About
Reviews
Search
Submit
Home

Mystery Books for Sale

[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]


  

SECRET OF THE SCROLL
by Chester D. Campbell
Durban House, July 2002
243 pages
$15.95
ISBN: 1930754248


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Khaled Assah is a young student at the University of Jordan who is working on an archaeological dig when he stumbles upon a hidden cave. Within the cave, he finds a reddish-brown clay jar which resembles the pots that held the Dead Sea Scrolls dating from the first century A.D. Against all odds, it appears that this unassuming student has found a priceless relic. The secrets of the scroll, once unraveled, will reveal the hiding place of some gold and silver lampstands (also known as menorah) spirited from Solomon's temple in 587 BC. Unfortunately, he loses possession of the scroll and it becomes the object of a quest by groups of Palestinians and Israelis.

Greg McKenzie is a retired Air Force criminal investigator. He and his wife, Jill, are taking a tour of the Middle East with their Sunday School class, mostly seniors from Nashville, Tennessee. Greg is glad of the respite from his problems at home, having been involved in some situations that had made him a persona non grata with the Nashville Police Department. Greg is a man of volatile temper and exceptional stubbornness, traits that do not serve him well for the most part. For some reason, during part of their tour, he and Jill face a very persistent souvenir salesperson who insists that they buy a jar containing a parchment scroll. Unbeknownst to Greg and Jill, they are being used as instruments to transport the scroll to the United States. From the point that they acquire the scroll, the narrative focuses on the efforts of various evil Middle Eastern types to get the scroll back.

Threats and force do not work, so the villains resort to kidnapping Jill. McKenzie, being a former investigator, thinks he knows better than anyone else about how to get her back, but all of his efforts are totally misguided. There are several meets set up, but Greg never brings the scroll to trade for his wife. Frustrated, the villains end up spiriting Jill away back to Israel, and Greg follows in an attempt to free her. After some rather incendiary face-offs, the situation is tidily resolved.

Campbell has a very smooth writing style which made the actual reading of the book very enjoyable. Up until about the halfway point, I was engaged in the story and enjoying the characters. However, he ended up turning his irascible protagonist into someone who was not very likable for the long haul. His pigheadedness in playing games with the villains while his wife's life hung in the balance struck me as sheer stupidity after a while. I got tired of his bluster. In addition, the plot became very implausible to me from the point that the villains took Jill back to Israel. Why would they have bothered? Why would they not have either escalated the violence against Greg so that he would give up the scroll or killed the hostage to display their seriousness about their intentions? I felt like he lost control of the plot in an effort to make it complex. It was hard to believe that possession of the scroll could be the trigger for World War III, for example. Every single thread was neatly tied at the conclusion of the book, which felt contrived and implausible.

What started out as a good read fizzled out for me over the course of the book. Campbell has excellent writing skills and has the potential for more than was achieved in this book.

Reviewed by Maddy Van Hertbruggen, December 2002

This book has more than one review. Click here to show all.

[ Top ]


QUICK SEARCH:

 

Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]