In this day and age, historians and historical novelists are reappraising long held views of ancient times, not least the foundations of Christianity. Which are that God sired a child with Mary, that Christ died on the cross taking the sins of mankind with him, after which He ascended to Heaven.
The Templar’s Secret by C. M. Palov, 515 pp, 2012 Penguin paperback. Available at Asia Books and leading bookshops, 350 baht
The four Gospels agree about this, though not regarding where the crucifixion took place. The New Testament has undergone several translations though the ages, a number of words and nuances changing each time. Then again, is it likely that Joseph accepted the role of cuckold?
The Good Book omits more of the life of Jesus than it includes. What did he do during the 20 years between His upsetting the tables of the moneylenders at the Temple and His baptism by John? The usual time for being on the cross is three days before the legs are broken. There is no mention of His legs having been broken.
Did Jesus spend only hours on the cross before being taken down? Still alive, did the two Marys make off with Him? To France, according to Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. To India, according to The Templar's Secret by American author C. M. Palov. In this novel, we are asked to believe that there was at least one more Gospel.
The Evangelium Gaspar was safeguarded by a Christian sect in India until the time of the Crusades, a Knight Templar sailing there brought it _ in Aramaic, engraved on three pieces of metal _ to Europe. Because the content contradicts the four known Gospels, it is hidden in different lands.
The reader isn't kept in the dark as to its message. Jesus tells his disciples that He is the son of man, not of God. And that he doesn't want a religion built on His divinity. If made public, it would remove the raison d'etre of Holy Mother Church. The Vatican wants the heretical Gospel found and destroyed.
The French king imprisoned and tortured the Templars in 1308, but their lips were sealed. The search continues to this day. Cardinal Franco, as bloodthirsty as he is religious, leads the search for Rome. Also after it is Caedmon Aisquith , a Templar expert, who believes that the people have the right to know.
The cardinal kidnaps Caedmon's daughter to ensure that if the Englishman does locate it first, he'll get her back in exchange. We are taken through France and Spain as the parts are recovered.
Needless to say, Franco never intended to keep his part of the bargain.
The Templar's Secret tells us a good deal about the church.
Shock Wave by John Sandford, 390 pp, 2012 Simon & Schuster paperback. Available at Asia Books and leading bookshops, 325 baht
Modern Ellery Queen
A New Yorker born and bred, I admit to having been in fewer than a dozen of the 50 United States of America. I grew up sharing the belief of many in the Big Apple that every place west of the Hudson River is "Indian country". Most what I know about the other states comes from books and movies.
From them I associate Texas with cowboys, Nevada with gambling, Alaska with Eskimos, Minnesota with the game of pool _ Jackie Gleason as "Minnesota Fats". Author John Sandford has now given me another reference for Minnesota: contemporary lawmen Virgil Flowers and Lucas Davenport. He writes about them sometimes together, sometimes in alternate books.
Virgil is with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Investigation. Lucas is a Minneapolis Police Force detective. Even when one is the protagonist in a crime story, it isn't unusual for the other to drift in and out of it. Their sleuthing in over 30 books has caught the public's imagination.
Shock Wave, featuring Virgil, is under review. Buildings are being blown up with loss of life in a Minnesota town. Virgil is assigned the case, his order from the woman governor who dislikes him _ the feeling is mutual _ to bring the bomber to justice.
The sleeper town is undergoing a revamp, property owners looking towards a lucrative future. Its businessmen will all benefit. Who could possibly oppose such progress? In their investigation, Virgil and his team find no leads. The common practice of adultery isn't looked on with suspicion.
As in each of his books Sandford gives the reader titbits about the state's history, customs, weather. There's rivalry, underhandedness, revenge. Money is at the bottom of most of it. Herrings are dragged before us, Virgil seeing through them while his team is fooled until he sets them straight.
A clue is that the explosive used is not C-4 but Plex. It remains to be found who obtained it. The man, a mathematics teacher, identified, Virgil concocts an elaborate ruse to get him to confess. It works, though he almost murders his mistress in the progress. Only the governor begrudges him his success.
Though bodies pile up and there are a few punch-ups, the author's detective fiction isn't action-packed. They bring to mind the two-generations-old Ellery Queen stories, in which the latter chapters were devoted to revealing whodunit after a long explanation about how it was arrived at.
