The Sacred Bones by Michael Byrnes

I dug this 2007 novel out of my Dad's bookshelf over the summer to read.  I had never heard of Michael Byrnes, and I believe this may be his only novel.  It was a book that captured my attention and I had to read to the end - and it was raining at the beach, but I couldn't put it down on the sunny day either, so I finished it as I lay on the lawn and sat on the deck soaking up the sunny day.

Here is the cover and blurb for you to read:

This book begins in the days of the Crusades to the Holy Land.  The Knights have lost their fortress to the ways of Egyptian Mamluks who overwhelmed them in a six week long siege.  This particular Knight is in a jail, at the mercy of the Pope and those loyal to him.

The next chapter opens with a daring raid on a secret room in a mosque in the heart of Jerusalem's Temple Mount complex.  The artefact taken has implications for the Christian, Jewish and Islamic faiths, and the reader would benefit from having a good working knowledge of the history of Christianity, but also the beliefs and traditions of the Jewish and Islamic faiths.

Chaos erupts in Jerusalem and there is conflict between Israeli security officials and the Palestinians responsible for the Temple Mount.  A high ranking mediator of the Islamic world, Razak bin al-Tahini, is brought in to facilitate communications between the two, and a British archaeologist, Graham Barton, is also engaged to verify what was taken from this secret room and why.  The two must rely on each other to uncover what happened and why.

Meanwhile, at the Vatican, Charlotte Hennesey, an American genetic scientist, has arrived and is introduced to an Italian anthropologist, Giovanni Bersei, is a well equipped, high tech laboratory.  The Vatican cleric then rushes off to meet Salvatore Conte, mastermind of the Jerusalem raid, who has the artefact for Charlotte and Giovanni to examine.  Conte watches their every move as they examine, photograph, sample and test the artefact to ascertain its origin.  Neither Charlotte, Giovanni nor the cleric realise that their lives are in danger when they confirm the artefact to be what they suspect it to be.

The book has plenty of action, double crossing, mystery, subterfuge and thrilling mind challenging ideas to keep a reader coming back to the end of the book.

I found this book to be quite fascinating because it gave me a lot more knowledge about the Temple Mount and early Christian practices and how these relate to Islamic and Jewish beliefs.  I read another book with a similar theme not long after, and viewed a number of documentaries on Constantine, the life of Jesus and early Christian practices, and it created a lot of thought for me about how Christianity works, and religions world wide.  I've come to the conclusion that organised religion just is too corrupt for my tastes.

If you like your beliefs to be challenged and you are open to expanding what you know, books like this can be a catalyst to viewing or reading material you otherwise would consider boring and not worth your time.  While this is a book of fiction, it did open my mind to further reading and viewing on the topic to help me further crystallise my personal beliefs on religion.  It is also a rollicking good adventure with thrills, chills, murders and action a plenty.