Steph Reviews The First Gospel by Darryl Nyznyk

Publisher: Cross Dove Publishing, LLC
Format Read: Paperback
Source: the pr firm in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: March 21, 2017
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | Barnes & Noble
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Blurb from goodreads:

THE FIRST GOSPEL, in the tradition of “The DaVinci Code,” is an historical thriller at the center of which lies the truth about the greatest archaeological mystery the world has ever known.

Edessa, Turkey 943 A.D.: Eighty thousand Byzantine knights lay siege to the Muslim citadel. Prepared to raze the city, the Byzantine commander offers to spare it if the Muslim emir will hand over a fourteen-foot long linen cloth. The stunned emir readily delivers the cloth that bears the shocking full-body image of a crucified man.

Arizona almost 1100 years later: Matt Carter, an under-employed law school graduate, discovers the brutally murdered body of his old professor, Samuel Rosen. When Matt returns home, he finds a letter posted by Rosen before his murder. Rosen begs Matt to protect an ancient parchment owned by his family for generations. Unknown to Matt, the parchment holds the key to the two-thousand-year-old mystery of the Cloth of Edessa.

Now Matt becomes the unwitting prey of those who will stop at nothing to keep his parchment’s truth hidden. From the magnificent opulence of Rome’s St. Peter’s Cathedral to the breathtaking beauty of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, readers will become part of Matt’s frantic search for a truth that will forever change political, religious, and industrial fortunes around the world … even as Matt fights for survival.

Steph's Thoughts:

I usually jump at these types of books because I love the conspiracy theories and ancient orders that keep secrets.

I liked Matt, our hero. I related to him when he stated, he first took archeology courses because he had dreams of being Indiana Jones and then found out an archeologist spends most of his time behind a desk. I had dreams of the same thing at one time until I also discovered the same thing and switched majors.

However, this book did not turn out to be a favorite of mine. The chapters are really short, giving it a feel of a fast moving book but I just could not get into it. I want to be sucked in and lose total track of time. I want to finish a book and look at the clock and think "omg, it's _____ o'clock and I need to be up in the morning." While it did not take me long to finish the book, it was more because I caught myself skimming the pages to move it along faster and not because I was dying to see what happened next. I liked Matt but I just could not dive in and get lost in the story. It jumped around between characters a little too much for me. Maybe if the chapters were a little bit longer and let me really get into the characters more before jumping back to someone else, I would have liked it better.

I didn't hate it, I just didn't love it.