In his first thriller, John Heubusch, the executive director
of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, earns the moniker
of being an anti-Dan-Brown novelist – and I mean that in a good way. The Shroud Conspiracy (Howard Books, New York, 2017, 402
pages, $26) ranks as an engrossing, easy page-turner, like much of Dan Brown’s
work, but, unlike Brown, Heubusch shows respect for the Christianity in which
the story is rooted.
Writing a Christian-based – in this case, Catholic – work of
fiction can be tricky. After all, Christian fiction often can be sugary, with
cardboard characters and stilted, unrealistic dialogue. Meanwhile, at the other
extreme are works of fiction that dismiss or are hostile toward Christians or
the Church.
Heubusch avoids these extremes. His book moves along nicely.
His characters come across as real people, who act, speak and react in ways
that seem reasonable, even as Heubusch puts them in fantasy-like situations.
Indeed, he takes his characters and the readers on a wild ride weaving together
the Vatican, Catholic relics, atheists, scientists, faithful Catholics and the
misguided, likeable and not-so-likeable priests, a crazy cult, some
globe-trotting, and both the miraculous and the heretical. Heck, there’s even a
cute little dog that plays a role in this tale.
And there’s more that makes this more than just a shallow
thriller. A question wrestled with by the characters in The Shroud Conspiracy is not if science and faith are necessarily
in conflict, but rather, can science acknowledge that it has limitations?
The two main characters have an intriguing relationship.
Domenika Jozef works for the Vatican, and Dr. Jon Bouderant is a scientist who
the Vatican hires to put together a team of experts to test the validity of the
Shroud of Turin. Sexual tension emerges between the two. But the
will-they-or-won’t-they question is not necessarily about clashing
personalities, but rather strikingly different worldviews. Domenika is a devout
Catholic, while Jon is a very public atheist. It is Domenika who asks Jon: “Are
you willing to agree that science may never be able to grasp the divine?” The
question eventually is answered in an edge-of-the-seat, conspiracy-thriller manner.
As the fast-paced story unfolds involving the natural and
the supernatural, the everyday and the miraculous, and the beliefs of
individuals being put to the test, if you will, I thought of what the
resurrected Jesus, after showing Thomas the marks of his wounds from being
crucified, said: “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are
those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Yes, this is a thriller that
lends itself to reflection, debate and discussion.
The Shroud Conspiracy
is packed with action, some big issues to ponder, and welcome character
development. Unlike some thrillers and certain Christian fiction, Heubusch
engages the reader on assorted levels.
_______________
Ray Keating is the author
of the PASTOR STEPHEN GRANT NOVELS. The latest in the series is WINE INTO WATER. Coming soon is the seventh book in the
series titled LIONHEARTS.
No comments:
Post a Comment