Tucker Malarkey Resurrection

Resurrection

Tucker Malarkey

Riverhead, Aug 2006, $24.95

ISBN: 159448919X

In 1947 London, Bernard Westerly visits nurse Gemma Bastian asking her if her internationally famous archeologist father Charles sent her any packages for "safekeeping". She says no. Two mornings later the telex arrives from Cairo informing her that her dad died and that money has been sent for her to come to Cairo to bury his ashes.

In Cairo, she heads to the house of Professor David Lezar, a colleague of her father. However, though he and others try to divert her from her father's last work, Gemma needs to see what he was dong. Soon she begins to suspect he was murdered perhaps by his friends. Finally trusting no one even the sons of David whom she is attracted to, Gemma learns that Charles' last project was finding the lost Gnostic Gospel written by Mary Magdalene with an emphasis on her relationship with Jesus; something the Church wants interred at any cost.

Giving credit to Elaine Pagels (see THE GNOSTIC GOSPELS) and embellishing on a real discovery just after WWII, Tucker Malarkey writes a terrific Christian thriller that will hook the Brownian crowd and others from start to finish. The action-packed story line focuses on the discovery of ancient texts that could shake the foundation of organized western religions especially Christianity as Gemma begins to believe that Mary Magdalene was the first gospel. Her need to know what happened to her father and what he found on his final project make for a thrilling read as fans will consider what if in the first century AD.

Harriet Klausner