fri
...
ends—always knew his father had secrets. But not until Dexter Shaw dies in a mysterious explosion does Bravo discover the enormity of his father’s hidden life as a high-ranking member of the Order of Gnostic Observatines, a sect founded by followers of St. Francis of Assisi and believed to have been wiped out centuries ago. For more than eight hundred years, the Order has preserved an ancient cache of documents, including a long-lost Testament attributed to Christ that could shake Christianity to its foundations. Dexter Shaw was the latest Keeper of the Testament—and Bravo is his chosen successor.
Before Dexter died, he hid the cache where only Bravo could find it. Now Bravo, an accomplished medieval scholar and cryptanalyst, must follow the esoteric clues his father left behind. His companion in this quest is Jenny Logan, a driven young woman with secrets of her own. Jenny is a Guardian, assigned by the Order to protect Bravo, or so she claims. Bravo soon learns that he can trust no one where the Testament is concerned, perhaps not even Jenny . . .
Another secret society, the Knights of St. Clement, originally founded and sponsored by the Papacy, has been after the Order’s precious cache since the time of the Crusades. The Knights, agents and assassins, will stop at nothing to obtain the treasure. Bravo has become both a target and a pawn in an ongoing war far larger and more deadly than any he could have imagined.
From Publishers Weekly
Bestseller Lustbader (
The Bourne Legacy) jumps on the
Da Vinci Code bandwagon with this high-octane but familiar tale of yet another lost gospel that would rock the Catholic world. This time, the secret for which the faithful are not prepared is that Jesus was restored to life by "The Quintessence," the mysterious fifth element, rather than by divine assistance. Competing secret factions, of course, pursue this substance, with its promise of eternal life, plus a fragment of the
Testament of Jesus Christ, which confirms its existence. The cloak-and-dagger war draws in Bravo Shaw, a medieval scholar whose father was a secret member of the centuries-old Order of the Gnostic Observatines before the repressive Knights of St. Clement murdered him. With the help of Jenny Logan, another Gnostic Observatine agent, Bravo dodges death and betrayal every few pages. Dan Brown fans who like their thrillers dressed up with research and ingenious puzzles won't find much of that here, but the action-packed story will keep them turning the pages anyway.
(Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
After Braverman "Bravo" Shaw's father dies unexpectedly (and under very suspicious circumstances), Bravo discovers that Dad was a member of an ancient and secret religious order charged with guarding a document, allegedly written by Christ himself--yes, it's another of those artifacts that could tear apart Christianity. Bravo, a cryptanalyst and medieval-history expert, teams up with a young woman who claims to be a member of the order, and together they attempt to find Christ's testament. One more shameless rip-off of
The Da Vinci Code? Not quite. For hard-core fans of the -religious-historical thriller, there is just (barely) enough originality here to make the story palatable. Van Lustbader's characters aren't exactly the same as Brown's, and the plot doesn't unfold precisely the way Brown's does, so if you're consumed with Christian conspiracy theories, you're likely to focus on what's new and ignore the many similarities between the two books. And with genre veteran Van Lustbader a card-carrying member of the plotcentric school, there are no worries about complex characters getting in the way of the action.
David Pitt
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