The Holy Truth

SUSPENSE: David Lipton comes to Sweden to pen a follow-up to his bestselling debut novel. He expects peace and quiet to recharge and escape from the rest of the world, but his purchase of academic texts from a professor’s estate lands him in a murder investigation, and in the crosshairs of professional hitmen. Secrets revealed are deeper than this writer bargained for, implicating a powerful religious group, the Temple of Scribes, known for guarding the Ark of Covenant, and whose leader will do anything to keep its activities hidden. David and Professor Sofie Parker discover the truth after top members of a secret society that exposes fraud and criminality are murdered. These two luck into important clues to the true nature of the Temple and a way to check its mounting influence, if they can avoid the hitmen.

This is an engaging narrative that will surprise many readers. The multi-faceted mystery keeps one invested and the story picks up pace early on. The narrative is told alternately from the point of view of the hitmen, villains, and protagonists, making it challenging to get all of the characters straight at first, especially if one is interrupted at any point. There is some weirdly specific product placement of technology and car makers that seemed out of place and slowed the flow of the narrator’s delivery in places and the protagonist himself is not very likable. Nonetheless, the juxtaposition of some deep academic theory with colloquial language employed by the characters made this a unique mystery to delve into.

These narrators bring something extra to the table, making this story more attention-grabbing than it otherwise would have been. They are both skilled at various accents and inflections and help the reader stay focused on the story when the text alone might allow for distractions.

Niki Price