Customer Reviews

The Grail Conspiracy (A Cotten Stone Mystery)

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This is not Da Vinci. It's not any less than Da Vinci either in it's plot and scope . I have become addicted to these historical/religious thrillers that have a central premise built around the Bible, Christ, the Holy Grail, Knights Templar, Virgin Mary, the possible bloodline of Jesus etc. In this particular novel, the central premise is that the Book of Revelation may be true and that the world could possibly see the second coming of Christ (another novel that also uses the Book of Revelation to great effect is The Rozabal Line). The book starts off in the Iraqi desert where a dying man hands over a box to a news reporter who then manages to smuggle it out of Iraq, authenticate it and then have the "holy grail" delivered to the Vatican only to see it stolen from there. This leads to a raging battle between the good and bad forces, while the dead bodies pile up around the central characters. Given the tremendous fan following of the Da Vinci Code, it is but obvious that several "clones" will flourish. This is not a clone. A great book that keeps you wanting to turn the pages.

This book is an enjoyable read. It resembles the Da Vinci Code only superficially -- it does deal with the Holy Grail, but in a completely different manner that Dan Brown's book did.

This book takes the Bible much more seriously, and in some ways resembles the plot of some of the "Left Behind" books with its focus on the Book of Revelation and the anti-Christ. I found the plot to be highly original, but not quite believable.

The book is written in a simple, straightfoward style that is easy to read. The authors don't waste a lot of time on description, and get right down to moving the plot forward. If you like books with a fast moving storyline, this book should meet your needs.

This book is apparently the first book in a trilogy, with the same central character in all 3 books. I look forward to the next book.

I am so sick of everyone comparing every single book that has any religious plots with the Da Vinci code. Enough already. It's like identifying every single lawyer book with the Firm. One has nothing to do with the other. I loved!!! this book, and thankfully bought all 3 that have been published in the series. I read them one after the other and can't wait till the 4th one is out in October. I love Cotton Stone and can't wait to see what happens next. I just hope I won't have to wait so long for the 5th!!!!!

This book was GREAT! Kept you entertained and left you wanting to read the sequel...The Last Secret

As an afficianado of history, mystery, and masterful writing...I HIGHLY recommend this book. I could not put it down on my first reading and was amazed at the unravelling of the religious intrigue and well-researched data provided by the writers.

What I want to know is when is this going to come out as a movie? It has to be one of the most exciting thrillers I have ever read. I was hooked from the first page on when Cotten Stone (the main character) stumbles onto the dig site with the the Crusader's tomb. The plot (and sub-plots) is tightly woven and the characters fully developed. There are twists and turns and the story roars forward with every word. I could picture every scene and can just imagine what it would be like on the big screen. If this book doesn't get picked up by a motion picture studio, somebody is missing something! And I sure hope there is a sequel.

Amazon highly suggested this book to me based upon my previous purchases so I decided to give it a whirl. I read the review and thought it would offer mystery, intrigue, and great characters. Never have I been so wrong. There are three or four primary issues I had with this book:

1. Unrealistic Characters. Fiction books demand we suspend belief while reading about supernatural events but that doesn't mean we have to assume people lose all sense of reason and logic. During the course of this book, Cotten discovers her father is a fallen angel who gave up eternity to birth her and her twin dies in the womb and now speaks to her from heaven. Her response is to order pizza and take a nap. Just an example - there are many more.

2. Bad writing. I don't know about you but for a globe trotting reporter taking on religious baddies to then call her mother "Mama" in conversation with another person is destructive to the narrative. I didn't buy that the way the character spoke jived with her actions or her resolve to see the situation through. Again, just one example but there are literally dozens of them littered throughout.

3. Unlikeable Characters. The plot was somewhat interesting (although I had an inkling throughout what was going to happen) but the characters killed it for me. Hence why they represent two of my biggest gripes. Going back to Cotten she breaks up with her boyfriend, regrets it and then immediately falls in love with a priest she meets a few days later and struggles throughout the book with her new found love for this man. Unreal and a bit silly. But then again she does call her mom Momma after all.

4. Telegraphed Writing (Minor Spoiler Alert). Last point. I felt throughout I knew what was coming next and by and large I was always right. A new character is introduced and then has to "run an errand" and you just know that car is gonna blow up. And yes. Yes it does.

I don't really know who this book would appeal to so I can't suggest it to anyone. Personally, if you're looking for a religious intrigue book I'm certain you can do better than this.

What is the record time for reading a book practically straight through? From the beginning to the end, I was there. The characters were "real" people. The action spellbinding. I love a good mystery, a love story, a twist at the end. This was all that and more!!!

The first night I picked up this book, I started reading through and my first thought was, wow, this storyline isn't very complicated. But before I could put the book down for the night, I realized I was almost halfway through. The plot in this book isn't complicated at all, there isn't an overabundance of characters to keep straight, yet the book is a compelling and fun read. I very much enjoyed this book.

All the comparisons - both yay and nay - to Da Vinci code? Ignore them. While this book is in the same genre, it shouldn't suffer in comparison to the complicated storyline of DVC. Personally, I loved both books - this one and DVC. But they are as different as night and day.

I'm now very much interested in searching out more books by these authors.

This story is a fast paced though predictable religious-based adventure. It's not really a mystery because there's really nothing to figure out. It's not a Christian novel because it's peppered with profanity. It's not a spy story as there is no intrigue. It's not a love story, though there are hints of a forbidden romance. It's kind of a thriller but there aren't many cliff hangers. It's got a bit of chick lit in it, but not really.

It's not a Christian novel even though it has elements of Christian history in it. Imagine my shock when the main character calls her uncle on the phone and in his first line of dialogue he drops the F-bomb. I thought that was a bit unbelievable. How many women in their late 20's get greeted like that when they call their uncles? Up to that point, no profanity, but more followed.

The main character, Cotten Stone is a self-described slut that likes to laze around and sip on Absolut martinis while pining away for her forbidden love, Catholic priest John Tyler. These two characters hold hands, cup each other's face in their hands, put arms around each other, hug each other and generally flirt with each other. I kept waiting for the author(s) to figure out a way to get the characters into a chaste nude spooning scene but it never happened. <whew!>

The story is fairly predictable and has a nice pace to it, though there are detours that don't make much sense. At one point Cotten is investigating a Presidential hopeful and finagles her boss at the Satellite News Network into tasking her with interviewing him so she can get a free plane ride to Miami. Once there she looks up her best friend from college, who happens to be a lesbian supermodel (yeah, right...) and they go out partying hard in the Miami south beach nightclub scene. Eventually something happens to her friend which was about as surprising as a political ad on TV the day before election day.

Anyway, the subject matter is intriguing to me which is why I picked up the book in the first place. The holy grail, a drop of Christ's blood preserved, a plan by evil people to clone Jesus and create a false second coming and install him as a messiah that they control is good stuff, but the execution fell flat for me. The devil is in the details, indeed. It did keep me interested though partly because I was waiting to see what kind of a silly turn the story and/or characters would take.

BTW, I've since read "The Hades Project" from my library and it follows the same formula. If anyone is interested, "Grail Conspiracy" was the better story, (which is faint praise.)