Customer Reviews

The Moses Expedition: A Novel

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Once again Juan Gomez-Jurado has given us a thriller that will have your heart pumping and your hand anxious to turn the page. Back from his first novelGod's Spy: A Novel, are the MacGyver-like Priest,Father Fowler,and the ever fiesty and gutsy reporter Andrea Otero. If you have missed that one, I highly recommend the read for anyone who loves a good thriller(see my review for details), but it is not necessary to have read it to get to know these two again, as "The Moses Expedition" stands on it's own and is a completely new story,not a continuance of the first.It is one that will take you through time and distance and around the globe.

A group gathered together by an eccentric and reclusive billionaire are making an expedition to the Jordanian desert to possibly recover the Ark of the Covenant, said to contain the Ten Commandmants given to Moses through God.This group consists of Biblical Archaeologists, administravtive technicians and asst.to Kayn(the billionaire),a militant security group,an Israeli doctor,drivers,cooks and of course Otero and Fowler. They were all hand-picked by Kayn for his own reasons.The expedition has much to contend with in the desert:the extreme hot and cold,possible giant sandstorms - that wipe out life and everything else in it's path -and then there is the matter of some very scary terrorists who have their own plans for the group.The really suspenseful and still more scary part is that there may even be those among the group who have some menacing and fatal ideas of their own.And even if they make it through all that - will they find the Ark?

Gomez-Jurado has done an amazing amount of serious research for this book giving the reader quite a history lesson to go along with the constant adventure and suspense(truly from start to finsih). He'll take you back in time through the retelling of the story of how the Ark came to be buried in the desert, through the Nazi hunt for Jews - and one very dispicable Nazi doctor, "The Butcher of Spiegelgrund"- to post 9-11 into the chilling minds of terrorists. The short chapters take you back and forth to the various times and places events are unfolding - including coinciding suspenseful situations in the United States, even taking into account the time difference in the various parts of the world. And he brings it all together, completeing the circle wonderfully.

It's that great kind of thriller that keeps you guessing,not knowing who to trust or what disaster lurks around the corner.Otero and Fowler are characters to cheer for and you just want to warn them of impending danger(of which there is quite a bit). The Author puts you right in the middle of the scene with his vivd descriptions. He also includes on the inside cover pages, what looks like an aerial map of the area the group is excavating, with inset, as well as placements of the camp tents,trucks, etc. I really liked that. You will also find in the back a list of the players, which was very helpful early on - there were over twenty people on the expedition, plus those working back in the states - but after a while you will know all the characters pretty well. Published originally in Spain, it didn't seem like anything was lost in translation - excellent!

I lent out my copy of God's Spy and am still waiting for the return of it - this one stays put. It is one I will surely pull out for another read some day.

Bravo Sr. Gomez-Jurado and gracias for a fabulous read.

Enjoy ...Laurie

Reading this novel evoked in me the same kind of guilty pleasure I derive from watching and enjoying a B movie that should be "below my standards." The story of an expedition to unearth the lost Ark of the Covenant contains some interesting elements, but is largely predictable and formulaic. About halfway through the book, I began to get annoyed with the stylistic choices the author was making, and I realized that the literary style was facile and often simplistic - too easy references to Catholic guilt, etc. I am not sure whether this lack of nuance is a result of translation from Gomez-Jurado's native Spanish, or is consistent with the way he thinks and writes.

At the end of the day, I felt like I had read a screenplay for a "poor man's" Raiders of the Lost Ark.

I found a perfect quotation the expressed my feelings about the experience of reading the novel:

"'I know you understand me,' said the soldier in Spanish. 'I prefer to talk in my own language. I can handle subtle details much better that way.'

'There's noting subtle about you,' said the priest in Spanish." (Page 325)

It is a rare thing that I give a book 5 stars. It is even rarer that I come across one that I read start to finish without a break. The Moses Expedition: A Novel is one of the few, and it is a tale not to be missed! If you like Dan Brown, if you love archeology and mystery, you will find this absolutely riveting.

