Chris Kuzneski, Sign of the Cross

Sign of the Cross

Chris Kuzneski

Jove, October 2006, $7.99

ISBN: 0515142115

Thirty miles north of Copenhagen in Helsingor, Denmark, Father Erik Jansen is crucified on a cross with a sign nailed to the top: "IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER". By the time touring students find the deceased, his corpse is rotted gray and birds are dining on his flesh. The next day, identical homicides occur in other parts of the world.

At the same time of the crucifixion murders, archeologist Dr. Charles Boyd leads a dig at the Middle Ages "Vacation Vatican haven underneath Orvieto, Italy. There he believes he will find a depository of scrolls; that is if he and his crew can locate the Catacombs that most of his peers classify on a par with the Loch Ness monster. Boyd proves right, as he and his assistant Maria Pelati make a discovery that would destroy Christianity. Now they are targets of several diverse groups, one of which is killing priests already, and another is sanctioned by the Vatican. Their only hope to stay alive long enough to show their finding from first century Rome to the world reside in the penitentiary in Pamplona, Spain where former MANIACS Jonathan Payne and David Jones linger waiting for "official" intervention.

Loosely echoing the Brown phenomena, SIGN OF THE CROSS is an action-packed Christian conspiracy thriller that goes full speed from the onset (with the murder of Father Erik) and never slows down until the final explanation of the finding. The fast-paced storyline grips the audience, as the plausibility of the discovery seems reasonable so that the too many cat and mouse encounters that follow appear possible. Though the cast in some ways come out of Brownian 101 casting, readers will appreciate Chris Kuzneski strong thriller that refreshes the Christian conspiracy sub-genre.