“Blood Symbols” by Izak Botha is a novel that brings up great questions, even if you find the main plot implausible. I’ve recently become very interested in the Catholic Church, having spent my life in Protestantism. I’m listening to Catholic podcasts and getting, I think, a good grounding in Catholic theology. I’ll admit that the idea of the Pope’s authority as Christ’s vicar on Earth is a point I’m not sure about. There are good arguments for it, but I’m not quite convinced yet.

I won’t say I picked up “Blood Symbols” to try to figure all that out. But because it dealt with some of the same themes I’ve been thinking about, I thought it sounded interesting. And it certainly is an engaging novel.

Not only is the story interesting (think of it as a mystery thriller), but Botha’s writing is superb. This isn’t the pulp fiction that anybody can crank out. It’s real writing with colorful and clever prose, natural dialogue, and deep characters.

If you have some interest in the Catholic Church and enjoy mystery thrillers, I’d definitely recommend “Blood Symbols” to you.

Blood Symbols by Izak Botha was full of unexpecting surprises! The main character, Jennifer Jaine, reminded me somewhat of myself during my education and travels through Rome and other places. There was suspense and wonder weaved throughout every chapter – every page – of this book, and I often felt as if I was Jennifer. It felt as if I was first hand experiencing the mystery myself. I was so engaged in the book, and even when I was not reading it, I still felt a part of me was dreaming through the story. This is exactly the type of book I love to read, and I am so glad I found this author who is new to me. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for any additional books from this author, especially any of similar genres. Overall, I would recommend this book to any person interested in mystery books!

When Jennifer Jaine’s faith is shaken, she goes to the Vatican in a desperate attempt at proving herself wrong. Instead, she finds herself swept up in a conspiracy, murder, and hunt for the truth. This book looks at questions of faith, loss of faith, corruption within the Vatican, all in a whirlwind story that is exciting, fast-paced, and filled with intrigue. Jennifer is brought into the story with personality and is given depth and growth throughout. I found the plot to be a fun read and enjoyed trying to puzzle out the mysteries. The book itself is well written, and the author has done a marvelous job of combining research, imagination, and excitement into the book to create a great read that I would highly recommend.

This books deftly balances between informative and all-out thrilling. The story takes you on a journey of a woman questioning everything and trying to get the bottom of what’s really going on in the Catholic Church. Author Izak Botha descriptions are sumptuous and beautiful, and the dialogue is snappy and engaging. I love how the author dove into analyzing scripture. Even though this is a novel, there is a ton of factual material in it to learn from. It can be dense at times, but it really does pick up. If you’re at all sensitive to questioning the Church or Christianity in general, maybe steer clear of this one. However, if you’re a fan of religious history and historical thrillers, you’ll enjoy this one.

Whether you are a religious skeptic, or a religious scholar, or just an average reader looking for a book to pass some time, Blood Symbols by author Izak Botha has something within its pages that you will love. For me, it was the questioning of the Catholic religion, and the fast paced action. There is not one page in this book that does not leave the reader anxious to see what happens next, and eager to unravel the puzzles that the characters must answer. Botha is a super story teller, and Blood Symbols incorporates just the perfect mix of reality and fantasy, the best blend of fact and fiction to make this story one that fans of just about every genre will enjoy.

I felt like the main character, Jennifer Jaine, after reading this book. With every chapter, I started following the web of lies that she uncovers, as if reliving her story all over again. Blood Symbols is a fast-paced novel that is filled with intricate details, facts, and twists, it is hard to miss a big clue if you aren’t paying attention.
The book centers around the Catholic domination and the possible deceit and suspense that might have been kept and buried for ages. If Jennifer uncovers what she thinks might be true, it might forever eliminate the religion, or worse, wipe out the Pope and the Vatican. Her decision is now on whether she should get implicated in what might be a far greater, more dangerous mystery than she initially thought.

Blood symbols is a thriller from the first page. Jennifer is a student studying religion when she discovers a secret that could destroy the entire Catholic religion. As she follows the clues, she ends up at the Vatican to interview a high ranked official in the church. As Jennifer makes her way through the depths of the mystery, a body is found near a room that houses sacred texts and there is a discovery of one missing. The story follows a good line and is a fun read that keeps you entertained and interested from the beginning. Will Jennifer protect a secret or destroy a legacy? Grab a copy and read it for yourself. The characters are well developed and relatable. Check this one out folks.

