coolreads # Retro Books # The Blood Gospel

The Blood Gospel
Authors: James Rollins and Rebecca Cantrell
Publisher: William Morrow
ISBN: 9780062247872
Year Published: 2013

As is the norm for most James Rollins thrillers, The Blood Gospel begins in the past, and this time, it goes back to a historic and brutal event, the Masada massacre.

The story starts off with our current timeline where Dr Erin Granger is excavating some ruins in Caesarea, Israel, when she gets alerted to the events that occurred in Masada, Israel, where an earthquake has taken place.

Beside Erin, the other main characters include Tommy, a young man who is facing the last days of his life as a result of skin cancer. However, due to certain strange miraculous happenings, Tommy becomes embroiled in the same events and soon realises that life is infinitely more complex than the cancer cells in his body.

Next is Jordan Stone who is the Special Forces soldier introduced in the City of Screams short story and here we get to know him better while Rhun Korza is the Vatican priest who is sent to investigate the strange events of Masada where he encounters Erin, Jordan and a few others who have their own interests and agendas. Thus begin the events that form the crux of the plot of Blood Gospel.

Meanwhile, the earthquake in Masada, besides killing hundreds, also has also revealed a tomb buried in the heart of the mountain. Jordan, Rhun and Erin are quickly dispatched to check out the macabre discovery - a subterranean temple holding the crucified body of a mummified girl.

Unfortunately, a brutal attack at the site sets the three on the run, thrusting them into a race to recover what was once perserved in the tomb's sarcophagus - a book rumoured to have been written by Christ's own hand, a tome that is said to hold the secrets to His divinity.

The enemy who hounds them is like no other, a force of ancient evil directed by a leader of vain ambitions and cunning.

From crumbling tombs to splendorous churches, Erin and her two companions must confront a past that traces back thousands of years, to a time when ungodly beasts hunted the dark spaces of the world, to a moment in history when Christ made a miraculous offer, a pact of salvation for those who were damned for eternity.

Here is a novel that is explosive in its revelation of a secret history. Why do Catholic priests wear pectoral crosses? Why are they sworn to celibacy? And why does Catholicism insist that the consecration of wine during Mass results in its transformation to Christ's own blood? The answers all go back to a secret sect within the Vatican, one whispered as rumour but whose very existence was painted for all to see by Rembrandt himself, a shadowy order known simply as Sanguines.

This book shares all the characteristic trademarks of Rollins’ work. However, there is also the presence of Rebecca Cantrell who lends her excellent characterisation skills to create a hybrid product.

The book’s main plot is a grand mix of plot threads that feature a lot of secrets and rituals of the Catholic Church and the authors give us their reasons for these facts which make for an interesting read. There’s also the transposition of certain facts onto the story that add to the intrigue and, of course, with all the plot twists, it becomes hard to put down the book.

The authors deliver a story that is unlike anything they have written individually. Mixing fascinating mythological aspects with the supernatural and basing it in a contemporary setting, they give us a tale that will have the readers asking for more.