The Jesus Thief The Jesus Thief series Book 1 edition by J R Lankford Mystery Thriller Suspense eBooks
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*Starred Review* Two novels have been published this year in the odd genre of Christ cloning James BeauSeigneur's In His Image, and Lankford's Jesus Thief. Lankford's narrative is as eccentric as BeauSeigneur's, but she's more interested in characterization than technical background. Her Dr. Frankenstein is a rich physician named Felix Rossi, who, with elaborate subterfuge, manages to steal some threads from the shroud of Turin. Rossi believes himself an agent of the Second Coming. He prevails upon his long-suffering girlfriend to be his Mary, but she retreats in horror. Maggie Johnson, the maid, volunteers. As it happens, she's black. And a virgin. This is great stuff, and while Lankford's thriller plot occasionally intrudes, the delightful Maggie keeps everything on track. John Mort
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Review
"A gripping and original novel ... raging controversy ... sharply written, thoroughly entertaining, thoughtful and thought-provoking" -- Midwest Book Review
"It's all tremendous, page-turning fun." -- John Grant, Co-Editor Encyclopedia of Fantasy
"The Jesus Thief is a fascinating thriller [with] excellent symbolism ... Its pace rockets along to a touching conclusion. -- Heartland Reviews
2003 Book of the Year Award Finalist -- ForeWord Magazine
2004 Best First Fiction Finalist -- PMA Benjamin Franklin Awards
A marvelous novel...lucid and accomplished with an utterly riveting plot that twists and turns to a thrilling conclusion." -- BookBrowse
A taut thriller that tackles religion with as much aplomb as it does the science behind cloning -- Relevant Magazine
Not since Michael Chrichton has a novelist offered such a believable glimpse into [cloning]... Keep your eye on this author. -- Books Monthly
The science is impeccable, the writing superb, the plot exciting, the climax breathtaking. -- ThisChristianLife.com
Product Description
Hours before his dream of examining the Shroud of Turin is about to come true, renowned New York scientist Felix Rossi, a devout Catholic, learns from his sister, Frances, that their parents were Jews who escaped Nazi Italy. In religious turmoil, Felix steals bloody threads from the Shroud, which many believe to be the burial cloth of Christ. Meanwhile, back at his palatial Fifth Avenue home, his maid, Maggie, finds journals in which Felix has poured out a hidden obsession -- to master and perform human cloning. Will Felix successfully smuggle the threads out of Italy and into New York and what will he do with them, if so? How will Maggie's discovery complicate his plans? Will they come to the attention of the powerful man who lives in the penthouse above Felix, a mysterious Theomund Brown? Maggie's friend, Sam the doorman, secretly knows Brown. How far will Sam's allegiance to him go?
The Jesus Thief is a story of lost family ties and a lost identity, of a devout man’s search for God, a powerful man’s fear of a Jesus clone, and a poor woman’s yearning to be special.
The Jesus Thief The Jesus Thief series Book 1 edition by J R Lankford Mystery Thriller Suspense eBooks
The cloning of Christ has seen many resurrections in recent popular fiction ranging from the purely suspenseful with John Case's Genesis Code to the apocalyptic with Beauseigneur's Christ Clone Trilogy. The "Jesus Thief" crosses the thriller boundary with a predictable story line where the emphasis is on faith and sacrifice rather than dodging the bullets created by a temporarily mad scientist's desire to vanquish the guilt of the Jews with regard to the killing of Christ.Felix Rossi is the angst-ridden microbiologist and member of a team of international scientists commissioned to study the Shroud of Turin. When he discovers that his late beloved parents were actually Jews who had renounced their heritage to escape Hitler's Europe, Felix runs emotionally amok. Although, he debates the ethical consequences of his actions, he, nevertheless, steals threads from the Shroud, harvests the DNA from dried blood and implants it within the willing body of his loyal yet out-spoken New York maid.
In this regard, Lankford seems to know her stuff, and if all the details are simply imagined, she does a thorough job of specifying procedures and examinations, so much so that I found myself wincing and cringing more than once. However, if Lankford intended her story to be primarily a thriller, this necessity for technical perfection, at times muddles the pace of the book, as do the exacting manifestations of the devout faith all the main characters possess. Felix, his sister and cohort, Frances and Maggie, the modern-day Mary enviably begin each activity however mundane with communications with the Almighty, causing me to wonder whether the story line was meant to convey the power of such simple yet perfect faith rather than masquerade as a vehicle that has possibilities of becoming a feature film or a television movie.
If so, the real strength of Lankford's power as a storyteller does not lie in recreating a Christmas story for the 21st century with themes of racial acceptance (Maggie as an African American contributes a percentage of her gene material to the holy clone), identity crisis (Felix's uncomfortable feelings about his unknown heritage) and scientific ethics (the cloning question is looked at from a variety of aspects in general), but in her uncanny ability to demonstrate love between two unlikely people. The scenes between Sam, the Irish doorman, and Maggie sparkle with honesty, affection and mutual respect yet are infused with so much sexual heat, their passion glows from the page into the reader's soul as if by magic. Brava and encore, Ms. Lankford!
Because the story does border on perfection in these instances, the reader is ultimately let down by the events of the story, revolving around the sacrifice necessary to preserve the life of the great experiment at the expense of all four of the main characters. Instead of triggering an uplifting sense of the future where the knowledge of Christ's 'second coming' should exact some jubilation, the reader empathizes with the resigned attitudes of all the major players. A feeling of doom presages a repeat performance of the first coming 2000 years earlier, as augured by the symbolic usage of the thorns and dogwood cited in the very last paragraph.