In an eerily yet fascinating narrative on religion, faith and the Catholic Church, Izak Botha brings to you “Blood Symbols”.
A fast-rising priest is brutally murdered in the deepest parts of the Vatican – the vault – and an inquest is called to locate the murderer.
A grad student in the process of writing her thesis in Religious Studies suddenly questions her faith and everything she’s been taught to believe in.
A bomber lies in the courtyard of the temple questioning the artistic depiction of the Mother Mary beholding the dying Christ, and all of the other depictions in the Vatican.
The Vatican, Catholicism and the Christian Religion pose on the brink of fear, doubt and betrayal as hidden or yet unraveled secrets threaten the very tenets on which the Faith is founded on.
Fact or fiction, Blood Symbols is a well-researched, intelligently written, gripping and compelling narrative, and Izak Botha deserves an award for a well laid out story!

A search for the truth, in a world that’s filled with secrets, cover-ups, and people trying to hide away what is really fact.

This book brazenly takes the Christian church head-on, in what it says is true and the story that it presents to most of the public.

The protagonist, Jennifer travels through Rome and Turkey on a quest that she’s not willing to give up no matter the cost.

I’m super interested in Christianity, even though I myself am not Christian and this was the perfect mix for me of action, excitement, intrigue, and Christianity all mixed into one.

A great read!

Blood Symbols by Izak Botha is a book that will make you turn your pages up to the very end. Obviously, it fits right into the category of any of Dan Brown’s books: conspiracy theories, murders, secrets that would destroy important organizations, high-speed chasing in city streets, it has everything. Cleverly, the author chose to focus in the figure of the Apostles and in the story of the Pope’s succession, but the comparisons are inevitable.
Although the plot may not be original, the way the story is built is surprisingly good and keeps the consistency right up to the end. The characters are strong and multi-layered and we can witness the main character – Jennifer Jaine – as she struggles to come to terms to her faith and everything she always believed in. The story has an amazing pace with always something new happening, but without being overwhelming. There is nothing wrong in following a successful formula if you can make it with this kind of quality, and Izak Botha can.

I am already familiar with the book « Angelicals Reviewed » by Izak Botha and it seems to me that the author in his books tries to tell the reader something new about religion, to show other points of view. For example, in one book he tries to find out what the soul is and how to relate to it, he brings various hypotheses and opinions. Here is the topic of religion too, but the main character’s distrust of the principles and rules of the Catholic faith.
People who strongly believe and unbelievers in religion and God, in my opinion, will be interested in reading this book. In any case, you can discover something new.
A story with elements of a detective story where the heroine tries to discover all the secrets and find answers to all the secrets. It is interesting to follow all the actions and events.
I recommend everyone to buy and read, because this topic will always be relevan

Meeting over a corpse with the local security hot on your heels is hardly the best setting for romance. Jennifer is pulled along by Simon in a mad race to escape the Vatican with a secret document. Simon had come for the document, Jennifer sought to restore her lost faith. Thrown together in the most improbable way, the pair flees to Turkey where they can consult an archeologist. Meanwhile, there are wheels within wheels turning in the Vatican, including a fanatical priest, two factions within the guards, and a pope who is being kept in the dark about the machinations. Starts a little slow, then picks up quickly. Includes high-speed chase scenes, natural disasters, schemes, and violence. Very difficult to put down until the surprising finish.

“Blood Symbols” is a well-researched historical novel which follows on the coattails of the immensely popular “The Da Vinci Code”. Not all is at it seems in the Catholic Church. Murder, secrets, treachery, and mysteries abound. A young priest is murdered, but for what purpose? What mysterious object was stolen, and what does it have to do with Jesus and the foundation of the Catholic Church?

This riveting novel takes you into the depths of history and religion and will have you questioning everything you know about the Catholic faith and religious history. The book starts in Rome with the murder of John Milyaz and then shifts to the interview of Ph.D. candidate Jennifer Jaine with a cardinal. And we learn the crux of her story – Jaine is desperate to authenticate her faith with original documents, but she finds the manuscripts are simply duplicates or reproductions of originals. This causes her to embark on her wild journey of discovery, reason, faith, and everything in between.

This is a remarkable book – fast-paced, suspenseful, memorable characters. Some literary detail concerning appearances, places, and situations can be a bit winding, but taking it in stride yields amazing twists and turns. Quite an excellent read!