I'm not going to give you a synopsis of the plot. Other have done that and I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise. Suffice it to say that The Moses Expedition arrived at my door at 2:30 in the afternoon. I closed the cover about 10 pm, despite shopping and dinner. (I read fast!) If I have one teeny weeny complaint, it would be that the very minimal bit of sex is utterly superfluous to the plot. The author could have done as well or better to have simply left it out. Juan Gomez-Jurado has given us a wonderful work worth every single one of five stars, one that is going straight onto my "to read again" shelf. And his first book, God's Spy, is going straight onto my "to read next" list!

Biblical thrillers seem to have been in vogue ever since The Da Vinci Code and this follows in those footsteps. Unlike the Dan Brown versions, the Moses Expedition doesn't really have the reader involved with solving the riddles along the way to finding the hidden treasure. Instead, that is all secondary and the plot focuses more on the expedition which has an embedded terrorist in it, and trying to figure out who are the good guys and who are the bad guys.

Character development leaves a lot to be desired, in the end nearly all the characters seemed disposable and I am still trying to decide who the primary character was (although I think maybe there were two). One thing I didn't really care for is that basically every character was involved in the expedition for their own selfish reasons and it made it difficult to "cheer" for anyone. Lots of people died during the expedition and I never cared. The few that did survive could have died and I also wouldn't have cared. There just wasn't any emotional attachment developed with the characters. The one character I thought was going to be the most interesting, Father Fowler, was not brought to his potential or fully utilized.

Overall it was a pleasant enough yarn with a few good twists. If you like biblical thrillers you will probably enjoy this well enough although it isn't even in the same league as the Dan Brown books and honestly I don't even consider Dan Brown to be a very good writer in the literary sense but his stories do keep you on the edge of your seat. I just started reading the Horror/Thriller "The Passage" by Justin Cronin and it is already obvious that Cronin's writing abilities are light years beyond those of Juan Gomez-Jurado.

This masterpiece thriller is a combination of many elements, all of which are combined in a combustible crucible to make an engrossing read. Gómez-Jurado's extensive research on the Ark of the Covenant, the Holocaust and Middle East adds intellectual depth to this page-turning thriller. Also certain passages in the book will provoke much debate, specially those referred to the Muslim terrorists. The page where Nazime meets his fate... well, it gave me chills. It's certainly thought provoking, and not for the faint of heart. Also I want to share something with you: I discovered that the Butcher of Spiegelgrund is a real life character. The author obscured the name, but if you google "Heinrich Gross" you will be shocked.

I would recommend that all those with any awareness of the spiritual and organized religion aspect of mankind read this book and then talk about it with others. If I could give it more than five stars, I would. The Moses Expedition is a fascinating and exciting read. It will top the bestseller list in the months to come, as it happened in more than 40 countries, including Germany, where I live.

Thank you Mr. Jurado. Your readers look forward to your next book.

You do not have to read much of The Moses Expedition to realize the author is attempting to set up another overwhelming action-filled thriller, but I fear it is overdone. Like so many tales before it, the story begins by implanting images in your head that are, on the one hand suspicious, fierce and frightening; but on the other hand they are religious and terroristic; hateful and demonic. In the end, there is simply too much negative action to suggest realism. None of the characters are real or even likeable.

The book starts with the horrors of Nazi occupied Austria in 1943 where a Jewish family is hiding in a tiny secret compartment in a judge's home. Mentally unstable after his long confinement in this coffin-like space, one night, a young Jewish boy runs off from his family. Much much later in the story, this psychically disturbed boy has found his way to America and in ensuing years, builds for himself an enormous industrialist empire known as Kayn Industries.

