Berkley © 2007, 320 pages [amazon]

Fordham University professor and Jesuit priest Joseph Romano and Brittany Hamar, a professor at Hunter College, are on the trail of an ancient manuscript in D.L. Wilson’s debut novel Unholy Grail. The text they’re after is alleged to have been written by James, the brother of Jesus, shortly after the crucifixion. The quest involves the two in a millennia-old religious conspiracy involving the true nature of the Holy Grail and the possible existence of a bloodline of Christ, with descendants of Jesus and Mary Magdalene alive in the present day. Their investigation is a risky one: Hamar has been targeted alalert by a shadowy assassin, and Jesuit priests have a way of turning up dead after meeting with her.

[INSET TEXT: Their investigation is a risky one: Hamar has been targeted alalert by a shadowy assassin, and Jesuit priests have a way of turning up dead after meeting with her.] Unholy Grail is a mixed bag. On the one hand,

the author offers some nice surprises early on in the book, when Romano and Hamar first meet in Grand Central Station. And the mystery of the dead priests and the unusual condition of their corpses is initially an interesting one. But the book’s dialogue is clunky and there are numerous bits of boring exposition related to Hamar’s flirtation with unorthodox religious beliefs. The characters are two-dimensional and no genuine suspense is built in the story. And the storyline, frankly, feels a bit stale in this post-DaVinci Code world. Unholy Grail is by no means an awful book, but there’s nothing that stands out about it either–despite the raves it’s elicited from a number of high-power blurbers.

Tags: Unholy Grail, books, book reviews, D.L. Wilson, religious thrillers