April 2003: As his nation descends into chaos, an Iraqi boy loots an ancient clay tablet from a long-forgotten vault in the Baghdad Museum of Antiquities—unaware that his actions could ignite the war to end all wars.
Years later, on the eve of a historic Israeli-Palestinian peace accord, bodyguards for Israel's prime minister gun down a possible assassin—and discover a blood-stained note clutched in the dead man's hand.
With Middle Eastern tensions rapidly reaching the boiling point—in the wake of a frightening wave of seemingly random revenge killings—Maggie Costello is sent by Washington to try to keep the peace. A government negotiator with old sins to atone for, she immediately comes face-to-face with ancient secrets, extremist violence, and sudden, inexplicable death. For Maggie seems to hold the key to the last unsolved riddle of the Bible—a shocking revelation that could end the world's most bitter conflict . . . or leave the earth in ruins.
Israel and Palestine are about to sign a historic peace treaty. When a seemingly unmotivated series of killings puts the treaty in jeopardy, U.S. government peace negotiator Maggie Costello is tasked with finding out what’s going on. She is shocked to learn not only that the victims have been carefully chosen but also that they are being killed to protect a secret that, if it were revealed, could alter the very history of Christianity itself. The book bears a slight similarity to Kathleen McGowan’s The Book of Love (2009), about the purported discovery of a gospel written by Jesus, but this one has stronger political overtones. The avalanche of thrillers involving religious conspiracies—thank you, Da Vinci Code—continues apace, and they range from the excellent to the execrable. Rate this one somewhere nearer the former than the latter, although many readers might find themselves, not long after they finish the book, trying in vain to keep it straight from all the others of a similar ilk. --David Pitt
Description:
April 2003: As his nation descends into chaos, an Iraqi boy loots an ancient clay tablet from a long-forgotten vault in the Baghdad Museum of Antiquities—unaware that his actions could ignite the war to end all wars.
Years later, on the eve of a historic Israeli-Palestinian peace accord, bodyguards for Israel's prime minister gun down a possible assassin—and discover a blood-stained note clutched in the dead man's hand.
With Middle Eastern tensions rapidly reaching the boiling point—in the wake of a frightening wave of seemingly random revenge killings—Maggie Costello is sent by Washington to try to keep the peace. A government negotiator with old sins to atone for, she immediately comes face-to-face with ancient secrets, extremist violence, and sudden, inexplicable death. For Maggie seems to hold the key to the last unsolved riddle of the Bible—a shocking revelation that could end the world's most bitter conflict . . . or leave the earth in ruins.
From Publishers Weekly
Bestseller Bourne (the pseudonym of British journalist Jonathan Freedland) follows his 2006 debut, The Righteous Men, with another Jewish-themed thriller, a cliché-ridden hodgepodge. Weeks before a closely fought U.S. presidential election, disgraced diplomat Maggie Costello comes out of self-imposed exile to mediate a final Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement. When a prominent right-wing academic, Shimon Guttman, tries to reach the Israeli prime minister with an urgent message during a peace rally, security guards gun him down because they fear he was trying to assassinate the prime minister. Costello joins with Guttman's son to track down the secret his father uncovered that could radically affect the negotiations. Bourne does nothing to endear Costello to readers by revealing the reason for her earlier diplomatic disgrace. The ludicrous denouement involves a high-ranking official confessing to all his misdeeds while unknowingly being filmed on a Web cam. (May)
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From Booklist
Israel and Palestine are about to sign a historic peace treaty. When a seemingly unmotivated series of killings puts the treaty in jeopardy, U.S. government peace negotiator Maggie Costello is tasked with finding out what’s going on. She is shocked to learn not only that the victims have been carefully chosen but also that they are being killed to protect a secret that, if it were revealed, could alter the very history of Christianity itself. The book bears a slight similarity to Kathleen McGowan’s The Book of Love (2009), about the purported discovery of a gospel written by Jesus, but this one has stronger political overtones. The avalanche of thrillers involving religious conspiracies—thank you, Da Vinci Code—continues apace, and they range from the excellent to the execrable. Rate this one somewhere nearer the former than the latter, although many readers might find themselves, not long after they finish the book, trying in vain to keep it straight from all the others of a similar ilk. --David Pitt