The Moses Expedition by Juan Gomez-Jurado

". . . the characters are well drawn . . ."

Father Anthony Fowler, a CIA man and an employee of the Vatican Secret Service, is assigned by the Church to recover a lost artifact – a candle with gold filigree. He finds the candle in the hands of mass murderer Dr. Heinrich Graus, also known as the Butcher of Spiegelgrund.

Hidden inside the artifact is a treasure map that when combined with the Copper Scroll of Qumran, shows the way to the Ark of the Covenant – where the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments are hidden.

Father Fowler must then join an expedition team which also includes Andrea Otero, a reporter who is Father Fowler’s “ransom,” Raymond Kayn, an extremely eccentric agoraphobic millionaire, Jacob Russell, his assistant, and Dr. Harel, a physician.

The team departs aboard the ship Behemoth, disguised as employees of a mining company searching for phosphates. Their destination is the Al-Mudawwara Desert in Jordon, the alleged site of the Ark. But within days the expedition is plagued by “accidents.”

Andrea is the target of many of these mishaps, which include a fall overboard and scorpions in her bed. Who is out to get this lowly reporter? Is it the pretty Dr. Harel who may share the spark of attraction?

There is a blip on the device that detects metal underground – has the Ark finally been found? People turn up dead and tempers flare in the heat of the desert … They must find who among them is the traitor out to destroy them all.

While the characters are well drawn, the author's use of flashbacks and news stories interrupt the flow of the story.

Reviewer: Carol Hansson