Another unfortunate son from this same family has been captured and imprisoned in an Austrian hospital where a sadistic Nazi surgeon performs painful, butcher-like, killing experiments on Jewish children to advance the effort of German medicine. Chancing their own deaths, his Jewish parents leave their tiny confinement and dare to offer a precious family heirloom to the hospital's chief doctor to release their son. Of course, the Nazi takes the heirloom and sends the Jewish parents away to be captured and left to Nazi devices.

The Moses Expedition jumps to modern times in 2006 where a Catholic priest, after years of searching, locates the hiding Nazi butcher doctor and promises to remain silent IF the long lost killer will give him the heirloomcandle he had stolen. Mission accomplished; the Nazi butcher is then found dead. The Vatican has commissioned this priest, through its secret service, to locate the candle. Inside, below any gold that is left over the wax, lies a segment of a copper map revealing where the Ark of the Covenant is buried.

But the terroristic radical Muslim world also wants the Ark and will stop at nothing to get it. To them, its ownership will not only justify but enhance their holy jihad mission on earth: converting the non-Muslim world. Not only do they feel justified in their crusade, but they feel obligated to use any means against their foes including merciless torture and death. This, they feel, is the correct interpretation of the revealed word of God.

Then there is multi-millionaire Raymond Kayn (Kayne Industries - above) funding The Moses Expedition to the sacred mountain west of the Red Sea above the Al-Mudawwara Desert in Jordan. He secretly believes that the power of God is inside the Ark. As such the person who has it in his possession will finally be mankind's Messiah. The Ark is thought to contain the Ten Commandment Tablets, given to Moses by God.

To the above mix, add a woman reporter from Spain known for her outspoken tongue, recruited to be part of the Ark expedition hoping to photograph and write a story about the greatest discovery of all time. Of course, the American CIA plays out its hand in this entire affair knowing that some of the world's worst terrorists are involved. Herein lies its chance to nab a few especially those extremists proven as dangerous to America.

Early on in The Moses Expedition, the reader learns what the quest is. Thus, there are no real secrets; only a multitude of ghastly murders, and betrayals as each Ark "grabber" attempts to sabotage Kayn's expedition. There are sandstorms, scorpion attacks, an assault by an enormous colony of ants, explosions, cave-ins, stabbings, rape, sabotage and a host of formidable weaponry.

All in all, so many things began to happen in the first pages of this book with ninety-five short chapters that to me, it lost a sense of reality. Few of the chapters end without something disturbing happening. There are many characters, yet the few the author develops to any extent, are not particularly nice people. Thus, when these persons began to die or get killed, their deaths didn't bother me.

However, if you are looking for excitement and lots of action, this book is for you.

Other interesting reads:

The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition

Opening the Ark of the Covenant: The Secret Power of the Ancients, the Knights Templar Connection, And the Search for the Holy Grail

"The Moses Expedition," the second novel by Juan Gomez-Jurado, sees the return of one of the most interesting new characters I have read in recent years, Father Anthony Fowler.

First introduced in "God's Spy" and with a past that includes rescuing soldiers behind enemy lines in the Vietnam War and an extensive career with the CIA, Father Anthony Fowler is anything but an ordinary Catholic priest.

Now working for the Vatican's own intelligence service, The Holy Alliance, Father Anthony Fowler is ordered to join an expedition to the Jordanian desert, in search of an ancient relic that has the potential to change the world. If the relic exists, the Vatican wants it. But Father Fowler will also have to watch his back, because with such high stakes can anyone really be trusted?

"The Moses Expedition" is a really enjoyable thriller, with interesting, original characters, and plenty of plot twists that keep you guessing from first page to last. I'd highly recommend reading this, as well as Juan Gomez-Jurado's other novels "God's Spy" and his latest standalone novel "The Traitor's Emblem."

Religious relics, bad guys with guns and scholars that seem to know everything about ancient civilizations. I've lived for this stuff since I was a kid and went to see Raider of the Lost Ark. I wish there were more books riffing on this stuff.

