The Blood Gospel is the first book of the Order of the Sanguines series, written by James Rollins and Rebecca Cantrell. Rollins has been a favorite of mine for years, but I was still dubious when I saw the co-author attached. Turns out I shouldn’t have been worried at all. I’m drawn to Rollins for his uncanny knack of tying deep scientific research with history and current events, and those hallmarks are all of The Blood Gospel. But Cantrell injects something that Rollins has never dabbled in — paranormal horror.
Dr. Erin Granger, archaeologist extraordinaire, is on assignment in Israel when a helicopter arrives, and her life is forever changed. Along the way she meets Jordan Stone, American soldier, and Rhun Korza, Vatican priest. Together, the three of them are plunged into a mystery as old as faith itself. They race from the Holy Land to Bavaria, and finally to the Holy See itself, chased relentlessly by a mysterious entity headed by “Him”.
The Blood Gospel is deep in Christian lore, much like the Da Vinci Code. I’ve seen Rollins compared to Dan Brown before, but to be honest, that is more of a compliment to Brown than it is to Rollins. Rollins is the standard, and next to him Brown is a poor imitation. It is rare for a work such as this to actually come off unbiased when it comes to religion — too often the Vatican is shown as manipulative and deceitful. Rollins and Cantrell take a different tactic, leaving the motivations of the church to be decided by the reader. Set against an immersive religious backdrop, the Blood Gospel deals as much with personal religion as it does formalized churches.
Despite my initial misgivings, I really liked this book. It does have a fair amount of blood and some really creepy moments, but for a book billed as a horror adventure, that shouldn’t be too surprising. I anxiously await the next installment.
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