Blood Symbols by Izak Botha follows the main character Jennifer Jaine as she embarks on a spiritual journey that will change her life forever. On her journey Jennifer experiences many exciting encounters as she continues on her quest for answers regarding the church, and Jesus. The book addresses secrets, theories, conspiracies and many other aspects of religion. The whole story is fast paced and full of unexpected twists and turns that keeps you on your toes. I really enjoyed reading this book, Botha certainly knows how to draw a reader in and keep them immersed from the moment you open the book until the very last page. I find myself hoping that Izak Botha writes more books like this one as I found myself thoroughly enjoying it. I feel like anyone who has an I threat in religious or faith would really like this book, it may even help those who are on their own religious adventure.

Now, I’ll be honest. I am not necessarily a fan of Dan Brown but I have not really read his works. I am a fan of conspiracy theories and the shaking of what people have always thought as true. This is a fictional story about Jenny, who decides to go to the Vatican trying to clear out some serious doubts she’s had about the Catholic Church, a work for her Doctorate in Religion.

She gets the opportunity to interview Cardinal Cardoni which seems to not be appropriate for his position. This is when Jennifer’s doubts start to get answers. Some answers from the Cardinal do not seem to support ancient texts, which have been replaced with new ones. Now, the book is very well written, with the amount of suspense you will expect.

If you read this with a mindset that this is a work of fiction, you will definitively enjoy it. Unfortunately, probably too many people take this too seriously, I believe it is merely due to the fact that it taps into one of the world’s largest (and darkest) organizations. A conspiracy theory based on the church and anything related to Jesus and the apostles will always spark some heated conersations.

Personally, I believe the way the story is written is great and I truly appreciate the literary art.

I love thrillers, and one of my favorite sub-types are those that involve historical conspiracy themes. Blood Symbols takes the rich and controversial history of the Catholic Church (and indeed, of Christianity itself) and weaves an exciting conspiracy thriller plot through this tapestry of historical events.

This book excels in both setting and plot, but they still get outshone by the characters themselves. That’s a big deal to me as a reader, because I find thrillers often fall short in this. But how can the reader really feel the suspense, if they haven’t been giving characters to empathize with or care about? This novel gets it right!

Very well done, and I can’t recommend it enough!

Whether you are a religious skeptic, or a religious scholar, or just an average reader looking for a book to pass some time, Blood Symbols by author Izak Botha has something within its pages that you will love. For me, it was the questioning of the Catholic religion, and the fast paced action. There is not one page in this book that does not leave the reader anxious to see what happens next, and eager to unravel the puzzles that the characters must answer. Botha is a super story teller, and Blood Symbols incorporates just the perfect mix of reality and fantasy, the best blend of fact and fiction to make this story one that fans of just about every genre will enjoy.

This story is for you if you enjoy fiction that is mixed with fact and involves a lot of research by the author. It will appeal to those who liked Dan Brown’s ‘The Da Vinci Code’ and ‘Angels and Demons’.
It is clear that the author is a very erudite man and his ideas concerning early Christianity are mind-blowing. The story races along at break-neck speed, from religious site to religious site, in the company of feisty heroine Jennifer Jaine, mysterious Turk, Simon, and elderly Professor Rabin. Having made an historical discovery, their lives are in constant danger as they are pursued by the self-aggrandising Head of Vatican security and two corrupt Cardinals who will stop at nothing to preserve their lavish way of life.

Whoever and whenever you are, this book is for you. So buy it or download it, or both, and keep it. You will want to read it again, if not now, then in two years’ time – or thirty. It is breathtakingly controversial and oscillates between the outrageously improbable and the eminently believable, from a murder to pulse-speeding car chases in the Vatican and Rome, to skullduggery and subterfuge in chapels, libraries, graveyards, catacombs and exotic interiors in several countries, and then onto mysterious, logical and impossible explanations, which boggle your mind. The meticulously researched detail which touches on what you have always known, always believed, always been taught or never have heard of, will take you to new insights and entice you to read it again to complete or rethink your present world view; it may even make the impossible acceptable! The whole drama is skillfully driven by the remarkable characters who carry the events at a page-turning pace. It may do even more. For me, a week after the second reading, the story woke up a very “real”, mysterious dream I had ten years ago, giving it a new, profound and meaningful explanation. It may be waiting to do the same for you.

I went to Italy about fifteen years ago, and among its many architectural wonders, historical landmarks and breathtaking landscapes, nothing caught my attention like Vatican City. This book caught perfectly the idiosyncrasy of the Vatican: its rules, mannerisms, codes; all set to guide the most populated religion of our times.

It is no wonder why Botha got inspired to write such an engaging novel. Vatican City and the history of the Catholic Church represent an endless compilation of riddles and secrets we all have tried to unravel since the Da Vinci Code. Personally, I cannot get enough of it.

Blood Symbols differentiates from other similar themed books in its exquisite descriptions and the pondering questions it presents. Every single time Jennifer Janine questioned Catholic representatives, I found myself asking the same questions and craving to have more definitive answers.

Whether you are a Catholic or not, if History, Theology and enriched descriptions move you, I would recommend this book 100%. Some piece of advice: keep Wikipedia next to you!

Faith, fact, belief, proof….what is the basis of Christianity and personal Christian belief?

If you like Dan Brown you will love this book. It falls right into that genre of a fast paced thriller than questions the basis of Christian/Catholic faith. It isn’t a copy, or a repeat, but rather another take on whether Catholic canon is correct.

In somewhat of a paradox (for at its very definition, faith is belief in the absence of proof), the main character goes on a search for proof to reaffirm – or rather re-find – her faith. Instead she lands in the middle of ancient secrets of the Vatican and then we are off – murder, mayhem and high speed chases ensue.

Readers should know that the ideas in this novel are heretical to the Catholic faith, to say the least. If this book gains as much traction as Dan Brown’s debut, it will be at least as controversial to those who believe in the infallibility of the Vatican. Those who aren’t well versed in Biblical history or Catholic belief will need to read carefully, as the subject is complicated. In my opinion the author does a fantastic job of providing a huge amount of information for the lay person to be able to keep up with the story and why the Vatican would be so upset about what the characters discover.

Finally, to this American reader the comma placement is off in my opinion – lots of commas where they aren’t needed. The content of the story more than makes up for this oddity of editing, and for the most part I was able to overlook what would otherwise be a distraction and a reason to rate the book lower.

Blood Symbols by Izak Botha it is a novel about a woman wondering about the truth of the Catholic church, its secrets, conspiracies and mysteries and how the author goes into the subject and starts investigating it by his main character Jennifer that is convinced that the Catholic church is based on a lie, so she travels to the Vatican and start a journey of investigation that will lead her to a war with the church. The book is well written, it has a steady and quick pace and it has twists and turns, it has a lot of intrigues and will hook you up. The characters and places are well-described and that was fantastic because the reader is able to rejoice in memories of past trips to Vaticano city and Turkey, places that I just love and was amazing to remember with such a detail.

This book is a well written fiction thriller that challenges traditional thought while spinning a taught tale of murder, and political and religious intrigue.

Okay, don’t read this if you think that the Vatican is 100% infallible because you will be offended. But you will like this book if you enjoyed Dan Brown’s books because this selection has it all: A historical mystery, senior officials who will kill to keep its secrets under wraps, and one heroic figure who starts out by digging due to her doubts about the Catholic Church and now has to decide if releasing that secret to the world is worth her life. Trying to describe it without giving away too many spoilers is tough, but it is well-written with good character development. It’s a really good book that I’m probably going to revisit soon.

A lot of reviewers compare Botha’s Blood Symbols to the Da Vinci Code. I agree. There is a lot of action in the book that will blow your mind yet it is deeply psychological and will leave you contemplating ideas long after you finish the book. Proof of that? My husband is currently reading the book so we can discuss it.

I found the book to be slightly difficult to read (and I’m a Catholic) but an interesting main character (Jennifer) and descriptive imagery make it worthwhile.

I thought the storyline was incredibly thought out by the author. It was very well written, with twists and turns leaving you not wanting to put the book down. It was very unique, but does follow the same concept and trends as The Da Vinci Code. It was very fast paced, intense, mysterious and the ending left me wanting to read more of it! It does differentiate from the Da Vince Code, but if you enjoy those types of storylines, than you will enjoy this! This book could easily be a movie, and I would look forward to seeing if that happens!

“Blood Symbols” is a story about Jennifer Jaine and her exciting and thrilling encounters as she gets caught up in the international hunt for the truth about the church, the Pope and how Jesus intended his followers to live their faith.

