The Book of Lies by Brad Meltzer
By Phyllis Rhodes • Dec 21st, 2008 • Category: Book Review •
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The Book of Lies by bestselling author Brad Meltzer is a fantastical tale that combines a DaVinci Code-like mystery with an Indiana Jones-like adventure. The author blends the age old Biblical mystery surrounding Cain’s curse and/or his “mark” and the first murder weapon (all of which are unnamed in the Bible) with a modern myth surrounding the unsolved murder of Jerry Siegel’s father (the creator of Superman).
At the heart of the story is a son whose life is interrupted at age nine by the accidental death of his bi-polar mother at the hands of his ill-tempered father. The father is imprisoned and offers no contact with the child. Nineteen years pass when on a seemingly random call to rescue a homeless man, father and son are haphazardly reunited, and the roller coaster ride begins. The father has been shot; they whisk him away to a hospital where suspicious characters emerge. In the span of a few pages, our “heroes” are afoot — ducking bullets and alligators in the Florida swamps, running for their lives to avoid murder charges of a federal agent, and following a myriad of clues which lead to Cleveland, Ohio in an effort to solve the mystery and clear their names — all while the police, a customs agent, and an evil, psychotic, Hemlock-wielding henchman (who has an equally vicious dog) are in hot pursuit.
The results are a little overreaching at times — cliffhanger endings at the end of each chapter, too many coincidences to the point that I lost count, and a host of cardboard, melodramatic characters are used to buoy and move the story. However, if you can keep an open mind and have a love of suspense, I think you’ll be moderately entertained with this fairly easy read.
Reviewed by Phyllis
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Phyllis Rhodes is a systems engineer with a major defense contractor and adjunct professor at two local universities in Orlando, Florida. A lifelong bibliophile, she founded the Nubian Circle Book Club in 2001 and is a freelance book reviewer for the Orlando Sentinel, APOOO Exchange Team, and Amazon.com. As a consummate fan of the arts, she supports local and national theatre, literary events, and Afrocentric festivals, exhibits, and historical tributes. When not traveling, teaching, or reading, she researches her family history and applies her talents across a host of professional organizations chartered to sustain and uplift the African American community
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