In terms of craft, it's a well-written book. The pacing could be a bit faster, otherwise this would be five stars.

When an author's debut novel gets published in more than 40 countries and 27 languages to worldwide acclaim, there can be a lot of pressure to write a second one that will meet the expectations of fans and survive the scrutiny of reviewers.

Fortunately, Juan Gómez-Jurado has survived the sophomore jinx and has delivered an exhilarating thriller that will delight his followers.

In his first novel, "God's Spy," the Spanish author guided his readers inside the Vatican, where in the aftermath of the pope's death, a cardinal is found brutally murdered at the altar of the Church of the Santa Maria.

In "The Moses Expedition," Gómez-Jurado goes beyond the Vatican and into the hot deserts of Jordan in an action-packed quest centered on the search for the Ark of the Covenant, the vessel widely believed to contain the original tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandants.

While the book is not a sequel, readers of "God's Spy" will find two familiar characters: Father Anthony Fowler, a CIA operative and member of the Vatican's Secret Service, and Andrea Otero, an aggressive young reporter who has recently been fired by Madrid's El Globo and dumped by her girlfriend and is about to be offered the story of a lifetime.

The book begins with a haunting flashback to World War II, where a Nazi war criminal known as the Butcher of Spiegelgrund has been conducting neurological experiments on Jewish patients in a children's hospital for six years.

The parents of one patient try to bargain with the doctor for information on their child by offering their only prized possession: an ancient candle covered with gold filigree. The doctor informs them that their son is dead but keeps the candle. Of course, his next deadly experiment is on the couple's son.

Fifty years later, Father Fowler tracks down the doctor, who has managed to evade apprehension by groups seeking to locate Nazi war criminals, and recovers the candle that contains the missing fragment of an ancient map leading to "the most powerful object in the history of mankind" -- the Ark of the Covenant.

With the missing portion of the map firmly in place, multimillionaire industrialist Raymond Kayn launches the top-secret Moses Expedition in Jordan's Al-Mudawwara Desert to recover the Ark.

Kayn, along with his assistant, puts together a hodge-podge recovery team composed of biblical archaeologists, a heavily armed security force, Father Fowler, Otero and a mysterious Israeli doctor, known simply as "Doc," who will soon be making the desert nights hotter with Otero.

Sworn to secrecy, the expedition makes its way into the desert and appears to find the ark, but there's a traitor in the group with links to terrorist cells in Washington and the Middle East that seek to make the ark its own.

"The Moses Expedition" is a spine-tingling page-turner that will capture the reader's imagination and leave the pulse racing. Gómez-Jurado, an award-winning journalist and the recipient of the prestigious Premio de Novela de Torrevieja award, has woven a tale that will mesmerize his fans and earn him legions of new ones worldwide.

The Moses Expedition by Juan Gomez-Jurado is the follow-up to God's Spy featuring Father Anthony Fowler who works for both the CIA and the Vatican's secret service. Reclusive billionaire Raymond Kayn has put together an expedition to find the legendary Ark of the Covenant. Each person selected is traveling for their own reasons: Spanish reporter Andrea Otero needs to prove herself after the loss of her job at a high-profile newspaper and painful break-up from lover Eva, Fowler to serve the interests of the agencies for whom he works, plus several security guards, and some crew. Sparks fly between the different groups immediately, and only their quest keeps them from murdering each other at the outset. The story is told through what's happening with the excavation team, some events back in the US organized by Father Fowler, and documents discovered "after the Moses Expedition Disaster", as well as flashbacks to events from WWII that set the expedition on its path. There's lots of political and religious machinations that make nearly everyone untrustworthy with hidden agendas. The chapters are a bit too disjointed on occasion, and when the big reveal comes, it feels almost anticlimactic with all of the other events surrounding it. The author ratchets up the tension and has included a wide variety of fascinating characters, some of whom survive for a potential sequel.