The Testament

July 31, 2006
Bestseller Lustbader (The Bourne Legacy
) jumps on the Da Vinci Code
bandwagon with this high-octane but familiar tale of yet another lost gospel that would rock the Catholic world. This time, the secret for which the faithful are not prepared is that Jesus was restored to life by "The Quintessence," the mysterious fifth element, rather than by divine assistance. Competing secret factions, of course, pursue this substance, with its promise of eternal life, plus a fragment of the Testament of Jesus Christ
, which confirms its existence. The cloak-and-dagger war draws in Bravo Shaw, a medieval scholar whose father was a secret member of the centuries-old Order of the Gnostic Observatines before the repressive Knights of St. Clement murdered him. With the help of Jenny Logan, another Gnostic Observatine agent, Bravo dodges death and betrayal every few pages. Dan Brown fans who like their thrillers dressed up with research and ingenious puzzles won't find much of that here, but the action-packed story will keep them turning the pages anyway.

Here's another mystery spawned by the DA VINCI CODE, and, like its precursor, it's got more than a few surprises. Not surprising, however, is the fluid way Don Leslie handles the long, engaging story. Bravo (short for Braverman) Shaw succeeds his father in attempting to safeguard a testament believed to have been created by Christ. Naturally, an order of knights, ostensibly commissioned by the Church, also wants the prize and is willing to do anything, including committing multiple murders, to get it and the secrets it holds. Leslie maneuvers through a host of characters and complex scenarios, keeping the listener at attention. A.L.H. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine


Eric Conger does his best to make Van Lustbader's novel more than it is--yet another story about an ancient religious order that exists only to protect some dreadful secret that could bring down the modern Church. Conger goes through verbal gymnastics as he produces a United Nations of accents and gives each character a credible voice. But not even his efforts can disguise this boilerplate plot of a man who finds himself embroiled in conflict as he solves impossible puzzles that lead to a cache of secret stuff. Along the way, he falls in love with a beautiful woman. On the creepy side, the woman is his late father's mistress, and they fall in love in 8.2 seconds. Yeah, sure. M.S. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine