Review - The Lucifer Gospel

The Lucifer Gospel by Paul Christopher (2006) is a follow-up to Michelangelo's Notebook (which I reviewed a few days ago - here). I'll make my review a quick read, matching the book itself.

Once again we follow the exploits of the intrepid Finn Ryan, who has changed academic fields and is manipulated into the midst of a globetrotting adventure (why it's her is sketchy; she has some family connection to some of the principals - so?). This one concerns a heretofore hidden gospel, and, if you think from the title that it's the Devil's, you will be disappointed.

As I wrote in the earlier review, the characters are drawn in broad terms, and the book seems to want to capitalize on Da Vinci Code fever (Dan Brown is mentioned at least three times; even if you want to forgive him for his own novels, it's hard to let him off the hook for spawning the inspired-by imitators that have followed in his wake). Christopher does show progress in his description of places, especially in the early Cairo scenes, but shows no greater insight into the people than before. (He does appear to have spent his proceeds from the first book on extensive travel.)

I'll mention two major problems, and then move along. First, the need of novels and television shows to tie into World War II has created some preposterous situations. The war was a monumental event with many facets, but it's more than 60 years in the past. For example, a recent episode of Cold Case was framed around the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII. The drama was fine, typically well-written, but it required us to believe that there were numerous people close to 100 years old, hale and hearty, with exact recall of the events of 1942. [That they had all moved to Philadelphia was another problem entirely.] In the Lucifer Gospel, certain events took place in 1939, and many of the principals were still around, sneaking into hotel rooms and shooting people. It's about time to retire the World War II plotlines, if an author insists on providing living characters.

The second problem with the book (I've never really been fond of the "Spoiler Alert" idea; a review should be free to talk about the whole book, but it's hard to reconcile that with the fact that reviews are read before the books on which they're based, so consider this note a spoiler alert) is the ending, in which the Gospel for which rich men were willing to kill is thrown off a cruise ship. Christopher does a poor job of establishing its importance (some readers have problems with exposition scenes, so Christopher writes them so briefly that there is no explanation at all). Why this gospel is so powerful is never stated, and undercuts the purpose of the book. That we never get to read the Lucifer Gospel is, in the end, the fatal flaw of the book that bears its name.