The story starts with a very graphic and suspenseful beginning and captures the reader’s attention and intrigue immediately. The story moves at a very fast pace and is filled with much suspense. The protagonist, Jennifer, is a very likable heroine who is smart, beautiful and persistent. The story is engaging and hard to put down.

However, it is not difficult to be reminded of “The Da Vinci Code” which took the world by storm several years back in both the books and, subsequently, the movies industry. Many books came thereafter with a similar theme but none has surpassed its wit, excitement and unexpected twists. But Jennifer holds the story on her own and “Blood Symbols” is still an entertaining read.

‘It is meticulously researched, obviously the product of many years of serious thought and study, and built upon a very wide knowledge base indeed.’ ‘[Blood Symbols] … would therefore not look out of place shelved alongside not only Dan Brown’s boilerplate re-telling of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, but titles such as The Genesis Code by John Case (which pre-dates Brown by five years), The Miracle Strain by Michael Cordy (1996—later renamed The Messiah Code), The Moses Legacy by Adam Palmer, The Lazarus Vault by Tom Harper, The Babylon Rite by Tom Knox, and The Sacred Bones and The Sacred Blood by Michael Byrnes.’

Blood Symbols is a masterpiece of fiction. A religious conspiracy that thrills and embraces the reader from the first page to the last.
Botha’s research reveals new insights about the origins of Christianity. The book evokes mind blowing questions about our beliefs, Catholic faith and the Vatican. The story takes us through a fast paced journey of intrigue, subterfuge, deceit and lies. Intertwined with a wonderful touch of real love and a final chapter that begs for more. This is a must read!

It was sometimes hard to remember that this was a work of fiction. The author manages to weave both excitement and action with deep, challenging spiritual philosophy. He takes tremendous care to describe the environment so that the world around the story comes alive for the reader.
If you’re looking for a good book that challenges your views and understanding on spirituality and the Church, look no further.
There is something for everyone in this book and I would highly recommend it. I am looking forward to his next novel.

Blood Symbols stimulates one’s thinking like no other work of fiction I have read before. From the moment one opens the book and starts to read, Botha skillfully draws the reader right into his world, demonstrating how for centuries the innocent faithful unwittingly permitted dogma to flourish. With a slew of scenes in which the narrative unfolds, characters question, delve, land themselves in trouble and sometimes endanger their lives in the quest to unravel the paradoxes clogging their faith, Botha has created an evocative masterpiece that not only answers the questions you have always had, but also those you now realize you should have had all along. Is there a conspiracy? Are our lives misdirected? Are there secrets and what are they? Are we prevented from knowing what goes on behind the scenes and who are responsible? In true religious conspiracy thriller fashion, Botha answers all that and more. With well placed twists and turns interest never flags. This is a must read for anyone interested in the origins of the Roman Catholic Church and the Holy See which for nearly two millennia has claimed a premium on Christian spirituality in the West. A growing love story, which culminates in more than you could predict, will make you yearn for more. With uncanny nimbleness Botha creates settings which come alive, allowing space for characters to develop, strengthening them in scene after scene as they filter through to your heart, making you, the reader, feel at one with the story and with them. With deft strokes, he compels you to share in their excitement, their pain, love, failures and intrigue. It is with a feeling of sadness that I close this book.

“Blood Symbols” is a book written by Izak Botha, a perpetual student of life, a former artist, athlete, performer with the Cape Town City Ballet, counselor, architect, entrepreneur, litigator versus multinational corporations and author.
I really liked this book and the central idea it has: Is the Catholic Church’s authority based in a lie? This is a question many have been asking themselves nowadays. I believe this book is just for this time we are living. The story has suspense and mystery and a very good ending.
I enjoyed Izak’s writing style and how he developed characters as well as the central story. I would like to read his other books because “Blood Symbols” is a book I liked and I would certainly recommend reading it.

Blood Symbols is a lightning-paced, intelligent, conspiracy thriller. Inspired with revolutionary ideas, Botha exposes the holy traditions underpinning the Roman Catholic faith, lifting the veil on the clandestine practices, which for centuries have shrouded the Vatican’s darkest secrets. A story of mystery and suspense, interwoven with strands of discovery, hope and love, this trenchant novel is a must read for anyone interested in investigating the origins of Christianity and the concealed history of the early church. Unable to put it down, I smashed this book in two sessions.

LOVED IT!!! Very thought provoking with just the kind of controversy I enjoy – highly recommend

The suspense is beautifully sustained … the writing is finely crafted. What a great read.

