Book Log 2015 #47: The Fifth Gospel by Ian Caldwell

A little over a decade ago, Ian Caldwell co-wrote a novel called The Rule of Four, a literate thriller about four roommates and the obsession with a mysterious 15th century book. It was on the best-seller lists for months. Great things were expected from both men.

But both of them fell off the radar, book-wise. Dustin Thomason found work writing and producing TV shows, but did have another best-selling book in 2012 with a plot focused on the Mayan calendar and the potential end of the world.  Caldwell spent a good decade coming up with this book, his follow-up. It uses the schism between Roman Catholics and Orthodox churches to drive the plot, with a Greek Catholic priest (a member of one of the Eastern rites that kind of straddle the schism) trying to figure out who killed a local museum curator who was working on an exhibit about the Shroud of Turin, its history between the Roman and Orthodox communities, and how a work called the Diatessaron could shed added light on the shroud's pre-Turin whereabouts.

Throw into that mix added Vatican politics and the sudden reappearance of the main character's wife after years of absence, and you have a pretty packed story. Thankfully, Caldwell is writer enough to pull this off, balancing story lines and providing explanations that help keep the plot moving. It's much more realistic than the breathless exposition of Dan Brown and the like.

That being said, an afterword that went into a further discussion of the factual basis of the book would have been helpful. Still, I hope it's not another ten years before we get another book from Caldwell.