The novel's villain, a King Herod-wannabe outwitted by Joseph (Sam the doorman) and guided by a magi of his own fears the birth of the child foretold in an astrological chart, remains a viable threat. Although trounced, he seems ready play a big part in a sequel perhaps currently in the workings where further confrontations with the growing child will prove challenging in a sort of reverse Omen type trilogy.
Recommended to all those who love a retelling of the Nativity story. Subtract a star if you dislike too many pages devoted to medical how-to or if you are a romantic at heart and would have liked a happier ending involving two of the most deserving characters.
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The Jesus Thief The Jesus Thief series Book 1 edition by J R Lankford Mystery Thriller Suspense eBooks Reviews
The Jesus Thief
The plot was so current and facts seemed to be in line with ongoing investigations. Was really getting into the book-29% on the . Then blindsided by descriptive sexual content. TMI Too much information. What a waste! As adults some of us don't need smut to enhance our reading pleasure. I deleted it off all of my devises. So sorry there was not an alert, before I got caught up in the tale.
What sets lankford's book about from other mystery/thrillers is the
engaging quality of her writing and the sense that immersing yourself
in this page-turner is time very well spent indeed. I would be pressing
my copy into the hands of friends and family except that I want to keep i
t for myself and start reading it again soon.
The story meshes an exciting speculative science concept with an
intriguing bit of theological fiction. Suppose that it were possible to
clone a human being using a bit of dried blood as the starting point
for DNA. Suppose that the blood were blood from the shroud of turin
and that the shroud were actually the winding-cloth of a certain Yehoshua
of Nazareth. Suppose that this person actually was the promised messiah
and now you have-quite literally-the second coming of christ.
So what would happen if people believed that their messiah had returned
to earth? We have some clues. There's Dostoevski's Grand Inquisitor chapter
in Brothers. There are the followers of the mahdi in the 19th century and
perhaps a few others.
What Lankford has done is deflect some of this speculation-putting it off
'til a sequel-in favor of the action-laden story of getting the job done. There
is a lot more to this book than is necessary to tell the basic 'cloning Christ'
story and the beauty of the set-up is that it involves the reader personally in the story.
A good read and a great set-up for the next volume which will tell us what happens
when the word gets out.
--Lynn Hoffman, author of bang-BANG isbn 1601640005
The cloning of Christ has seen many resurrections in recent popular fiction ranging from the purely suspenseful with John Case's Genesis Code to the apocalyptic with Beauseigneur's Christ Clone Trilogy. The "Jesus Thief" crosses the thriller boundary with a predictable story line where the emphasis is on faith and sacrifice rather than dodging the bullets created by a temporarily mad scientist's desire to vanquish the guilt of the Jews with regard to the killing of Christ.
Felix Rossi is the angst-ridden microbiologist and member of a team of international scientists commissioned to study the Shroud of Turin. When he discovers that his late beloved parents were actually Jews who had renounced their heritage to escape Hitler's Europe, Felix runs emotionally amok. Although, he debates the ethical consequences of his actions, he, nevertheless, steals threads from the Shroud, harvests the DNA from dried blood and implants it within the willing body of his loyal yet out-spoken New York maid.
In this regard, Lankford seems to know her stuff, and if all the details are simply imagined, she does a thorough job of specifying procedures and examinations, so much so that I found myself wincing and cringing more than once. However, if Lankford intended her story to be primarily a thriller, this necessity for technical perfection, at times muddles the pace of the book, as do the exacting manifestations of the devout faith all the main characters possess. Felix, his sister and cohort, Frances and Maggie, the modern-day Mary enviably begin each activity however mundane with communications with the Almighty, causing me to wonder whether the story line was meant to convey the power of such simple yet perfect faith rather than masquerade as a vehicle that has possibilities of becoming a feature film or a television movie.
If so, the real strength of Lankford's power as a storyteller does not lie in recreating a Christmas story for the 21st century with themes of racial acceptance (Maggie as an African American contributes a percentage of her gene material to the holy clone), identity crisis (Felix's uncomfortable feelings about his unknown heritage) and scientific ethics (the cloning question is looked at from a variety of aspects in general), but in her uncanny ability to demonstrate love between two unlikely people. The scenes between Sam, the Irish doorman, and Maggie sparkle with honesty, affection and mutual respect yet are infused with so much sexual heat, their passion glows from the page into the reader's soul as if by magic. Brava and encore, Ms. Lankford!
Because the story does border on perfection in these instances, the reader is ultimately let down by the events of the story, revolving around the sacrifice necessary to preserve the life of the great experiment at the expense of all four of the main characters. Instead of triggering an uplifting sense of the future where the knowledge of Christ's 'second coming' should exact some jubilation, the reader empathizes with the resigned attitudes of all the major players. A feeling of doom presages a repeat performance of the first coming 2000 years earlier, as augured by the symbolic usage of the thorns and dogwood cited in the very last paragraph.
The novel's villain, a King Herod-wannabe outwitted by Joseph (Sam the doorman) and guided by a magi of his own fears the birth of the child foretold in an astrological chart, remains a viable threat. Although trounced, he seems ready play a big part in a sequel perhaps currently in the workings where further confrontations with the growing child will prove challenging in a sort of reverse Omen type trilogy.
Recommended to all those who love a retelling of the Nativity story. Subtract a star if you dislike too many pages devoted to medical how-to or if you are a romantic at heart and would have liked a happier ending involving two of the most deserving characters.
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