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The year is 1991, and British police inspector Nigel Lyman has fallen from grace following a run as media darling after he solved a gruesome case involving a teacher who had dismembered several young students who attended a prestigious school. But then Lyman accidentally shot and killed another officer during a scuffle with some bad guys. Add to that the loss of his son in the Falklands war and the end of his marriage, and Lyman nearly reached his breaking point.
To top it off, he's been assigned to a seemingly insignificant but reopened case involving a powerful Vatican-connected Italian banker who presumably hanged himself off Blackfriars Bridge in London a year earlier. Like the labyrinths that will eventually provide pivotal clues, the path Lyman follows in solving the case will take turns that appear to lead directly to the center of the mystery, only to steer him in another direction entirely.
At the heart of the case is the legendary "Q" document, which is purported to be the gospel that the apostles Matthew, Mark and Luke used as source material for their own gospel accounts. It's believed to have been hidden away in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres in France. But before Lyman figures out the link to Q in Chartres, his investigation leads him to another French city, Amiens, and its cathedral --- plus a half-dozen or so people who play essential roles in the unraveling of a web of crime extending far beyond a London bridge.
It helps to get the characters straight right away: Guy Soury-Fontaine, tour guide at the Amiens Cathedral; Mariane, his sister, whose lover, Maurice Duval, mysteriously disappeared a year earlier; Joseph Koster, an American mathematician and architect who is smitten with Mariane; Archbishop Kazimierz Grabowski, Guy and Mariane's cousin who heads up the Vatican Bank; and Marco Scarcella, who has his hands in all manner of nefarious enterprises.
And then there's Countess Irene de Rochembaud, who is worthy of her own paragraph though she gets less ink in the book than the other main characters. But in this novel of superbly written scenes, the scene in which Koster meets the countess in a Paris park merits honorable mention. It provides a delightful respite from the gripping suspense that characterizes the novel as a whole.
All are in one way or another connected to the pursuit of Q, which is believed to contain passages that would undermine the foundations of Christianity. Some, of course, would love to find the document so they could threaten to expose its contents, while others want it in order to hide it all over again and protect the church. With so much at stake --- particularly the extraordinary sum of money that could fall into the hands of either camp should Q be found --- there is lots of opportunity for intrigue, corruption, murder, deception, mystery, greed and the like.
Based on a true incident, GOSPEL TRUTHS was first published in 1992 and is facing the prospect of a second successful run in light of the resurgence in popularity of religious thrillers. Sandom's novel, however, is no way typical of the current spate of Da Vinci wannabes; his is an outstanding accomplishment --- a beautifully written, intelligent, complex suspense novel. The plot and its various subplots hold together throughout, and the characters remain believable from start to finish --- a remarkable achievement considering the scope of Sandom's effort. Highly recommended.
--- Reviewed by Marcia Ford. You may contact her at misfit@marciaford.com.
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