'The Fifth Gospel' - a Vatican thriller novel

VATICAN CITY, Rome, Italy - Welcome to the modern Vatican, where political intrigue and modern technology collide to produce a thriller that mixes religion, family, church history and politics into a neat, very readable package.

Oh, and there is a murder in the pages of The Fifth Gospel (Simon & Shuster, 2015).

Or is there?

The Fifth Gospel uses the history of the Shroud of Turin as a backdrop. And like any good novel, the book takes a small thread and pulls it, dragging the reader along with it.

It doesn't take much dragging. In fact, once the story launches and the reader realizes that history is being made - and revealed - it's a page turner just like something written by David Baldacci.

Baldacci, coincidently, endorsed the book and said "It will change the way you look at organized religion."

He hit the mark there. It's a book of revelations not only about the Roman Catholic Church, but what happened when the church split - east and west - a thousand years ago. And how the Shroud fits in to the schism that developed.

Ian Caldwell

Author Ian Caldwell has set the novel in the Vatican City, offering a glimpse into the life that goes on behind the walls of the tiny city-nation, home to the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church. The Fifth Gospel doesn't hammer religion. It uses historical incidents to weave the mystery.

The book was 10 years in the writing and publishing process. Its attention to detail and plot shows it.

Recommended reading for everyone. But one caution. This is no airplane book - unless you are flying from New York to Australia.

The book is on the bookshelves of the Watkins Glen Public Library.

'The Book of strange new things' - an earthbound review

WATKINS GLEN, New York - The Book of strange new things by Michel Faber is, indeed, a strange book itself.

It's part science fiction, part theological treatise and part counseling about loneliness, couples and long-distance relationships.

Oh. And throw in a multi-galaxy corporation that has established an outpost on a planet a gazillion miles (or was it light years?) from earth.

Still, the story of an earthly minister who travels to a colony where aliens are intrigued with the idea of Christianity works for the most part. And although the book runs slow in some spots, the relationship between the minister and the wife he left on earth (temporarily, temporarily!) is as intriguing as it is hard to watch.

The Book of strange new things is actually the Christian Bible and the pastor's interactions with the aliens are, well, I don't want to spoil it.

Michel Faber

By the way, I suppose it is entirely wrong to call the indigenous people on the planet aliens. It is, after all, their planet.

This  book is not an easy read, yet I couldn't stop slogging through it.

I have read that the author has announced that this tome is his last.

Well, it did take him 10 years to write it so he has earned his rest.

It's on the new book shelf at the Watkins Glen Public Library.

Hiaasen's new novel 'Bad Monkey' is good

WATKINS GLEN, New York - Carl Hiaasen's latest novel, Bad Monkey, isn't really about a bad monkey, although there is one it in. And he is bad. Oh my, he is bad.

Instead, Bad Monkey is a somewhat typical Hiaasen romp through the byzantine and bizarre world of South Florida politics and police. Bad Monkey at first seemed a little, well, too Hiaasen with characters acting so bizarre, you can't believe them. Even if they are supposed to reside in South Florida. Which is a bizarre place.

But there is no putting this book down. Within the first 100 pages most readers will be totally hooked and rooting for the protagonist of the book, a guy has been busted from his police post as a detective to the roach patrol - a restaurant food inspector. By the way, this book won't encourage you to do much restaurant dining in South Florida either.

How the main character got busted from cop to food inspector I really cannot write about here.  My granddaughter sometimes reads these posts. Right Samantha?

But you find out early in the first of the book. It involved a vacuum cleaner. I've said too much already.

Carl Hiaasen hardly needs any promotion from me. But this book is entertaining reading. It might help you bone up on your voodoo skills, too. For more on that, check out Bad Monkey.

A book about a man called Iscariot - as in Judas

WATKINS GLEN, New York, USA - There are challenging biographies and there are challenging biographies.

But Judas Iscariot, the ultimate Christian symbol of betrayal?

Hoo-boy!

In Iscariot, author Tosca Lee creates a fictional account of Judas Iscariot's life and times, leading from childhood to his suicide (by hanging himself). The work, although a novel, is based on years of research by Lee who also authored Demon: A Memoir and Havah: The Story of Eve - both bestsellers.

It's a fast-paced book, full of the kind of historical detail that makes such volumes easy to read. After all, you know how it ends. But getting there in this case is everything.

Tosca Lee

Lee builds a case that Judas was not the penultimate devil that most Christian theologians have made him out to be. If anything, he was more devout than the other apostles. But in a twisting and turning set of events, he ends up with the famous 30 pieces of silver.

It was a mistake and he knew it right away. But the book postulates  it was all way more complicated than that.

Iscariot is actually an uplifting book in many ways. And well worth reading.

It was good enough that I am on the trail of copies of Tosca Lee's two other works.