A thoroughly enjoyable read.

Blood Symbols by Izak Botha is a novel about the foundation of the Catholic Church and the possibility that it is all based on a lie. Jennifer is a student who is working on her PhD in religious studies. She is working in the Vatican and has just been granted permission to interview a very high ranking church official. She is excited by this, but is shocked when she starts the interview and finds the individual to be out of touch with the knowledge that she has. Later on, another member of the church is found stabbed to death deep inside the Vatican where sacred and secret texts are kept. Another intruder then escapes from the Vatican with a document that holds a terrifying secret that could shatter the very existence of the church. Jennifer is trying her best to keep up with what is happening and trying to find out what is really going on. Her hunt for the truth will lead her to an ancient church in Turkey where she will either learn the truth of recent events and the church itself, or become just another body that the Vatican will do anything to cover up.
I enjoyed the premise of this book. The story moves at a fast pace at times, almost too fast, which kept me interested and wanting to know what was going to happen next. However, there were other times that the author took so much time to explain the backstory of what as happening. This may have been necessary since certain texts are very important to the flow of the story, but it really slowed down the action and burned out the suspense of what was happening. The story was edited well and it is obvious that the author has a strong understanding of religious texts. Overall, very good.

Blood Symbols ISBN: 9780620738507, Amazon Edition, a fictional e-book copyright and written by Izak Botha.
Plot: Jennifer Jaine, a young devoutly Catholic woman working for her Doctorate in Religion gains an opportunity from a prominent news organization to interview Cardinal Cardoni, perhaps the most powerful man in the Vatican besides the Pope. She is quite shocked to find him quite inadequately prepared for his position. His answers are based on conjecture rather than actual evidence, mostly age-old tradition where missing portions had been replaced by earlier texts (which also were missing). It was not known who wrote them and when. The Gospels were not written by the Apostles as the earliest manuscripts appeared around 300 CE. Interestingly, the Epistles of Saint Paul were written about 45 – 60 AD, the Gospels supposedly postdate Paul by decades but do not mention him. She is quite pragmatic because of long-standing frustration and becomes quite confrontational and even rude
Meanwhile, Cardinal Leonardo Santori knifes to death young Father John Yilmaz because he has discovered a secret of the church in the well-hidden vault beneath the Penitentiary office. And unfortunately, all of these matters are occurring at an unfortunate time with the Vatican already haunted by a number of years of negative publicity. Added to the upheaval, another intruder is discovered and cannot be stopped before he escapes and it is found that he has taken the ancient secret document that could lead to dissolution of the Catholic faith and the premises upon which it had been administered for centuries. Specifically, the document written in the 12th century, provides some answers to, and many questions about, the discrepancies between the lives and writings of Peter and Paul and their relationship to Jesus all stemming from the original church’s site in Antioch, now the city of Antakya, Turkey.
Still an additional imminently catastrophic incident threatens when a highly disturbed individual has appeared threatening another part of the Vatican. He has a bomb sufficiently powerful to destroy a huge part of the city. Schneider, a devout defender of the Holy See in charge of the Helvetian Guards, must attempt to save the compound from suffering such destruction. From these fascinating initiating factors, the tale continues with a confrontational relationship between the well-prepared Schneider and Verretti, the self-serving head of security for the Vatican. An important part is offered with the appearance of Simon who is a Jew but a Turkish resident with long familial history in Antioch. He now is one of the specialists working at a Turkish licensed dig of the ancient Cave Church in Antioch and incidentally related to the Priest killed by Santori. Simon is aided at times by the professor in charge of the excavation and by Giogio Castignani, the son of a former Sicilian Mafiosi Boss. The action in parts is full throttle but interspersed with other sections of lengthy discussion of the writings of Paul and Peter and replete with supportive and contradictory biblical facts as the tale proceeds finally to reach a conclusion of sorts.
Discussion: The author has provided, as stated, a story with several intertwining sub-plots and an overall rather uneven approach. Parts provide a high-test thriller while others spend considerable time on a slow, methodical discussion of factual material. Basically it is another quite fascinating story following the long-standing controversy of conflicting statements, especially with respect to the Gospel according to Peter and to Paul. It is suggested that “scripture offers enough circumstantial evidence that Peter did not convert gentiles in Antioch and that he never was in Rome.” The author further sets forth his belief that the differences in the two men’s stories in how the Christian Church was begun could form the basis of the church’s founding suspect and he does proceed to supply most interesting material. He also makes another interesting statement with respect to the soul: that “Lack of evidence cannot support a belief, but it is also no argument against it. Lord suggests in the Gospel of Matthew – body, soul and mind? (Thus,) The inability of technology to identify the soul does not negate its existence.”
Summary: The pace of this story ranges from an almost frenetic velocity to lengthy, slow-moving explanations and discussions. BUT, it presents a fascinating ‘take’ on the development of the Catholic Church, the relationship of Jesus and disciples Peter and Paul and upon what passages from the writings of these individuals may indicate with respect to the entire matter. In spite of the uneven presentation of the inter-related sub-plots and the complexity involved character involvement, the tale should provide enjoyment for readers who enjoy thrillers, yet it offers much intriguing material to the individual who may think, even occasionally, about the long-argued controversial passages in the Scripture. This reader found the presentation intriguing, even with the areas and descriptions that were overdone and/or slow in development and presentation.

