brookelorren's Full Review: Joel C. Rosenberg - The Copper Scroll
The Copper Scroll is Joel C. Rosenberg's fourth book in the five-book Last Jihad series. Since I read the last book, Dead Heat, first, it is the last book for me to read. I think that it was the second-best book in the series (Dead Heat was the best).
Rosenberg's books are great because they are well-researched, and feel like they could really happen... all except the first book, which involves a war with Sadaam Hussein and is fast-becoming an alternate history book.
If you are familiar with Biblical archeology, you might be familiar with the Dead Sea Scrolls, and that one of the scrolls was not made out of parchment like the others, it was made out of copper. This copper scroll, many believe, may lead to the temple treasures from the 2nd Jewish temple that was destroyed by the Romans. This is, of course, where this book got it's name.
Rosenberg starts the book, like all of his others, with a bang. "Their eyes locked for only a moment, but in that moment FBI Agent Marcus Santini knew something was terribly wrong." Turns out that it was a suicide bomber.
Basic Plot
This time, the suicide bomber is targeting an archaeologist. This is not the only archaeologist that has mysteriously died, either. All of the archaeologists that have been dying have had one thing in common... they were looking for the temple treasures.
Meanwhile, Jon Bennett is at the church, getting married to his beautiful girlfriend Erin. In the previous book, they decided to quit their jobs with the government, but they still have a lot of friends that work for Washington. Right after they finish saying their vows, the cell phones and Blackberries of half of their guests start going off. You know something is bad when that happens.
It turns out, that even though Jon and Erin had left the fast-track life of Washington, they end up getting roped into trying to help an old friend out, to discover why all these archaeologists are dying. In the process, they end up getting targeted themselves. You'll just have to read the book to find out how that happens and how it all ends up.
Realism and Research
Rosenberg's books are great because they are all well-researched, and you learn something in the process of reading them. He takes you to exotic locations like Israel and Ronda, Spain, and it makes me feel like I could be there with them.
Because this book deals with archeology and the temple treasures from the Jewish 2nd temple, Rosenberg had to put a lot of extra research in. Jon and Erin have to discover a lot about the Dead Sea Scrolls in this book, and as far as I know, the information that this book gives about the books is true. I've seen a couple of History Channel specials regarding the scrolls, and it seemed like they matched to me.
I was especially impressed that Rosenberg got the research right involving the Ark of the Covenant. Many people believe, and the History Channel has done a show on this as well, that the ark disappeared in King Solomon's time, and might have ended up in Ethiopia. What this theory fails to do is read on in the Bible for a few more books, when the Bible mentions King Josiah, who still has the ark. Rosenberg got this little factoid correct.
All books in The Last Jihad series deal with the hot-shots in Washington, and while I never worked in Washington, I was in the Navy for a while, and his details dealing with the government seem pretty believable to me.
Suspense Factor
This book has a lot of suspense. I made a mistake last night when I was halfway through the book and I decided to read "just one more chapter" at 11 at night before I went to bed. That "one more chapter" led to about 25 more chapters, until I finished the book and it was well past when I was planning on going to bed. I just couldn't put it down.
There's a lot going on in this book from beginning to end, and once I got about halfway through, I had to read on to see how it would all end. I wasn't disappointed.
Final Thoughts
The Copper Scroll is the best book in the Last Jihad series, until you get to the final book, which is even better than this one. I'm looking forward to anything Rosenberg writes in the future.
There is a lot of Old Testament Bible in this book, because the Dead Sea Scrolls are certainly linked to the Bible, and the temple treasures are obviously something that the Bible talks about. It's not really done in a preachy way or anything.
I would definitely recommend this book to all my friends.
Saddam is gone. Arafat is dead, and a new Iraq is rising. But when a suicide bomber strikes Washington and assassinations unfold from London to Los An...More at Christianbook.com
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