Customer Reviews

A thriller of unrelenting, thought-provoking, and all-too-plausible suspense
Julia Navarro's second novel The Bible of Clay" follows in style of her first best-seller "The Brotherhood of the Holy Shroud". From different perspectives the story develops. In substance two secret societies clashes which share a dreadful past. Their search for the mysterious first version of the bible in Iraq is a ruthless race against time as the US invasion is getting close. The main character is a young archaeologist called Clara Tannenberg who only emerges over time and - maybe a bit too late - as the lead character. She will discover family secrets related to her beloved grandfather.

The story is very much based in the present and recent political events are the background for this novel. This is quite a change from the previous novel where past and present are nearly on an equal footing. But of course th the past is very presnt here too. Nice for a change is that the Vatican is not cast in the "usual" role of the evil incarnated. The plot gets better and better as the story develops, but - as with her first novel - one gets hooked very quickly. Nothing is as it seems to be at first glance.

Getting into the story is a bit hampered by too many characters that emerge too quickly and one has sometimes problems to keep them apart and put them into the right camp. A bit on the negative side is that the characters are too much stereotypes and a bit more subtleties would have been nice.

All in all, Julia Navarra has consolidated her reputation as one of the great mystery writers. She can easily hold her own among the longer established writers. For those who enjoy mysteries based in history but with a current international plot will not be disappointed.

The Desert Has Kept a Secret Buried for Thousands of Years

Julia Navarro is a well known journalist in Madrid. She is currently a political analyst for Agencia OTR/Europa Press and a correspondent for other prominent Spanish radio and television networks and print media. This is her first novel. It was a number one best seller when it was published in Spain and is now being published throughout the world.

This is an interesting and exciting suspense thriller that revolves around the discovery of an important biblical discovery far out in the remote region of the Iraqi desert. It is one of those books where the good guys have to find the `treasure' before the bad guys, but don't be put off by that. It is well written and the plot is well thought out. This puts it far and away above most of the dross that has been written recently, grabbing on to the shirt tails of Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code.

A race to find a cache of sacred texts inscribed on clay tablets. Tablets that predate the Bible by a thousands years and said to contain Abraham's account of the story of Creation, is hampered by rumours of the imminent invasion of Iraq. This is the start of a book that will keep the reader interested from beginning to end.

Clichéd and simply boring
This book is choppy, clichéd and badly written.

I first thought I was reading the first draft of the book, but unfortunately not. The idea was good, but the writing was not. I found myself shaking my head and cringing at some of the scenes, that's how bad it was. No, save your bucks and read something else.