This Davinci Code-esque story is filled with action, but the author continually puts up roadblocks to that action by including excessively long paragraphs in the middle of it, sometimes about nothing related to what’s going on, like a character is suddenly thinking about high school football in the middle of a chase scene. Why? I personally don’t care for long paragraphs in action books, and this one is filled with paragraphs that go on for 3+ Kindle pages! The author’s writing style other than this, is pretty good.

There’s a lot of Catholic dogma included, as well as a lot of guesses about biblical who is related to whom. If you’re not familiar with the Catholic Church, you might be a little lost at times. The author could have been a bit better about explaining why the findings were so disruptive to the church. I think I got the gist of it, but I’m not sure – so a better explanation would have been good (especially since there were so many lengthy explanations of lots of other less important things). I also think maybe there was supposed to be some big ta-da moment at the end, but I didn’t really get it, so a better preparation before the ending might have been nice as well.

I was utterly enthralled by this book.
The title caught my eye immediately as I have enjoyed other books in this genre. I was not expecting it to be as good as it was.
Blood Symbols is full of conspiracy, action, anticipation and quite deep philosophical questions. The care taken with the plot and the attention to details give the book a sense of realism and left me thing that, yes, this could actually be real. I would highly recommend this book.

I won this fascinating book from Goodreads. It’s the type of novel that puts one in mind of the books (and later movies) by Dan Brown. The story purports to put the lie to the Apostolic progression of popes in the Catholic Church. It seems to show that Paul was actually on the side of the Romans…and that he had a hand in the killing of both Jesus and Peter. There are many twists and turns in the story, which is what makes it so interesting…but, at the end of the book, we find a little love story, which makes it sweet. The only surprise is that the author says the book cannot be given away…he said if you want to let someone else read the book, you should buy them their own copy. Hmmm.

From the small trailer I thought the book would have Dan Brown elements, and it did. I enjoyed the fast pace of The DaVinci Code, but not its conclusion, however literary.Blood Symbols is quite similar. The hidden secrets of millennia and all the trappings that go with it are interesting enough, but, again the path of the book left me cold. I’m not saying it is not a thriller, just not for me.

Jennifer Jaine is halfway through with her doctorate, but she starts questioning her faith. She sees things that make her believe the Catholic Church is based on a lie. She goes to the Vatican to find an artifact, but it all hits the fan. She is caught up in an international intrigue which may take her life. This is a very interesting book, and I would recommend it for reading.

Thank you Goodreads for the free giveaway of this book!
While I did have some problems with the writing, it didn’t matter. The storyline was interesting and the plot twists suspenseful enough to keep you reading. If you like adventures involving hunts for religious artifacts and Vatican secrets then this book is for you.

To be honest, I expected to be a little bored with this book. The subject-conspiricy within the church, priests being murdered for hiding secrets for centuries- has been done several times. But this story has a refreshing plot and is exciting and informative.

Reminded me of the DaVinci Code. It is about the Vatican Archives, a mystery, an unwilling heroine, warring factions, priests (and cardinals!) with guns, Swiss Guards. It’s a romp, and a very fast read.

I won this ebook in a Goodreads Giveaway. It is a fastmoving thriller about a woman who is doubting her faith. The story involves the Roman Catholic Church’s desire to hide the conflict between the Apostles Paul and the early Jewish church. Interesting reading, but has a few holes in the theory.