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Title: The Secret Scroll
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Manufacturer: Beaufort Books, Inc.
List Price: $24.95
Our Price: $15.55
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| Customer Reviews: |
| The Secret Scroll by Beaufort Books, Inc. Awesome Reading | | 100% fast paced and engrossing reading. This book will capture your imagination and demand that you complete it. Once you begin reading it, will will insatiably want to complete it. | | The Secret Scroll by Beaufort Books, Inc. I liked thsi book! | First let me say I read this book through the Amazon Vine program.
I really liked this book. I thought it was really interesting and really exciting. Reminded me of good James Rollins. Just a fun book although I have to admit as I was reading it, I was thinking ....movie!!...
I look forward to the next book by Mr. Cutler, dare I say we will meet these characters again? Don't know for sure, but a fun read. | | The Secret Scroll by Beaufort Books, Inc. Obvious first novel, entertaining | This is a good first effort for the author, but there are a few pacing problems. The story bogs down sometimes, over-explaining rather than letting things come naturally.
All in all, though, it kept my attention. I enjoy the thriller/history combo genre, and this delivers as far as a good story. Not high literature, by any means, but that's OK if it's what you're looking for. | | The Secret Scroll by Beaufort Books, Inc. Pick up a Rollins title instead | 'The Secret Scroll's' premise has potential, and its setting is fascinating, but unfortunately that's where the good stuff ends.
First, many of the events in this novel feel... capricious. Convenient. Whenever the main character, Josh, needs to figure something out, he gets a hunch, meditates, has a vision or dream, or realizes something by instinct. There's no tension in that, no question that the story might end in any sort of surprising manner.
Josh isn't a very likable character. I realize that part of the author's agenda is wanting us to see him as flawed and human. However, the author is very heavy-handed in terms of Josh's moral judgments of others. Josh debates and prods at others' beliefs in ways that bely his own dislike of judgmentalism and turn him into an annoying hypocrite.
Danielle, Josh's love interest... oh, you don't want to get me started on this one. She spends virtually the entire book being viewed as a sex object, being used as a sex object, and using her sexuality as her ostensible only weapon (and a poor one at that). She's supposedly an intelligent archaeologist, yet she's entirely shut out of that side of the plot and raises only a token protest. She's referred to repeatedly as being brilliant, resilient, remarkable, etc., yet she spends almost the entire book simpering, coming onto Josh in front of everyone, etc.
As for the bad guys, they're obvious, stupid beyond belief, stereotypically eeeeevil, and one-dimensionally maniacal; they act like excitable children rather than fanatical adults. They've supposedly remained a secret sect for nearly 2,000 years. Yet they have a proselytizing web page, they put out pamphlet propaganda, and they carve their 'secret' sign into blatant ritualistic killings. A five-year-old could keep a secret better than these guys. They'd be at home in a Scooby-Doo cartoon, complete with mask-removing reveal.
The premise and setting had a lot of potential, but unfortunately everything else is one-dimensional, predictable, heavy-handed, and stilted. This is clearly meant to be the first book in a series, and as a story it would be an interesting one to follow, but the writing itself is too painful for me to want to continue with it. | | The Secret Scroll by Beaufort Books, Inc. The real secret of The Secret Scroll | As some other reviewers have said, The Secret Scroll seems to be driven mainly by its plot. The action is fast-paced, the stakes are high, and with the romantic subplot there is a little bit for everyone. In other words, it more than satisfies the standard formula of its genre. What's most interesting about this book, however, is that woven in with these expected elements is a deeper message.
What if we don't take the scroll itself as just a device, but actually look more closely at its text? Suddenly, what might have seemed like "fun" fiction becomes more nuanced and meaningful.
We are both consumers and products of our culture--our ethics, values, and morals are constantly shaped by the stories we are told, whether in the form of a textbook, news report, sacred text, bedtime story, novel, or so forth. In this book, Cutler conveys a message of tolerance, inclusion, and spiritual universality. More impressive, though, is the fact that he pulls it off without coming across as preachy. This may not be the book for those who are looking for the most innovative, expertly written thriller on the shelf; but for the reader who is open to experiencing the book on other, more essential levels, The Secret Scroll is not to be missed. | | The Secret Scroll by Beaufort Books, Inc. Product Description | Josh Cohan, a work-obsessed archaeology professor, has a recurring dream about a great secret. He follows his instincts to the Judean desert, where he makes a fantastic discovery an ancient scroll which seems to have been written by Jesus Christ. The Israeli Antiquities Authority has a claim on the scroll, but another, more sinister organization wants the scroll as well. The Guardians, members of an ancient extremist religious sect, are willing to kill to get what they want.
Josh joins the government-sponsored team of translators who believe the scroll might be genuine, and falls in love with Danielle, the fiery daughter of one of the translators. When a friend turns up dead and Danielle goes missing, Josh realizes that the scroll might be more powerful and controversial than he had ever imagined. Will Josh be able to prevent something terrible from happening to the woman he loves without giving up the most important discovery mankind has ever made? |
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